Junk food can harm children learning performance

from article 'How a Junk food diet can harm pupils performace' Daily Mail 23 May 2009

Researchers in U.S. have proved a link between junk food and poor performance at school. With a direct correlation between the amount of high fat and sugar in foods eaten by pupils and their results at school.

More than 5,500 children were involved in the study, aged 10 - 11-years and were asked to record whenever they ate at fast food resturants during the week.
- more than 50% had eaten fast food 1 to 3 during the previous week.

- 10% had eaten fast food 4 - 6 times
- 2% had eaten fast food 4 or more times a day.

The study was lead by Dr Kerri Tobin, University in Tennessee. Children were tested in reading and maths. For reading:
- junk food 4 - 6 times a week scored 6.96 points below average in reading.
- Pupils who ate fast food daily scored 16.07 points below average.

- Pupils who ate fast food 3 times a day scored 19.34 points below average.
For maths:
- Pupils eating fast food 4 - 6 times a week scored 6.55 points below average.

- Pupils eating daily junk food led to a 14.82 point drop

- Pupils eating junk food 3 times a day had a 18.48 point drop.

The study concluded that healthy nutrition could markedly benefit childrens learning and performance at school, childrens nutrition a healthier future.
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