NOV 2 — Nutrition and its impact on learning and education have always been of great interest to those of us involved in education. From young, we have been told to start our day with breakfast and have a balanced diet. This is particularly relevant when it comes to children. Intuitively, it makes sense to us. But what do we know about breakfast?
Let us start with the brain, the seat of learning. It consumes the most energy (sugar/glucose), taking up almost one fifth of our total energy consumption. In fact, the energy consumption of children’s brains from birth to four years of age is almost twice the rate of adults.
The rate remains at this high level until they reach nine to 10 years of age. It then gradually declines to adult levels by late adolescence.
During these early years, the brain is rapidly growing and changing to help the individual fit into the world through learning and the application of knowledge. Indeed, it is a very critical time in development. So continuous energy supply through a balanced diet is very important for children. Malnutrition and poor diet during this vulnerable period can lead to irreversible consequences.
Children are very vulnerable to changes in diet. A number of micronutrient deficiencies — such as that of Vitamin B12, folate, iron and zinc — can affect the brain’s development and, by extension, affect learning and education. In most developed countries, such micronutrient deficiencies are not common.
The breakfast effect
Several studies have shown that having breakfast improves cognitive function and brain development in malnourished children. Hence, free breakfast programmes in schools, especially in developing countries and inner cities in developed nations, have become popular as a way to improve nutrition and thus learning.
Three studies show improvements in the overall combined scores in language, reading and mathematics among children from lower-income families in the United States; in mathematics among Jamaican children; and in vocabulary scores among Peruvian children. In all these studies, the children’s participation in school breakfast programmes significantly increased school attendance and could have been one of the reasons for their improvement in learning.
Clearly, breakfast improves thinking and learning in children, either directly or through better attendance. The question is, is the “breakfast effect” as important in well-nourished children?
Studies such as the ones in Jamaica and Peru have shown that, while undernourished children performed better after breakfast than after an extended fast, this was not the case for the well-nourished children.
Should children skip it?
In a small study of children who regularly consume breakfast, skipping it once significantly decreased their perceived level of energy and cheerfulness — but it did not affect their cognitive performance throughout the morning.
So for children who skip breakfast, there is no need for them to feel that they will have difficulty during the day. But the common belief that skipping it can make them cranky and ill-tempered is probably true, especially for those used to having a morning meal.
In theory, the type of breakfast should also affect brain development and cognition. This may be due to the composition of the meal affecting several metabolic alterations and changes in brain chemicals. But a cooked breakfast, compared with a cereal-and-toast one, or meals of differing fat and carbohydrate content, did not affect cognition or learning.
The energy load of the meal, on the other hand, may play a role. One study noted that breakfast providing 25 per cent of the daily energy requirements improved performance of 276 10-year-olds compared with one providing less than 10 per cent of energy requirements.
In the US, more than 80 per cent of children have breakfast, of which almost one third have it in school. In Singapore, a small 2002 study found that almost a third of a group of teenage boys did not have proper breakfast on a regular basis.
Nowadays, in most countries, the problem is overconsumption of calories leading to ever-increasing rates of obesity. The over-eating happens at home and in school, and one of the biggest reasons is the easy availability of soft drinks and snacks.
So what does it all mean? Breakfast remains good for the child. At the same time, reducing calorie intake and increasing physical activity are likely to lead to better health and improved learning, so skipping it occasionally is not a major concern. — Today
* K Ranga Krishnan is Dean of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore. A clinician-scientist and psychiatrist, he chaired the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Duke University Medical Centre from 1998 to 2009.
This is part of a series on the way we learn. Click here for the other articles.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
