1. True or false: If you give a kid sugar, he'll get hyper.

 2. True or false: Eat sugar, and your energy may slump.

 3. True or false: It's a good idea to drink eight glasses of plain water every day.

 With so many myths in our lives, perhaps the surprise is that one of these familiar theories is actually true.

 Parents say the first one all the time: Sugar makes kids wild and crazy. Even some kids say it. "I go really nuts when I have candy," one girl told ABC News. Another told us it affects her so strongly that she'll change her behavior, "like sometimes I'm like oh, my God, I'll clean my room." Oh, my God, indeed.

 Not that it's limited to the young. One woman told us, "You can have like one candy bar and be off-the-wall."

 But the idea that sugar causes hyperactivity is a myth. "The research is very clear," said Cathy Nonas, a dietician at New York's North General Hospital. "Sugar does not make a child 'hyperactive.'"

 Many studies back her up. In one, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, some kids ate sugared foods while others got foods with artificial sweeteners.

 Their parents and the researchers didn't know who was eating sugar and who wasn't. The researchers monitored the kids for things like irritability and hyperactivity. They found no difference.

 "There is no such thing as a 'sugar high,'" Nonas said. "And there is no such thing, as 'sugar making you nuts.' There just isn't."

 I found that hard to believe. I've seen kids go crazy at parties. Isn't that because the sugar kicks in?

 Nope.

 As one parent put it. "They are hyper because they are excited. Because they have freedom. Because there is 20 kids, crowding around each other."

 In other words, because it's a party.

 The studies also say that if food has any effect, it could be the caffeine in chocolate and soda that's giving you the buzz, not the sugar.

 Still, even older students swear sugar helps them in school. Continued...