Urging kids to eat their veggies can provoke cries of anguish and prolonged grouchiness. But it also might lead to some extra smarts.
A new study from researchers at the University of Bristol in England found that eating in early childhood a healthy diet — including items such as fruit, salad, rice, pasta and fish — is linked to slightly higher IQ. In contrast, a diet loaded with fat, sugar and processed foods correlates with lower IQ.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, followed the eating habits of close to 4,000 children at regular intervals from the ages of 3 to 8.5 years. At the end of that period, when the children reached 8.5 years old, their IQs were assessed.
What the researchers found is that, even after controlling for other factors like the mother’s level of education and duration of breast feeding, children with fatty, sugary diets at age 3 typically scored a few points lower on their intelligence tests.
“We know [diet at a young age] is important for physical growth and development, but it may also be important for mental ability,” Kate Northstone, a researcher in the department of social medicine at the University of Bristol, told Bloomberg Businessweek.
But one key point about the IQ findings: the diet at age 3 was the only stage at which researchers found a link. A junk-food diet at ages 4 and 7 did not lead to diminished IQ scores. Doctors attributed those results to the heightened impact on development of those first three years of life.
“Brain development is much faster in early life, it’s when [the brain] does most of its growing,” Dr. Pauline Emmett, who led the study, told the BBC. “It seems that what happens afterwards is less important.”
