Survey of over 10,000 children

Citation

(2008), "Survey of over 10,000 children", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 38 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2008.01738aab.022

Survey of over 10,000 children

Survey of over 10,000 children

Britain's biggest ever survey of over 10,000 children reveals foods that make children smart … or stupid.

The Food for the Brain children's survey sponsored by Organix compared food intake with behaviour, academic performance and health.

The Food for the Brain Foundation released the results of the largest ever children's nutrition and diet survey undertaken on over 10,000 British school children aged between 6 and 16 years old, comparing aspects of their diet with their behaviour, academic performance, SAT scores and overall health. The results, which found a significant association between diet, behaviour and SAT scores, show the shocking state of children's diet and mental health in Britain with more than one in three suffering from attention or concentration problems and mood swings or tantrums, with almost half having constant sugar cravings.

The survey was conducted between September 2006 and July 2007 with parents completing a free on-line questionnaire on their children. Participants were recruited partly through media coverage in national publications, an e-mail sent to all UK public sector schools, and partly self-selected by visiting the website www.foodforthebrain.org

Key findings:

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  average intake of dark green vegetables (high in folate) is one serving a week;

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  average intake of seeds/nuts high in essential fats is half a serving a week;

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  average sugar servings in or added to food and drinks is 3.5 a day;

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  children who eat diets high in fried food, takeaways or foods cooked in hot fat are three times more likely to be badly behaved;

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  children who eat vegetables, oily fish, nuts and seeds do best at school;

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  children with better diets have 11 per cent higher SAT scores.

Best and worst foods

The survey found that the best foods for behaviour are fruit and vegetables with high consumers of both twice as likely to be well behaved. The worst foods are fried and/or takeaway foods, processed food, ready meals and sugar. A massive 44 per cent of children who eat this type of junk food most days suffer from bad behaviour, compared with only 16 per cent of children who never eat fried or takeaway food having poor behaviour.

The best foods for parental rating of good academic performance are raw nuts and seeds with high consumers twice as likely to have good academic performance. The best foods for good SAT scores are dark green leafy vegetables, oily fish and water. The worst foods are processed and ready meals. High dairy consumers also had slightly lower SAT scores. Almost half (45 per cent) of children frequently or always crave sweet foods and of those 44 per cent frequently or always have poor attention or lose concentration, 39 per cent have poor memory and 37 per cent have frequent mood swings or tantrums.

Parents can check their own child's diet and receive free "food for the brain" advice by completing an on-line questionnaire at www.foodforthebrain.org