Introduction
In the world of education that is filled with apathetic leaners and failing schools, the boards of education in each of the fifty states of the US have been on a continuous quest for answers concerning an improvement of the test scores of students and the creation of school systems in which each learner receives quality education. Among the collection of probable solutions, perhaps they need to first probe the nutritional substance of what the students consume daily while struggling with their routine learning activities. A connection exists between nutrition and psychosocial behavior as well as cognition even while such a relationship has only been minimally researched. However, a large proportion of the studies investigated the nutritional benefits of food substances and nutrients such as vitamins and proteins since they are thought to affect brain functioning and learning. American schools have the ability to play a significant role in the preparation and sustenance of the potential of students to learn and benefit their social characters through offering nutritious meals during the school days. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to report the connection between nutritional standards and the levels of academic excellence of students from extant literature. The study reports that proper nutritional levels relate directly with the performance and behavior of learners within the school environment.
The Need for Proper Nutrition for School-Aged Children
The provision of nutritious food to the low-income youth of the US has been one of the major concerns of the nation for a long time. The school lunch programs started at the time of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and their objective was to ensure that food insufficient learners were fed adequately (Levine, 2013). From the start, the programs had two other objectives: to utilize excess agricultural produce that the government owned because of price-support agreement with farmers as well as to aid in the prevention of nutritional deficiencies among students from low-income backgrounds through offering them nutritious meals. For such reasons, President Truman passed the National School Lunch Program Act in June 1946 in response to a notion that many American men had been rejected from the military service of the Second World War because of issues related to diet (Winchell, 2009). Several amendments have been made on the Act with a concern on improving the quality of nutrition from the meals offered. While this short background cannot be sufficient in describing the history of school lunch programs, it is excellent in providing a hint that both the state and federal governments have been out to ensure that students get the correct levels of nutrition because of the supposed significance of such nutrients to their academic performance. The subsequent section of this paper describes this connection.
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The Contribution of Nutrition to Academic Performance of School-Aged Individuals
Associations between brain functioning and nutrition have been the focal point of a large proportion of research. Researches have revealed the effect of dietary foundations on normal functions of the brain (e.g.Ratcliffe et al., 2011). Neurotransmitters have been investigated in association with the levels of nutrition. For example, according to Wurtman and Growden (2006), the brain should no longer be perceived as an autonomous organ that does not rely on the rest of the bodily metabolic reactions. They suggest that the brain needs to be considered as an organ that is influenced by the levels of nutrition, the choline and amino acids concentration in the bloodstream that allow the brain to generate and utilize a majority of its neurotransmitters, including norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin (Rubin, 2012). The consumption of food is critical to the ability of the brain to make the correct amounts of choline and amino acids, which are two precursors gained from the brain that help in the normal functioning of the brain. Therefore, it is no surprise that what people eat influences their brain directly as argued by (Ratcliffe et al., 2011).
According to Kretsch et al. (2001) (cited in Wood, 2004), there are further chances that the cognitive functioning of humans is affected by their nutritional elements. Researchers who support this idea have investigated the connection between the nutritional levels of the meals consumed by school-aged children and their cognitive abilities and they coincide in their reporting nutrition is directly proportional to the academic performance of students (Wood, 2004). The studies find that iron plays a significant role in the functioning of the brain. Specifically, in a study that used men aged between twenty-seven and forty-seven, the effect of different levels of concentration of iron on cognition was investigated (Wurtman and Growden, 2006). The finding of the investigation associates low scores in concentration tests with low concentrations of iron in the bodies of the respondents. Similarly, the researchers the researchers made a connection between low levels of iron in children that suffered from attention span; children diagnosed with anemia resulting from iron deficiency were found to have considerably lower concentration spans than those with normal levels. Additional studies also established that zinc was another element that plays a critical role in the levels of cognition of students, particularly on memory levels (e.g. Wood, 2011). In this line of thought, the cited study suggests that the capabilities of people to remember daily words reduced significantly after only three weeks of a diet low in zinc.
In a separate study, Erickson (2006) indicated five fundamental components needed to sustain a normal brain functioning. The nutrients, all contained in food, are crucial for the development and functioning of the brain. He posited further that proteins contained in cheese, milk, and meat are fundamental in the development of a large proportion of the tissues of the bodies of humans, which includes the neurotransmitters that have been described earlier. Erickson’s investigation found that Protein Energy Malnutrition, a lack of protein, resulted in poor performance in school by children of the school-going age in addition to causing them to be withdrawn, passive, and lethargic all of which are useful in emotional and social development. Still, according to Erickson, carbohydrates, which are commonly found in vegetables, fruits, and grains, are broken down to sugars (mostly glucose), which is critical in supplying the brain with the energy it requires for a normal functioning. Fluctuating blood glucose levels could result in mental confusion and dizziness, both of which have a detrimental effect on the functioning of the brain. Support literature for this argument posits that eating meals heavy in carbohydrates can lead to a calm and relaxed feeling in humans because they stimulate the secretion of serotonin that has an immense influence on the mood of individuals (Kar, Rao, and Chandramouli, 2008). The later cited study suggests that serotonin is secreted inside the brain following the absorption and subsequent conversion of tryptophan.
