A Better Breakfast Can Boost a Child's Brainpower

Allison Aubrey, "A Better Breakfast Can Boost a Child's Brainpower",
NPR, August 30, 2006,
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5738848

Attention, children: Do not skip breakfast -- or your grades could pay
a price.

Evidence suggests that eating breakfast really does help kids learn.
After fasting all night, a developing body (and brain) needs a fresh
supply of glucose -- or blood sugar. That's the brain's basic fuel.

"Without glucose," explains Terrill Bravender, professor of pediatrics
at Duke University, "our brain simply doesn't operate as well. People
have difficulty understanding new information, [they have a] problem
with visual and spatial understanding, and they don't remember things
as well."

Dozens of studies from as far back as the 1950s have consistently shown
that children who eat breakfast perform better academically than those
who don't. In a recent study of 4,000 elementary school students,
researchers gave half the kids breakfast and directed the other half to
skip it. Then, says study director and Harvard psychologist Michael
Murphy, the children took a battery of attention tests. To measure
short-term memory, researchers read a series of digits out loud -- 5,
4, 2, and so on -- and asked the children to repeat them. The children
were scored on how many digits they could remember correctly. To test
verbal fluency, the kids were asked to name all the animals they could
think of in 60 seconds. Across the board, Murphy says, the breakfast
eaters performed better.

With the preponderance of evidence suggesting that breakfast is key,
the next question becomes: Does it matter what kind of breakfast kids
eat?

The answer is: Yes.

Bravender, for example, says he'd never serve his children heavily
sweetened cereals. "Any sugared cereal really has a high glycemic
index."

The glycemic index is a measure of how quickly the carbohydrates in
food are absorbed into our bodies and converted to fuel. When it comes
to sustained brain power, Bravender explains, food that is low on the
scale -- such as whole grains -- are preferable. Even though a bowl of
sugary cereal and a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal may have the same
number of carbohydrates, they have very different glycemic loads.

Sugary cereals get into your body quickly and cause a peak in
blood-sugar levels, but the levels then fall dramatically after two
hours or so. Oatmeal, on the other hand, is absorbed slowly, so oatmeal
eaters gets a slow rise in blood sugar and enough energy to last
through the morning.

What's more, oatmeal eaters don't experience a steep drop in
blood-sugar levels, and that's a good thing. A dip in blood sugar can
bring with it a release of hormones that affect mood. In some children,
the hormones seem to affect concentration and memory.

Scientists have recently begun to study this phenomenon. Last year,
Tufts University psychologist Holly Taylor had one group of children
eat sweetened oatmeal for breakfast while another ate Cap'n Crunch
cereal. Then both groups were given academic tasks, like memorizing the
names of countries on a map. The oatmeal eaters did up to 20 percent
better than the Crunch consumers. To Taylor, that shows that "the
children were remembering more information about these maps after
having eaten oatmeal."

And it wasn't as if the oatmeal wasn't sweet. Both cereals had the same
sugar content. But Taylor says that the oatmeal had more protein and
fiber, and therefore a lower glycemic index.

These findings beg more research. But Duke's Terrill Bravender believes
there are some basic rules to follow. First, families should make sure
kids eat something for breakfast. And if the goal is to find foods with
a low glycemic index, then serve fewer processed foods. That will
improve the odds that your child's blood sugar will hold steady until
lunch.