Junk food children 'badly behaved'
Updated on 05 September 2007
Children who regularly gorge on junk food are nearly three times more likely to behave badly than those who avoid it completely, a survey of over 10,000 youngsters suggests.
The Food for the Brain report - funded by an organic food company - also linked good academic performance with a healthy diet containing plenty of vegetables, oily fish, wholegrains, nuts and seeds, and water.
The SAT scores of more than 3000 of the children questioned showed those eating what was deemed a "very good" diet gained 11% higher marks than those eating a "very poor" or "neutral" diet.
Parents were asked to rate their children's behaviour on a scale of one to five and answer questions about how often they ate different types of foods.
Of those who ate fried, takeaway or processed foods every day, 44% were thought to be badly behaved. Only 16% of those who never ate such food were deemed to have poor behaviour.
Overall, a picture of a nation of poorly-fed children emerged.
The average intake of dark green vegetables was one portion a week, whereas the results of the survey suggested children who ate one portion a day were the most healthy, well-behaved and academically successful.
The average child ate one portion of wholegrain food a week when their optimum diet would consist of two portions a day.
Refined or processed foods were eaten on average twice a day, whereas it appeared children would perform best when they avoided junk food completely.
Patrick Holford, Visiting Professor of Mental Health and Nutrition and the University of Teeside and head of the study, said: "Failures in government initiatives to improve academic performance may be because we're not putting money where our mouth is. This survey provides strong evidence that an optimal diet, with more vegetables, oily fish, nuts, seeds, fruit and wholefoods makes a big difference. It also shows that children eating processed foods have the worst behaviour and the lowest SAT scores."
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