Of all the interesting factors is the fact that fats contribute more than sixty percent of the brain and works as a messenger in partial regulation of elements such as mood (Kar, Rao, and Chandramouli, 2008). Fatty acids from Omega-3 elements are useful to the optimal working of the brain and the absence of such facts could result in ADD, dyslexia, learning disabilities, low IQ, poor memory, and depression (Erickson, 2006). To this, studies indicate that people should feed on diets such as nuts and some species of fish. In addition to the minerals and vitamins have a fundamental role to play in ensuring a normal brain functioning. Of the most important function in this role are vitamins B complex, E, C, and A (Kar, Rao, and Chandramouli, 2008). It is also reported that manganese and magnesium also contribute to proper brain coordination while calcium, potassium, and sodium are useful in the transmission of nerve impulses and contribute to the thinking process.
Expounding on the research and supporting the role that nutrition play in cognition, Wheeler and Wolpert pinpoint a study conducted by Gomez-Pinilla of the UCLA’s Department of physiological science and neurosurgery. The article contests that sleep, exercise, and diet have an ability to change the health of the brain as well as the mental functioning (Wheeler and Wolpert, 2008). The author suggested that it is worth noting that alterations on the diet could be utilized in the enhancement of the cognitive abilities of individuals. Specifically, the study suggests that Omega-3 fatty acids similar to those obtained from walnuts, kiwi fruit, and salmon offer many benefits to individuals concerning the boosting of memory and learning, most of which happens at the synapses (Wheeler and Wolpert, 2008). In relation to the same argument, the study suggests that an Omega-3 fatty acids’ deficiency may result in escalated risks of contracting dyslexia and attention-deficit disorders. Gomez-Pinilla argued from the findings of his research that the children who feed on diets high in Omega-3 fatty acids have an upper hand in spelling, reading, and have fewer rates of occurrence of behavioral issues (Wheeler and Wolpert, 2008).
A study conducted in England suggests that school performance rose among student respondents the were receiving an Omega-3 fatty acid diet (Erickson, 2006). The same study reports of a research in Australia that used 396 respondents between the ages of six and twelve years that were given drinks rich in Omega-3 fatty acids alongside other nutrients such as vitamins C, B12, B6 and A, folic acid, zinc, and iron. The results of this investigation indicated that students scored highly on tests that measured their memory, learning skills, and verbal intelligence following six months and a year of the trial in comparison to a control sample of learners that were not given the same drink.
While most of the studies cited investigated the positive contributions of diets to learning and cognition, Wheeler and Wolpert also focused on the nutrients that could be detrimental to the same function. For instance, the researchers noted that eating foods high in saturated and Trans fats affects cognition negatively (Wheeler and Wolpert, 2). It should be understood that these types of fats are contained in the common fast and junk food that most Americans have embraced over the years. Such nutrients affect the synapses of the brain in addition to interfering with the normal operations of the molecules, which help in memory and learning (Wheeler and Wolpert, 2). In Streng, Burkman and Wolfe (2000), it is hypothesized that proper nutrition coupled with enough exercise results in optimal learning. According to these researchers, proper nutrition is useful in allowing the optimal brain performance, which enhances learning. It is also indicated within the same study that while the nutrients could be useful, a general notion around the US has been that they are expensive to acquire. He cites that the school food programs in the US have been meeting complications of the required standards of nutrition because the federal and state agencies charged with the execution of this responsibility feel that it is expensive to provide such meals. For such reasons, the programs have continued to be criticized for providing extremely low nutritional levels to students while they cost a great deal of the taxpayers money.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The objective of this paper was to report the connection between learning (school performance) and nutrition. The work has analyzed extant literature on the subject and reported that nutritional qualities of the meals served to students play a critical role in the coordination of the functions of the brain. As noted within the discussion, it is critical that students and children of the school-going age be fed on appropriate levels of each essential element such as carbohydrate, fats, especially Omega-3 fatty acids, proteins, and vitamins alongside other macro and micro elements such as zinc, manganese, and magnesium since they are essential in the proper functioning of the brain. The contribution of nutrition to the cognitive abilities of students makes it plausible to argue that the solution to the apathetic students and appalling performances by schools around the US could be in the appropriate nutritional standards. For example, the policy makers of the School Food Program of President Truman should consider making the meals as nutritional as possible for the students. The biggest contributor to the criticism that this program has been receiving from the public could be the fact that the American society has become almost over-reliant on processed junk foods that are rich in Trans and processed sugar, which suppresses cognition. Therefore, the parents and policy makers in the educational sector might want to consider providing balanced diets to the children of the school-going age with special emphasis on the major elements described in this work and those that are free from processed sugars such as those from fast foods.
References
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