The link between junk food and childhood obesity is well known, but now a study conducted at Ohio State University suggests that it also affects school performance. As the director of the research, Kelly Purtell, has explained, the researchers have discounted other factors that can coincide with a poor quality diet – spending too many hours in front of television, the socioeconomic situation of the family, the lack of physical exercise or various school and neighborhood circumstances – but the result is still conclusive.
Specifically, after following 11,740 students from all over the United States, they observed that children who habitually consumed junk food in the fifth grade of elementary school – aged 10 or 11 years – three years later, they obtained 20 % worse than their better-fed peers. In addition, when analyzing the data, the experts found that students who moderately included fast food in their diet – between one and three times a week – only lagged compared to children who did not try it in one subject: mathematics.
The possible explanation is that this type of diet is poor in nutrients such as iron, which helps cognitive development, and incorporates too much fat and sugar, which negatively affect memory and the ability to learn.
