July 8, 2021

July 8, 2021

How Nutrition Can Influence A Child's Ability To Learn

Food is fuel for your body. The nutrition a person gets through their diet influences many things in their lives, including brain development and learning. For children, diet and nutrition is one often overlooked aspect of their ability to learn.

Many parents wonder how nutrition can influence a child’s ability to learn. It’s just one more aspect of parenting that’s important to know about, since what your child eats can influence more than just their health, but also how they think, behave, and perform in school.

Here’s what you need to know about nutrition and its link to a child’s ability to learn.

What Is the Relationship Between Nutrition and Brain Development?
In order to understand why nutrition is so important for learning, it’s first important to understand how nutrition influences brain development in your child.

A child has three periods of age as they get older: infancy, which is the first year of their lives; childhood, which follows infancy and lasts until age 10; and adolescence, which is the time from age 10 to age 18. Every developmental stage carries with it changes and the mastering of essential skills, as well as stages of cognitive development.

Cognitive development encompasses higher mental functions like perception, memory, attention, and learning. During the course of a child’s life, their brain development has a direct impact on their academic ability, and that development is heavily influenced by nutrition.

Why Is Nutrition Important in Early Childhood Education?
So, what is the link between food and learning? How does nutrition impact child learning? Here’s what we know.

Nutrition is important in early childhood education because a child who isn’t getting the nutrients they need can have less energy in school, which can then lead to less interest in learning and hinder their academic performance.

Studies have shown that diets high in things such as saturated fats and processed foods can impact learning and memory. Refined carbohydrates are also a problem. Why? It’s likely because of glucose levels in the body. When you eat refined carbohydrates, the body turns them into glucose to make them useable to the muscles and brain. Too much glucose will cause a spike in blood sugar, which then leads to a sharp drop, impacting a child’s energy levels.

While too much of certain things is a concern when it comes to children’s learning, not having enough of others is also a problem. Malnutrition can happen to children who are both underweight and overweight because it is, at its core, about a lack of nutrients – i.e. a failure to get what your body needs for proper development.

A lack of vitamins and minerals in a child’s diet can lead to problems with their health, psychosocial behavior, and ultimately their learning. It can make them less equipped to deal with stress and may even lead to other medical issues.

How to Improve Your Child’s Diet
If you’re concerned about your child’s nutrition, speak to your pediatrician about it. There are also things you can do at home to ensure that your child is getting the right nutrients they need to develop properly and healthily, which will improve learning potential as well.

Your child needs a variety of nutrients at every developmental stage. These crucial nutrients include:

  • B vitamins
  • Protein
  • Vitamin A
  • Carbohydrates
  • Zinc
  • Polyunsaturated fatty acids
  • Copper
  • Choline
  • Selenium
  • Iron
  • Vitamin C
  • Iodine

Fortunately, there are a variety of foods that contain these nutrients that also happen to be foods that children actually like to eat! To ensure proper nutrition in your child, provide them with these foods:

  • Eggs: Eggs are important for brain function and contain a lot of vitamins and minerals, especially choline. You can give your children scrambled eggs, omelets, or even boiled eggs if they like them.
  • Oily fish: Omega-3 fatty acids are vital to brain development, which is why you should encourage your child to eat fish such as tuna or salmon. This may be more difficult for some kids than others, but you never know if they’ll like it until they try it!
  • Leafy greens: OK, so kids and leafy greens don’t exactly always go hand in hand, but the folate in leafy greens is important, so you should find ways to encourage your child to eat them. You can add things like spinach or watercress to sandwiches (or sneak them into homemade smoothies), or make yummy stir-fries with Chinese cabbage or bok choy. Most leafy greens can easily be blended into sauces, too.
  • Greek yogurt: Most kids will eat yogurt, and Greek yogurt just so happens to contain probiotics and protein that are important to brain development. To entice their tastebuds, try mixing it with fresh fruit to add some sweetness, or put some in the always useful homemade smoothie.
  • Lentils and beans: Lentils and beans are high in zinc, which is another important nutrient in brain development. You can add lentils to soups and casseroles or make dips from beans that your kid can dip vegetables into. Kids love a good snack, and dip is a perfect option!

Parents, no one expects you to be experts on childhood nutrition. But it is vital that you understand the impact nutrition has on your child’s development and, ultimately, their ability to learn. Do what you can do to make sure your child is getting the nutrients they need each and every day.

Featured image by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash