If there’s any holiday synonymous with “too much candy,” Halloween is it. From trick-or-treaters’ bulging bags to costume parties where witches and goblins munch candy corn and marshmallow pumpkins, candy is everywhere.

Parents’ response to the showers of sweets is understandably one of concern. They have been told that sugars and sweeteners can cause agressive behavior in children, can decrease kids’ attention spans, and can even cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Even though research has not supported such fears, some groups are once again weighing in on the supposed dangers posed by diet to children’s behavior.

Back in the 1970s, an allergist named Benjamin Feingold suggested that artificial food dyes, additives, as well as sugars and sweeteners might be responsible for causing ADHD. Reportedly, he found that restricting children’s diets to eliminate such ingredients improved their behavior. His theories spawned a number of research studies that restricted children’s diets and examined the effects on their behavior. The preponderance of this research found either no benefits or very slight ones from such restrictions.

In a consensus report published in November 1998, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) examined the literature on ADHD, and assessed the current state of information on diagnosis and treatment. Although the report mentions dietary treatment of the condition, it does not present any further data suggesting that it is an effective method. Most of the report focuses instead on pharmacological treatments, which, in at least the short term, have been found effective.

An earlier report (1995) by the International Food Information Council, a consortium of industry and trade groups, reviewed scientific studies that specifically examined the effects of sugars on children’s behavior. They concluded that there was no sound scientific basis for the theory that behavioral problems in children were linked to sugar consumption.

Now parents are being told that the most widely-used treatment for ADHD (methylphenidate or Ritalin) is suspect because it might cause cancer. But there is even less evidence for this statement than for those about sugars and additives causing behavioral disruptions. The basis for this scare is one study in which male mice given Ritalin in high doses increased the occurrence of liver cancer. But rats given Ritalin did not develop liver cancer, nor did mice in another study. This is truly a scare based on little more than a theory.

According to the NIH consensus report, we need more information about both the causes of ADHD and its long-term treatment. Attempts to frighten parents about either their children’s diets or treatments that are to some degree effective are counterproductive. Like the scares about sugars and food additives, telling parents that there is a real chance that Ritalin causes cancer, based on only one mouse study that has yet to be confirmed by others, is a real Halloween ghost story.

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