Kids eating sweets every day may be headed for problems that go
beyond extra visits to the dentist, according to a study
published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. The researchers,
from Cardiff University in Wales, started with the proven
premise that sugar consumption in children is linked to behavior
problems and heightened aggression—that much every parent and
pediatrician knows well. But the Welsh scientists took a more
expansive view, questioning whether eating sweets in childhood
has any long-term effects on adult behavior—specifically
aggressive behavior. What they found, after sifting through data
from the 1970 British Cohort Study, could be enough to make you
nix Snickers forever: Among the17,500-participants in the study,
those who as kids were eating and sweets every day were much
more likely to have been convicted for violent behavior at age
34 than those who didn’t eat sweets daily. The study authors
aren’t certain what specifically is behind the link. But one
explanation, they have said, is