A systematic review of the effect of dietary exposure that could be achieved through normal dietary intake on learning and performance of school-aged children of relevance to UK schools.
What this study found
Overall, evidence was insufficient and inconsistent to show that dietary exposure or supplementation reliably improves learning, educational performance, or behavior in school-aged children. The clearest signal was for some EPA/DHA-rich fish oil formulations, where small benefits were reported in certain studies and the effect appeared to depend on dose and duration. Low-dose multivitamin/mineral evidence was mixed: one US trial reported a modest non-verbal IQ increase (P=0.038), while a British adolescent study found no significant effect. The single very small Mexican study of a…
- Study & population
- Systematic review of studies in developed countries assessing whether diet or dietary change affects learning, educational performance, and behavior in school-aged children aged 4 to 18 years.
- Intervention
- This review covered several dietary interventions relevant to school performance, but the supplement-focused regimens were mainly omega-3 formulations and low-dose multivitamin/mineral products.
- Key limitation
- The included studies were highly heterogeneous in intervention type, duration, and outcome measures, with many short-term trials and limited use of universal validated educational attainment tools.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
The aim of the present review was to perform a systematic in-depth review of the best evidence from controlled trial studies that have investigated the effects of nutrition, diet and dietary change on learning, education and performance in school-aged children (4-18 years) from the UK and other developed countries. The twenty-nine studies identified for the review examined the effects of breakfast consumption, sugar intake, fish oil and vitamin supplementation and 'good diets'. In summary, the studies included in the present review suggest there is insufficient evidence to identify any effect of nutrition, diet and dietary change on learning, education or performance of school-aged children from the developed world. However, there is emerging evidence for the effects of certain fatty acids which appear to be a function of dose and time. Further research is required in settings of relevance to the UK and must be of high quality, representative of all populations, undertaken for longer durations and use universal validated measures of educational attainment. However, challenges in terms of interpreting the results of such studies within the context of factors such as family and community context, poverty, disease and the rate of individual maturation and neurodevelopment will remain. Whilst the importance of diet in educational attainment remains under investigation, the evidence for promotion of lower-fat, -salt and -sugar diets, high in fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates, as well as promotion of physical activity remains unequivocal in terms of health outcomes for all schoolchildren.