Has it been proven or disproven that poor nutrition equates to lower test

[WinterGlory]

scores and academic performance? A question was posted about vending machines in schools.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AihE8hnHJwlSvuwaFQb7z1rsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20101211111234AA6jHUV

And it was argued that "Obesity is not near the threat to society that stupidity is" which got me thinking, isn't there a connection? Wouldn't poor nutrition have an effect on a child's ability to learn?
Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?

 

[LadyCatherine]

just diet itself may or may not have to do with school work.. I have know people that have had poor diets and did fine in school while others had poor diets and did bad in school..

but diet alone is not a factor alone in poor school work, home life and parents interactions is also a factor to look into..

growing up you would say I had a decent diet, my mother did a lot of home cooking.. but neither of my parents cared about my school work and I did poorly..

 

[Fleighlo]

It's been proven many times over that there is a correlation between nutrition and academic performance. There are thousands of peer-reviewed studies on the subject available on google scholar

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=nutrition+on+academic+performance+study&hl=en&as_sdt=2000&as_vis=1

 

[courage]

I know that with animals, dogs in particular, it was proven that bad nutrition would worsen behavioral problems up to 85%. There were people who had ADD or autistic children who would work with our behavioral counselor, and diet was always a part of that. Sometimes an unknown allergy to corn or soy or glucose, when removed from the diet, the child was able to concentrate or less of a problem behaviorally. Having said that, I've also seen improvement on children with ADD where they were exercised more often, say once every 2 hours the kid had to run around the house or something 3-4 times, they would then concentrate better and learn better. There have been studies showing that the brain needs downtime (ie, time away from computer games, cell phones, interactive things like that, veg-time like a TV or comics or reading a fun book) in order to fully take in what it's learned during the day. And sleep has always been a major need for students.

I also know that in my nutrition class at University we talked about the importance of carbohydrates in a student's diet. Your brain runs off of the glucose gotten from carbs, nothing else, and if you steal those carbs then your brain doesn't have the energy it needs, leading to headaches and issues concentrating.

Now, having said ALL of that... I don't think vending machines in schools are bad necessarily. First, you can stock them with good choices. Second, if an athlete indulges in a fruit-pie once a day they're not going to suffer bad effects from that if the rest of their diet is good. And if a sedentary overweight child eats a bag of carrots it's not going to do them good if they don't exercise or watch the rest of their diet. Third, by making it cash only it actually restricts how much most kids can buy. Limiting all the sweets or soda that the school offers to ONE vending machine actually would really bring down the amount that kids buy and drink without making them feel like you're forcing them to choose healthy.

Personally, I would prefer to see a 'food cart' where a live person is selling the soda, cookies, etc. That would deter some kids from buying. Make it cash only, and a slower line, than say for the kids who pick an apple (make the apples cheaper and make it so they can get it on credit so they can just pick one up and go while the kids getting cookies have to wait.) Make fruit and veggies move visible, and more appealing in presentation. Put the sweets and sodas on the lower shelves or behind things so they're not as visible and they're a little more effort to reach for. These things actually lead to less consumption of these things. Taking the vending machine will just make more kids buy it at the store, and candy and soda is cheaper at the store, plus you're encouraged to buy a 12 pack, not one at a time.