Study links sweet tooth in children, depression, alcoholism

Scientists from a research institute in Philadelphia in the U.S. have concluded a sweet tooth in children may be indicative of a history of alcoholism in their family or a sign they are suffering from depression.

The study, undertaken by scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, wasAOL published online in the journal Addiction and involved 300 children aged five through 12. For the study, the children tasted five water samples, each containing different levels of table sugar. Julie Mennella, a developmental psychobiologist at Monell, said:

We know that sweet taste is rewarding to all kids and makes them feel good. In addition, certain groups of children may be especially attracted to intense sweetness due to their underlying biology.

The "underlying biology" to which Mennella refers is the fact many of those expressing a preference for the sweetest water were among the 50 percent of the children studied who had a close member of their family dependent on alcohol, or the 25 percent who had symptoms of depression. In total, 37 children had both symptoms of depression and a family connection with alcoholism and they tended to prefer the water with a sugar concentration more than twice that found in a normal can of cola/soda. The study involved more than just the tasting of sweetened water, but could not determine if a child with a sweet tooth will become an alcoholic. Mennella told LiveScience:

The liking for sweets was designed to attract us to foods that were higher in energy, like fruits. We didn't evolve in the environment that we live in now where we have all of these refined sugars.

She said the findings may assist in producing strategies to reduce the amount of refined sugar children consume, although no specifics were given in that respect. One scientist, unsure of how significant the study's findings could be, is Tim Jacob from Cardiff University in Wales. He told the BBC:

While it is true that sweet things activate reward circuits in the brain, the problem is that sweets and sugar are addictive, because the activation of these reward circuits causes opioid release, and with time more is needed to achieve the same effect. But the taste difference may be explained by differences like parental control over sweet consumption

Another explanation for a craving for sweet drinks may be that a child is experiencing an intense period of growth. Another report funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development may even contradict to an extent research conducted by British Psychiatrist Malcolm Peet. According to a report on Psychology Today, in July 2009, Professor Peet found that high sugar consumption increased the risk of depression and schizophrenia, with seemingly no mention of depression prompting people to consume high levels of sugar in the first instance. Essentially, Peet appears to have linked excessive sugar consumption to the suppression of a major growth hormone in the brain and chemical reactions in the body that cause chronic inflammation, again affecting the brain but interfering with the body's immune system too.