Thursday 1 October 2009

Eating sweets causes violence?

Not related to writing but this made me splutter in disbelief. Some barmpot has come up with the notion that eating too many sweets as a youngster causes aggression in later life. Quote from the study:

Analysis confirms that 10-year-olds who ate confectionery daily were significantly more likely to have been convicted for violence between the ages of 29 and 34.

"Our favoured explanation is that giving children sweets and chocolate regularly may stop them learning how to wait to obtain something they want.
"Not being able to defer gratification may push them towards more impulsive behaviour, which is strongly associated with delinquency."


Isn't that contradictory? It isn't the sweets per se...it's the replacing of love and guidance with sweets? So that's bad parenting then, isn't it? Exactly what anyone with sense already knows.

Maybe these scientists would do better looking into how many pints of alcohol these same kids are necking between the ages of 10 and 29/34.
Ooh, hark at me getting all political!

6 comments:

Honeysuckle said...

Their 'favoured' explanation?? Sounds like they had lots to choose from and it was touch and go whether they went for that one or for something totally different. Scientists, eh?!

Could equally be that parents who give their children unlimited sweets also generally don't bother with much teaching-how-to-behave stuff, or it could be the effects of the sugar,or it could be lots of things. I think deferred gratification is something children do have to learn, but does it only apply to sweets? Nope!

Lynne Hackles said...

Give me strength! I suppose these idiots got paid a fortune to research this. Come the revolution...
If I wasn't so knackered I'd start one.

Julie P said...

They always have to try and blame children's bad behaviour and their parent's bad (nonexistent in some cases) parenting skills on something other than the fact the parents are poorly skilled at bringing their kids up! Sweets, crisps, Maccy Ds, computer games etc. They've all been held up as culprits.

It drives me up the wall! Give them a sweet so you don't have to pay them any attention and it keeps them quiet for a while - no social interaction or learning how to behave.

Is it any wonder the country's in the state it is when some parents refuse to take responibility for their actions - or their children's bad behaviour because they can't be bothered!

Getting off soap box, smoothing hair down, and walking away calmly!

Julie xx

Martin said...

I once had one of those irritating colleagues who would insist on turning up at work with her two young boys...on her day off! On one memorable occasion she popped in to say hi and unleashed the little blighters in a fairly confined space (Wembley would have been too restricting for those two). The result was mayhem as they hammered unattended keyboards, spun wildly on vacant seats, wrestled on the floor and half erased an equation from my line manager's whiteboard. She just stood there, hands on hips and declared, "they've just had a squash. It's the Tartrazine!"

Hmmm, I thought, I'd like to give them a squash too.

Melissa Amateis said...

If that's the case, I should be a homicidal maniac since I ate tons of sweets as a child!

Sue Houghton said...

Those little e numbers have a lot to answer for don't they?
I put my own insanity down to chewing the lead paint off my cot rails...