The quality of our children’s food intake is a crucial aspect of their academic success. Unfortunately, many of the food items available in our schools are potentially inhibiting children’s learning ability. A good source of diet and nourishment, on the other hand, can be very beneficial for our children, especially on their academic performance.
To know more about how diet and nourishment affect your child’s learning capacity, continue reading this article for more valuable information.
Benefits of Diet and Nourishment to a Child’s Learning Capacity
Here are the positive benefits of a balanced and healthy diet and nourishment to a child’s learning capacity:
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Increase Brain Function
Our brains perform best when we eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. Foods rich in fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, and other nutrients nurture and protect the brain from harmful oxidative stress.
Zinc is also very important for our brain function. It plays a crucial role during the axonal and synaptic transmission process. Zinc deficiency has been known to be related to impairment in DNA and RNA. Studies have also reported that zinc deficiency during pregnancy can even result in abnormalities in the child’s nervous system.
Green and leafy vegetables can boost brain function because they are high in carotenoids. On the contrary, foods that are high in added sugar are also not recommended for our children; it can cause a crash in children’s brain function, leaving them hard to concentrate.
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Promotes Better Classroom Behavior
According to studies, students who eat well at home arrive at school feeling ready and prepared. And, students who consume a variety of nutrients are more likely to have fewer absences and attend class more often because they have a better physical condition.
Other studies also show that a low-quality diet can lead to behavioral problems. Besides leaving children with difficulty in concentrating, foods with high-added sugar also leave our children with mood swings. This, of course, can affect our children’s learning capacity.
Skipping breakfast can also negatively affect children’s classroom behavior. One study shows that skipping breakfast makes school tasks more mentally demanding for children, especially when the task requires working with their memory. The same thing applies to children with low-quality diets in general.
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Positive Academic Outcome
To avoid behavioral and cognitive issues and achieve a positive academic outcome, we can regularly feed our children nutritious foods. Having nutritious foods regularly will help our children perform better in the classroom. The combination of a good diet and high-quality will certainly stimulate our children’s learning capacity, which hopefully results in a better grade.
Studies find that improving the consistency of students’ diets leads to on-time task submission, higher math test scores, and probably better reading assessment results. Furthermore, researchers suggest that limiting the availability of carbonated drinks in school vending machines and replacing them with healthy beverages may positively impact children’s academic outcomes.
Conclusion
The food found in our schools’ cafeteria is often packed with sugar, sodium, and other additives that can negatively affect our children’s performance in the classroom. As a result, we must pay attention to our children’s diet and nourishment.
However, we must provide our children with high-quality food during the school years and even during pregnancy. Adequate nourishment during pregnancy, especially on fatty acids, protein, and other micronutrients, provides an important basis for children’s brain development.
Furthermore, malnutrition has a detrimental effect on our children’s ability to learn. The World Bank reported that the effect of malnutrition could be seen during a child’s teenage years. One notable consequence is a deficit in the child’s cognitive capacity.
Finally, having a well-balanced diet and nourishment will help our children learn more effectively. It will improve their cognitive function and classroom attitudes, resulting in a better academic outcome.
