Nutrition - general importance
Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health. The risk factors for adult chronic diseases, like hypertension and type 2 diabetes, are increasingly seen in younger ages, often a result of unhealthy eating habits and increased weight gain. Dietary habits which are established in childhood often carry into adulthood, so teaching children how to eat healthy at a young age is vital, which is why we're doing it!
The link between good nutrition and healthy weight, reduced chronic disease risk, and overall health is too important to ignore. By taking steps to eat healthy, you'll be on your way to getting the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy, active, and strong. EduEat is here to give you helpful tips, challenges and facts so you can live a long, healthy life.
Bibliography:
www.hhs.gov/fitness/eat-healthy/importance-of-good-nutrition/index.html
The link between good nutrition and healthy weight, reduced chronic disease risk, and overall health is too important to ignore. By taking steps to eat healthy, you'll be on your way to getting the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy, active, and strong. EduEat is here to give you helpful tips, challenges and facts so you can live a long, healthy life.
Bibliography:
www.hhs.gov/fitness/eat-healthy/importance-of-good-nutrition/index.html
Nutrition - student performance
In the United States, advocates for children's health have experimented with the diets of students for over twenty years. They have found that improved nutrition has the potential to positively influence students' academic performance and behaviour. Nonetheless, researchers are still working to 100% prove the link between the two factors. There have been three specific ways that researchers have found that impact student performance, and these include:
1. Improvement in Nutrition can Increase Brain Function.
Several studies have shown that nutritional status can directly affect the mental capacity amongst school-aged students. For example, Erik Pollitt established that iron deficiency can increase dopamine transmission, hence negatively impacting mental activity. Deficiencies in other vitamins such as thiamine, vitamin E, vitamin B, iodine and zinc, are all shown to restrain cognition. This shows that improvements in nutrient intake can highly influence mental action and the intelligence levels of school-aged students.
2. Providing a Balanced Diet can Better the Behaviours and Learning Environments
Research has also show that good nutrition can help students show up at school and be prepared to learn. This is due to the fact that improvements in nutrition make students healthier, and so students are likely to have fewer absences and attend class more frequently. A study performed by the NCBI* displayed that malnutrition can lead to behaviour problem, and that sugar has a negative impact on child behaviour. However, these effects can be counteracted when children consume a balanced diet that includes protein, fat, and fibre.
*National Centre for Biotechnology Information
3. Promoting Diet Quality can have Positive School Outcomes
A research executed by the Journal of School Health, found that generally a higher quality diet is associated with better performance on exams, and that programs focused on increasing students health also showed moderate improvements in the students' academic test results. Additionally, eliminating the sale of soft drinks in vending machines in schools and replacing them with other drinks had a positive effect on things such as tardiness and the reduction of misbehaviour.
To conclude, every student has the potential to do well in school. Failing to provide good nutrition puts them at risk for missing out on meeting that potential. However we, as EduEat, can take action today to provide healthier choices in schools can help to set students up for a successful future full of possibilities.
Bibliography/research sources:
Point 1 research: Pollitt E. (1993), Iron deficiency and cognitive function; Annual Review of Nutrition.
Point 2 research: Kleinman, R., Murphy, J., Little, M., Pagano, M., Wehler, C., Regal, K., & Jellinek, M. (1998), Hunger in children in the United States: Potential behavioural and emotional correlates, National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
Point 3 research: Florence, M., Asbridge, M., & Veugelers, P. (2008), Diet quality and academic performance, Journal of School Health.
1. Improvement in Nutrition can Increase Brain Function.
Several studies have shown that nutritional status can directly affect the mental capacity amongst school-aged students. For example, Erik Pollitt established that iron deficiency can increase dopamine transmission, hence negatively impacting mental activity. Deficiencies in other vitamins such as thiamine, vitamin E, vitamin B, iodine and zinc, are all shown to restrain cognition. This shows that improvements in nutrient intake can highly influence mental action and the intelligence levels of school-aged students.
2. Providing a Balanced Diet can Better the Behaviours and Learning Environments
Research has also show that good nutrition can help students show up at school and be prepared to learn. This is due to the fact that improvements in nutrition make students healthier, and so students are likely to have fewer absences and attend class more frequently. A study performed by the NCBI* displayed that malnutrition can lead to behaviour problem, and that sugar has a negative impact on child behaviour. However, these effects can be counteracted when children consume a balanced diet that includes protein, fat, and fibre.
*National Centre for Biotechnology Information
3. Promoting Diet Quality can have Positive School Outcomes
A research executed by the Journal of School Health, found that generally a higher quality diet is associated with better performance on exams, and that programs focused on increasing students health also showed moderate improvements in the students' academic test results. Additionally, eliminating the sale of soft drinks in vending machines in schools and replacing them with other drinks had a positive effect on things such as tardiness and the reduction of misbehaviour.
To conclude, every student has the potential to do well in school. Failing to provide good nutrition puts them at risk for missing out on meeting that potential. However we, as EduEat, can take action today to provide healthier choices in schools can help to set students up for a successful future full of possibilities.
Bibliography/research sources:
Point 1 research: Pollitt E. (1993), Iron deficiency and cognitive function; Annual Review of Nutrition.
Point 2 research: Kleinman, R., Murphy, J., Little, M., Pagano, M., Wehler, C., Regal, K., & Jellinek, M. (1998), Hunger in children in the United States: Potential behavioural and emotional correlates, National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
Point 3 research: Florence, M., Asbridge, M., & Veugelers, P. (2008), Diet quality and academic performance, Journal of School Health.