What three-year-olds eat affects their school performance many years later

August 12, 2008

(PhysOrg.com) -- School dinners have come under the spotlight recently, but new research suggests that diet in the pre-school years is even more important.

It shows that children who do poorly at school are more likely to have been affected by the food they ate many years earlier, rather than the chicken nuggets they had at lunchtime.

Research from the Institute of Education, University of London, and the Children of the 90s study shows that children who ate a diet of “junk food” at the age of three, made less progress in school between the ages of six (Key Stage 1) and ten (Key Stage 2).

“Junk” was defined as highly processed foods, take-aways, and foods high in fat and sugar such as crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks.

The 25 per cent of children who ate the most junk food at age three were 10 per cent less likely to achieve the expected levels of improvement between Key Stages 1 and 2, compared with the rest of the children.

The children’s diet at later ages appears to have had less impact on their school attainment.

It might be assumed that families in which children are given junk food could have other issues which could hold back their progress at school, such as low income or poor housing.

However, the research is based on data from the Children of the 90s (ALSPAC) study, which has been following the development of 14,000 children since birth in 1991-2. This information is so detailed, it allowed researchers to adjust the statistics to take account of these factors.

After these adjustments, the association remained between poor diet at three and comparatively slow progress at school several years later.

“We are confident that this is a robust association”, says Dr Pauline Emmett of Children of the 90s. “It indicates that early eating patterns have effects that persist over time, regardless of later changes in diet.

“So it is very important for children to eat a well-balanced diet from an early age if they are to get the best out of their education.”

Citation: Dietary patterns related to attainment in school: the importance of early eating patterns. L Feinstein; R Sabates; A Sorhaindo; I Rogers; D Herrick; K Northstone; P Emmett. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2008; 62;734-739.

Provided by University of Bristol

4.1 /5 (19 votes)  

Rank 4.1 /5 (19 votes)
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created 29 minutes ago | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Q&A: Obama and the birth control controversy

(AP) -- What birth control debate? A half-century after the introduction of the pill, acceptance of birth control by American women is virtually universal.

Medicine & Health / Health

created 26 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Human cognitive performance suffers following natural disasters, researchers find

Not surprisingly, victims of a natural disaster can experience stress and anxiety, but a new study indicates that it might also cause them to make more errors - some serious - in their daily lives. In their upcoming Human Fa ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Both maternal and paternal age linked to autism

Older maternal and paternal age are jointly associated with having a child with autism, according to a recently published study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Curry spice component may help slow prostate tumor growth

Curcumin, an active component of the Indian curry spice turmeric, may help slow down tumor growth in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a study from researchers ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created 5 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast


CIA website offline, Anonymous takes credit

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was unresponsive on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

Could Venus be shifting gear?

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...

Fool's gold may prove an unlikely alternative to overexploited catalytic materials

Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials ...