Getting children to eat healthily can be a bit of a nightmare. C’mon ladies, we all know how hard it can be to make a piece of fruit seem appealing when their friends are chowing down on chips and chocolate.
But some new research has revealed that limiting your child’s intake of junk food could actually make them smarter. Seriously.
The Irish Sun reports today that new research has revealed that children who regularly binge on junk food are more likely to have a lower IQ than those who eat a healthy diet.
Researchers studied the diets of more than 7,000 children and found that children who generally lived on junk food tended to struggle more with education than children who regularly ate fruit and other healthy foods.
“Diet supplies the nutrients needed for the development of brain tissues in the first two years of life, and the aim of this study was to look at what impact diet would have on children’s IQs,” said Dr Lisa Smithers, a public health expert from the University of Adelaide in Australia.
“We found that children who were breastfed at six months and had a healthy diet regularly including foods such as vegetables, cheese and fruit at 15 and 24 months, had an IQ of up to two points higher by age eight. Those children who had a diet regularly involving biscuits, sweets, chocolate, soft drinks and chips in the first two years of life had IQs up to two points lower by age eight,” she added.
The results of the study have been published in the well-respected European Journal of Epidemiology.
Meanwhile, a separate study found that babies who are born naturally generally tend to be smarter than those who are delivered by a Caesarean section.
So there you have it. If you want to make sure that your child excels in academics, have a natural birth and make sure that their diet is predominantly healthy – you’ll have a PhD candidate on your hands in no time!
What do you think ladies? Do you find it hard to get fruit and vegetables into your child on a regular basis?
