Does sugar really make kids hyper?
Festive medical myths
Two paediatricians checked the evidence behind popular holiday-season health beliefs. Most fell apart.
Every holiday season, the same health warnings get passed around the dinner table. Two American paediatricians went looking for the actual evidence behind several of them, from sugary treats to festive plants and woolly hats.
Sugar does not make children hyperactive (but parents who think it does rate their children as wilder), poinsettias are not the deadly plants they are made out to be, and you do not lose most of your body heat through your head. Pass the mince pies and keep the hat for style.
The real festive hazard is believing everything your uncle says.