Nutri News September 2022

Does a Nutrient Dense Breakfast
Improve School Performance?
Written by:
Sofie Van
Moorleghem
From the government to our parents,
we have always been told to eat a
healthy breakfast to start the day off
right. However, does this actually have
any scientific backing? Many scientists
have sought to answer this question
and there is an answer!
In almost all the research that has
been done, there has been mostly
affirmative results to prove that a
nutrient dense breakfast does in fact
improve scholarly performance. The
University of Harvard conducted a
study to evaluate students’
performance based of the content in
the student’s breakfast. The university
divided the students in two groups,
one group was serve a healthy, wellround
breakfast and the other group
did not; the researchers discovered
that the children who ate the
breakfast, not only had higher grades
in total, but were more attentive and
had fewer issues, emotionally and
behaviorally.1 Overall, they found that
as the children in group two were
hungry, there was more agitation,
behavioral problems, and more
distraction. Similar findings were
observed in another study with
more than 133 students over the
course of four months. In this study
2/3 of the students who were eating
a consistent breakfast had better
attendance, decreased anxiety, and
better grades. After these results,
more studies were conducted to
examine the accuracy of these
findings.
Similar results were observed in a
cohort study that had 835
participants and in a longitudinal
study that had 835 participants.2
Both of these studies evaluated if
there was a long-term correlation
between their cognitive function
and regular consumption of
breakfast. This was assessed using
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