A new study found that children who were provided a healthy diet of food at age 3 had a slightly higher IQ at age 8 and a half than those who habitually ate fatty, sugary and processed foods. The human brain grows the fastest during the first three years of life, and the researchers speculate that good nutrition can spur brain growth and increased cognitive development.
Researchers in England obtained information from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, and they followed nearly 4,000 children born in 1991 and 1992.
Study results showed that at the children, at age 3, lost 1.67 points in IQ for every one point increase in “processed foods” consumption. Conversely, 3-year-old children experienced a 1.2 point increase in IQ for every one point increase in healthy eating.
Even the researchers were surprised to find that the children’s diets at ages 4 and 7 did not have a meaningful effect on their IQs at age 8 and a half. The study puts a very high premium on the importance of nutrition in the first three years of a child’s life.
The researchers placed each child in the study into one of three basic diet classifications: “processed,” which is packed with fats, sugar and convenience foods; “traditional,” which is filled with meats and vegetables; or “health conscious,” which is crammed with plenty of fruit, vegetables, salads, fish, rice and pasta.
Business Week quoted Samantha Heller, a dietitian, nutritionist and exercise physiologist as saying that children who are given poor diets do not get the compounds that they need in order to develop and function properly.
“Most of us do not realize that the foods we eat have direct consequences on brain growth, function and performance,” Heller said.
The researchers said that previous studies have shown that breastfeeding can provide a boost in IQ, so it only stands to reason that other parts of the diet would have an effect on a child’s cognitive development as well.
The researchers, as well as other critics, pointed out that there were some shortcomings to the study. The causal factors of diet and IQ in young kids are tough to pinpoint due to social factors such as parental socioeconomic position, schooling, etc. Also, the study sample included children with learning disabilities.
The English research team, from the University of Bristol, called for more similar studies. If you’d like to read up on the one outlined above, you can find it in online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The moral of the story appears to be simple: Start thinking about diet early on unless you want your kids to grow up fat and stupid.
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