School Performance and Nutrition

Dec 11, 2006

Building good eating habits leads to better performance in school. Studies have shown that poor diets, especially diets that are too high in fats and sugars, can have a detrimental effect on behavior — particularly behaviors that can help children succeed in school. Poor eating habits can cause problems with concentration, mood, energy, and focus, and can directly impact a child’s ability to learn, not to mention that fats and sugars can cause childhood obesity.

Develop Healthy Morning Habits

Be sure to start the day off right by eating a healthy breakfast. Skipping breakfast can disrupt metabolism resulting in the same symptoms as a poor diet — and who can focus on the teacher over the rumble of a hungry belly?

Eating a healthy breakfast is part of a good morning routine. Keep it simple and nutritious, something that both you and your children can agree on. Is your family too busy for a sit down breakfast every morning? Cut up apples, a banana and some trail mix for a healthy meal that travels well. It’s easy for kids to eat during the morning commute.

A Mid-Day Habit

Beat feeling sluggish mid-day. High in sugar, sodas or soft drinks might seem like a good pick-me-up to get over the afternoon slump, but the energy boost they provide is only temporary, causing a crash to follow. Scientific research continually examines the link between refined sugar intake and hyperactivity and aggression. Simple carbohydrates like sugar, flours, and juices can all affect the body the same way. That’s why it’s important to choose whole grains, fruits, veggies, and other foods with a minimum of refined sugar.

A better snacking alternative is small amounts of proteins and carbohydrates, like natural peanut butter on celery sticks — it will provide more sustained energy to carry through to the next meal.

Healthy eating habits at home provide a good foundation for optimum performance in school.

Want to read more about how nutrition affects learning? Check out this article on nutrition and cognitive learning from the University of Mississippi.

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Comments(16)

#1

Mara Clurillo

Feb 28, 2007

i LOVE food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#2

Lilinoe Ambercrombie

Mar 1, 2007

omg I like LOVE your food!!!!!!!
you are like like like sooo cool! it helps me get through my problems. ummm oh yeah by the way who am i talking to????
but your stilll cool!
yeah I LOVE YOU!!!!!
-always
-your seceret admirer

#3

Audrey Headburner

Mar 1, 2007

I love this website its really helping me with my project I have to do for school, I also agree with that girl Mara I also LOVE food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its makes me happy when i'm depressed.i also agree with that girl lilinoe she is sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#4

school hater

Mar 1, 2007

I HATE SCHOOL!!!!!!!

#5

sexy bee otch

Mar 1, 2007

im sexy and i kno it and i get sexy 4rm eating good and nutricious foods but not eating too much of it so i get fat!!! yay me!!!!!!

#6

BOY LOVER

Mar 1, 2007

the one thing i love more than food is definately BOYS yay they are so fine and yummy!!!!

#7

j-dawg

Mar 1, 2007

Hey cats - here at Oxford, we like to hear from students - ya we're down like that. If you don't mind, please no profanity (even slang profanity please). We try to be cool 'cause ya know we roll like dat.

Thx peeps
j-dawg ~~ Oxford h4ck0r

#8

no prob j-dawg

Mar 6, 2007

we just apreciate u!
kk no prob
wanna go out?

#9

j-dawg

Mar 6, 2007

Thx and no thx - I'm ancient.

When I was a kid, we had to pick our own wheat, stone roll it, then bake it in a wood fired oven, all before 6AM, just so I could have a sandwich for lunch. I won't even get into how we made sandwich meat.

Seriously though, you say you eat well in school - is it good cafeteria food (oxymoron)? Burgers and fries? Pizza Pizza? Or (and I wonder if I should even ask) do you make your own lunch?

#10

Grammy

May 10, 2007

Thanks for helping our kids make good choices when they choose their snacks--Children like to hear things from others, even though their family has been telling them the same thing for years--

#11

Naomi

Sep 13, 2007

My mother used to fix peanut butter sandwiches with nuts, raisens,coconut, chocolate chips, and sometimes even little marshmellows. We never got bored with sack lunches, and we always ate our apples down to the core. i noticed other kids would leave 1/2 eaten apples. maybe its because we had 8 kids in our family. o and by the way we always had whole wheat bread. i guess if you want to, you can, even though you are poor.

#12

jme19914fun@yahoo.com

Oct 24, 2007

could you send me a list of your sources. I need information to write a paper to my principle about changing the food in our cafeteria.

#13

martina

Oct 25, 2007

Hi Jme 1991

We think that it is great that you want to encourage your school to be healthier.

I will send you an article that appeared in our December 06 newsletter. It has relevant links for your paper.

I hope that you find it helpful.

#14

dont worry about it

Feb 10, 2008

food is good
im doing scinence fair and im booorrreeedddd lol=/

#15

Roo Bear

Mar 12, 2008

I Like This Web-Site because it is helping me proove my theory that good nutrition makes you do better in school! oh yeah and sexy bee otch:guess what...YOUR NOT SEXY!!!