Sugarproof Science

Here we provide the details and links to the research studies cited in the book organized by Chapter. For each citation, the text in bold refers to the relevant text from the Chapter

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76. Associations between selected dietary behaviours and academic achievement: A study of Australian school aged children

Burrows, T, Goldman, S, Olson, RK, Byrne, B, and Coventry, WL. “Associations between selected dietary behaviours and academic achievement: A study of Australian school aged children”. Appetite, 2017. 116: p. 372-380.

77. Other studies have shown that kids tend to have poorer academic performance when they have habits like eating junk food that is high in sugar, skipping breakfast, or having a sweet breakfast with processed carbohydrates and sugars, which quickly raise blood sugar

Faught, EL, Gleddie, D, Storey, KE, Davison, CM, and Veugelers, PJ. “Healthy lifestyle behaviours are positively and independently associated with academic achievement: An analysis of self-reported data from a nationally representative sample of Canadian early adolescents”. PLoS One, 2017. 12(7): p. e0181938.

78. Other studies have shown that kids tend to have poorer academic performance when they have habits like eating junk food that is high in sugar, skipping breakfast, or having a sweet breakfast with processed carbohydrates and sugars, which quickly raise blood sugar

Cooper, SB, Bandelow, S, Nute, ML, Morris, JG, and Nevill, ME. “Breakfast glycaemic index and cognitive function in adolescent school children”. Br J Nutr, 2012. 107(12): p. 1823-32.

79. The results were striking; they showed lower test scores for standardized tests in children whose mothers consumed more sugar and sugary beverages during pregnancy

Cohen, JFW, Rifas-Shiman, SL, Young, J, and Oken, E. “Associations of Prenatal and Child Sugar Intake With Child Cognition”. Am J Prev Med, 2018. 54(6): p. 727-735.

80. In a study led by my colleague Dr. Scott Kanoski at USC, the goal was to understand whether sugar damages spatial memory, and whether the effects vary with age

Hsu, TM, Konanur, VR, Taing, L, Usui, R, Kayser, BD, Goran, MI, and Kanoski, SE. “Effects of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup consumption on spatial memory function and hippocampal neuroinflammation in adolescent rats”. Hippocampus, 2015. 25(2): p. 227-39.

81. In a follow-up study, Kanoski’s team went on to show that the damage to the adolescent brains lasted into adulthood, even if the rats stopped consuming sugar

Noble, EE, Hsu, TM, Liang, J, and Kanoski, SE. “Early-life sugar consumption has long-term negative effects on memory function in male rats”. Nutr Neurosci, 2017: p. 1-11.

82. The students who reported eating more fat and refined sugar were less likely to remember all the details that they originally recalled about the story when asked to recount it the second time

Francis, HM and Stevenson, RJ. “Higher reported saturated fat and refined sugar intake is associated with reduced hippocampal-dependent memory and sensitivity to interoceptive signals”. Behav Neurosci, 2011. 125(6): p. 943-55.

83. A study conducted with overweight and obese children showed that kids with visceral adiposity, or fat around their internal organs, scored lower on tests of relational memory, or the ability to associate items

Khan, NA, Baym, CL, Monti, JM, Raine, LB, Drollette, ES, Scudder, MR, Moore, RD, Kramer, AF, Hillman, CH, and Cohen, NJ. “Central adiposity is negatively associated with hippocampal-dependent relational memory among overweight and obese children”. J Pediatr, 2015. 166(2): p. 302-8 e1.

84. A recent study, albeit in just eleven kids, used imaging to show greater inflammation in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus that was more pronounced with increasing obesity

Sewaybricker, LE, Schur, EA, Melhorn, SJ, Campos, BM, Askren, MK, Nogueira, GAS, Zambon, MP, Antonio, M, Cendes, F, Velloso, LA, and Guerra-Junior, G. “Initial evidence for hypothalamic gliosis in children with obesity by quantitative T2 MRI and implications for blood oxygen-level dependent response to glucose ingestion”. Pediatr Obes, 2019. 14(2): p. e12486.

85. As a BBC News article explained, “There are over 100 million brain cells in your gut, as many as there are in the head of a cat”

The Second Brain in Our Stomachs. 2012.

86. Eating or drinking too much sugar can weaken the lining of the gut, which can then allow toxins to pass through into the body’s circulation and eventually make their way to organs like the brain, where they can affect memory, mood, and behavior

Noble, EE, Hsu, TM, and Kanoski, SE. “Gut to Brain Dysbiosis: Mechanisms Linking Western Diet Consumption, the Microbiome, and Cognitive Impairment”. Front Behav Neurosci, 2017. 11: p. 9.

87. Sugar disrupts the balance of healthy bacteria that live in your gut by feeding the unhealthy bacteria and causing them to overpopulate

Noble, EE, Hsu, TM, Jones, RB, Fodor, AA, Goran, MI, and Kanoski, SE. “Early-Life Sugar Consumption Affects the Rat Microbiome Independently of Obesity”. J Nutr, 2017. 147(1): p. 20-28.

88. Young children who learn to delay gratification do better on their SATs and are described by their parents as more competent when they are teens

Mischel, W, Shoda, Y, and Rodriguez, MI. “Delay of gratification in children”. Science, 1989. 244(4907): p. 933-8.

89. Studies have even shown that preschoolers who exhibit this important skill are less likely to be overweight as adults

Schlam, TR, Wilson, NL, Shoda, Y, Mischel, W, and Ayduk, O. “Preschoolers' delay of gratification predicts their body mass 30 years later”. J Pediatr, 2013. 162(1): p. 90-3.

90. Or to use drugs

Mischel, W, Ayduk, O, Berman, MG, Casey, BJ, Gotlib, IH, Jonides, J, Kross, E, Teslovich, T, Wilson, NL, Zayas, V, and Shoda, Y. “'Willpower' over the life span: decomposing self-regulation”. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 2011. 6(2): p. 252-6.

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