There is a well-known phrase when it comes to nutrition that says "we are what we eat" and explains that, in a way, our cells, our body, ends up being the result of what we eat and drink. The healthier the food we give to the children, the less sick they will be, the more insane it is, the worse their health will be.
But not everything goes sick more or less. Our brain also feeds on the nutrients that the body receives and, apparently, it is not the same to eat well than to eat poorly, as a recent study shows that when we talk about children, More fast food worse learning ability.
The more healthy food, the healthier they will be?
In this of nutrition, as in medicine, two and two do not always add up to four. It is often said that the healthier a child eats, the healthier he will be, however it is a statement that must be qualified. There are children who eat very healthy and catch more diseases than others who eat worse. This is because many factors are involved in health and disease, and not just food.
If a child eats very healthy, he will at least have the level of health that comes from food covered. That is, not eating healthier will be a very healthy child, but it will be better than eating fast food or junk food. He will take the diseases that he has to catch, sometimes he will get very bad and that is not why he will have to say "look, both feed him well and he gets the same bad."
Let's say that in this, the difference is not made by the one who eats well, but he who eats badly. That is the one that can have worse health due to food and worse physical and intellectual development, and this study that I comment now seems to endorse it.
Children who eat fast food
Researchers at the Ohio State University and the University of Texas have conducted a study in which they analyzed the test scores of more than 8,500 US students.
They compared the results of reading, math and science tests for children in fifth grade and eighth grade. In addition, they passed a national food survey.
They saw that, on average, eighth grade children scored between 16 and 19 points more than fifth grade. However, children who ate more fast food increased their results 20% less than those who barely tested it.
Between the two extremes (those who ate a lot and those who barely ate) were the children who ate sometimes. More than two thirds of the students explained that they had eaten some fast food the previous week, but one in five said they had made at least four fast foods (during that previous week).
To try to avoid confounding factors, because one may think that the results are due to other factors, such as that children who eat more fast food live in households with fewer resources, with parents less involved in education and that this is actually What can make the test results lower, the researchers also analyzed physical activity, television use, family income levels and school characteristics.
Well, even after taking all this into account, the results were as commented: to more fast food, worse results.
According to Kelly Purtell, one of the authors of the study:
The greatest effects were found in children who reported a daily consumption of fast food ... On average, they scored three or four points less than children who reported not having eaten any fast food in the previous week.
Could it be that there really was no association?
Yeah right. There may be other factors that have not been taken into account in the study that are actually the cause of that difference. That's why the authors say that they cannot prove that it is a direct relationship, but that it seems that they are linked. In fact, they explain that there is other research that has linked diets rich in sugar and fat with an adverse effect on attention and learning ability.
That you occasionally eat some fast food? Nothing happens. Many commit sins like that sometimes. That is not going to cause the child to be greatly affected in any way, but what cannot be is that, as they explain in the study, there are children who get to eat up to four times in a week. It is not healthy, it is not normal and it is not logical.
