GLUCOSE – GLUCON D

How Does Consuming Glucose Affect Your Memory?

While many people believe sugar makes kids hyperactive, this theory has long been debunked by research. However researchers are only just beginning to understand the complex relationship between glucose and learning.

Earlier this year on this blog, we  debunked the widely believed myth that sugar causes hyperactivity in children. But could it be possible that under certain specific circumstances, sugar actually helps with learning? In this blog post we'll attempt to tackle that question.

It makes logical sense that sugar could cause hyperactivity due to the fact that glucose is the brain's number one source of fuel. The reason sugar does not cause hyperactivity is that the human body is very good at regulating the amount of glucose in our blood. This fact has been confirmed by numerous double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized controlled trials. There is however a growing body of evidence to suggest the existence of a "glucose memory facilitation effect" in which consuming glucose may aid the formation of new memories.

A review of the literature  published in 2011 concluded that there is robust evidence that glucose has an important effect on cognitive performance. In a recent  article for  The Psychologist, the co-author of the literature review, Michael Smith, looked at what this means in practical terms. Smith, inspired by the fact that among adolescents,  only 40 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls eat breakfast decided to research the effects of glucose on learning in quite some depth. We've known for some time that in older people or individuals with impaired memories, consuming glucose can bring cognitive benefits — but the effects of glucose on young people have remained a controversial issue. The researchers  found that compared to adolescents given a placebo, those given a glucose drink had improved memories for word lists after a period of 20 to 40 minutes, but the finding was only present in those adolescents whose bodies were efficient at processing the glucose. A later  study by the same authors found that anxious adolescents' memories improved after consuming glucose, compared to a placebo.