The role of diet in the mental performance of children - what do parents think?
Feedback from NUTRIMENTHE's Consumer Survey of Parents
NUTRIMENTHE is researching the effect of diet on the mental performance of children. Of particular interest to NUTRIMENTHE is a child’s perception, memory, attention, language, executive functions and emotions. Diet is one of many factors that will influence these domains and families, specifically parents, will play a pivotal role in the establishment of food choices and eating habits.
To date there is little published research on parent’s perceptions of the relationship between children’s diet and their mental performance. NUTRIMENTHE is assessing this by conducting Consumer Surveys. The objective of these is to assess the attitudes and beliefs of parents with regard to the effect of food and nutrition on children’s mental performance. The work is being led by NUTRIMENTHE partner, University of Surrey (UK) and involves three other partners; University of Munich (Germany), University of Granada (Spain) and University of Pecs (Hungary).
The surveys involved interviews and card-sorting tasks with parents from four European countries, UK, Spain, Germany and Hungary. Questions asked included; what do parents understand by the term mental performance? and, what is the effect of food on a child’s ability to learn? Results emerging from the surveys reveal that parents talk of mental performance in terms of attention and concentration and that this can be affected by particular foods. For example, a healthy balanced diet has a positive effect on mental performance whereas foods with high sugar and/or fat content have negative effects. Parents also spoke of the conflict in trying to balance the provision of a healthy nutritious diet and satisfying their children’s food preferences. The importance of developing good eating habits emerged as a concern of parents, as these habits could have long term implications for health 1.
With respect to the effect of food on a child’s ability to learn, many parents thought that this was very much or extremely dependent on diet but smaller proportions reported that they actually considered this when providing food for their child. Parents do seem to believe that diet affects mental performance but other factors such as providing variety and overall ‘healthiness’ seem to be more important when making food choices for their children 2.
Looking in more detail and comparing food (regular meals, nutrition as a baby) with other possible determinants of learning including, education (class size, school discipline, teaching quality), physical (sleep and activity) and psychological (mood and behaviour), food ranked low as a determinant of learning, especially nutrition as a baby 3.
The work of NUTRIMENTHE’s Consumer Surveys are ongoing and to date have been presented as posters and presentations at conferences worldwide. The surveys are of particular importance as they complement the work of the nutritional intervention and epidemiological studies running within NUTRIMENTHE and will be key in the development of messages that can translate the research of NUTRIMENTHE into practical and usable guidelines for both health professionals and parents alike.
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References:
1: The role of diet in the mental performance of children- what do parents think? B. Egan et al., 2010. Abstract presented at the York Open Forum, 6th October 2010.
2: Diet and mental performance of children: A questionnaire survey of parents in four European countries. B. Egan et al., (2011). Abstract 27/850, presented at the 11th European Nutrition Conference, Madrid, 26th-29th October 2011.
3: Effect of food on learning: views of parents in four European countries. E. Györei et al., (2011). Abstract 27/33, presented at the 11th European Nutrition Conference 26th-29th, Madrid, October 2011.
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