Children & Women
Better diet means better school performance
By Sue Mueller
Apr 18, 2008 - 11:45:04 PM

FRIDAY April 18, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Children who eat healthy diet are more likely to perform better in school than those who do not, a new study suggests.

Students who ate a diet with adequate amounts of fruit, vegetable, protein, fiber and other nutrients were more likely to pass a literacy test, the study found.

The study was conducted by Dr. Paul J. Veugelers of the University of Alberta in Edmonton and colleagues and published in the April 2008 issue of Journal of School Health.

The study involved 4,589 fifth-graders participating in the Children's Lifestyle and School-performance Study of whom 875 or 19.1 percent had failed an elementary literacy assessment.

The researchers found the better a student's eating habit in terms of diet quality; the less likely he was to have failed the test. The association remained significant even after parental income, education, school, and gender were considered.

High intake of fruit and vegetables and low intake of fat were also associated with a lower risk of failing the test.

Previous studies focused on the importance of eating breakfast, but it had remained largely unknown until now how the quality of a diet would affect a student's school performance.