Healthy food can also be considered brain food, according to a new study in the Journal of School Health. The study found that children that eat healthy foods perform better in school than children who eat unhealthy foods.
Researchers surveyed about 5,000 Canadian fifth graders and their parents as part of the Children’s Lifestyle and School-Performance study. Information was gathered on dietary intake, height, and weight to determine the Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I). The DQI-I scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores translating to better died quality.
The study found that students with a better dietary intake consisting of fruits and vegetables and less fat intake were less likely to fail the standardized literacy assessment that was given to them. In fact, compared to the students in the group with the lowest DQI-I scores, students with the highest DQI-I scores were 41 percent less likely to fail the literacy assessment.
“We demonstrated that above and beyond socioeconomic factors, diet quality is important to academic performance,” the authors said. “These findings support the broader implementation and investment in effective school nutrition programs that have the potential to improve student’s diet quality, academic performance, and, over the long term, their health.”

Source: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.