Studies show that a child’s diet can influence how well he or she does in school, because good nutrition helps improve attentiveness, increase energy levels and augments the brain processes that affect learning. If a child’s diet in not balanced and has too much junk food and sugar, he or she will miss out on the micronutrients (vitamin A and iron) that affect brain development and learning.
Children tend to eat what they like, and parents prefer to prepare what’s easy to cook. And many kids simply dislike eating vegetables, usually because of the taste. It seems normal, but beware, feeding children only what they want often results in their having diets that lack healthy food, particularly vegetables, which are among the rich sources of micronutrients. Children with these kinds of diets perform poorly in school because they suffer from inattentiveness, the inability to concentrate, learning problems and weak immune systems. If a child is like this, he or she isn’t necessarily lazy or dumb; these are signs of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and vitamin A deficiency VAD. The sixth National Nutrition Surveys (NNS) study shows that the average child aged 6 months to 5 years consumes only half the recommended daily amount.
The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) encourages the consumption of more vegetables, fruits and root crops to help correct the micronutrient deficiencies consistently noted in the National Nutrition Surveys.” One cup or 90 grams of vegetables like ampalaya, okra and squash can go long way towards ensuring better health and, as a consequences of the improved micronutrient intake, better school performance for children aged 6-12; half a serving or 45 grams is all children below 6 needs to reap the same benefits.
Make sure your child eats this small amount of vegetables everyday