It is often said that maintaining a healthy and nutrient filled diet aids with brain function. People say that the healthier you eat, the better your brain will work. Here is an article that discusses more about that. Although I really do believe this is true, I wonder to what extent it is true and how diet and weight can affect ones academic performance.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the contents of junk food can cause hyperactivity and other behavioral problems. These effects can cause a short attention span and trouble focusing, therefore possibly making completing school work a bit more difficult.

Lack of exercise and nutrient-poor and processed foods increase the likelihood of developing Metabolic Syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome is related to insulin resistance. Insulin brings sugar to cells to be used as energy. With less insulin, glucose levels rise causing high blood pressure and sugar. Ultimately this can lead to diabetes which can cause more absences in school. Now thats a lot to take in, but absence from school can clearly affect ones academic performance. Reverse causation could be a possibility, though, because if one is absent from school he/she has more time to eat, therefore they may eat more junk food.

An observational study published by JAMA evaluated 105 obese children ages 5-18. The control group consisted of 8,000 healthy kids. The median ratio of school days missed in a month for obese children in comparison to healthy children was 4.2:0.7. This study supports that theory that obese children miss more school but the sample size seems small. Although 105 kids sounds like a lot, that is a minuscule number when considering the amount of the population that this issue concerns. Because of this, the ratio could be skewed.

A cross-sectional study completed by psychologists at Yale University administered an anonymous survey to 10,000 students in 7th, 9th, and 11th grade. They reported their height, weight, and estimation of school performance, ability, and number of absences. The study showed that “Obese girls were 1.5 times more likely to be held back and 2.1 times more likely to consider themselves poor students compared to average weight girls. Obese boys were 1.5 times more likely to consider themselves poor students, and 2.2 times more likely to expect to quit school” (Obesity Research, 2001). Although confounding variable such as race and socioeconomic status were considered, this data is open to false results because of over or under-estimation of ones educational performance.

What to take away: although there isn’t solid proof that there is a direct correlation between weight and academic performance, there is some relationship between the two. As I mentioned, obesity and diabetes can cause more absences, but they can also cause a decrease in energy (because unhealthy food does not provide useful forms of it) and low self-esteem. Lack of energy decreases the likelihood of one to do homework or study and low self-esteem can significantly decrease motivation. Reverse causation is a factor in terms of low self-esteem because some people stress eat, causing obesity and diabetes therefor decreasing academic performance.

Sources:

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Howard_Taras/publication/7585105_Obesity_and_student_performance_at_school/links/0deec518c5530c7e4e000000.pdf

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/children-junk-food-may-limit-childrens-intelligence-and-learning-ability.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11743063

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1276881/The-brain-diet-Eating-right-foods-improve-memory-lift-mood-help-concentrate-longer.html

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/metabolic-syndrome/basics/definition/con-20027243