In the first study of its kind, researchers reveal strong link between good nutrition and positive mental health among school children – and call for nutrition to be included in child public health strategies.
School children who ate five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day had better mental health, according to a recent study by Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia. They scored more highly across a number of mental health measures, and this was particularly marked among secondary school pupils.
This is the first time that researchers have explored the link between fruit and vegetable consumption, breakfast and lunch choices and mental wellbeing.
The study analysed data from 9,000 children in 500 schools across Norfolk with participants self-reporting food choices and taking part in wellbeing tests around relationships, cheerfulness and relaxation. The research also took into account other factors that could impact their mental health, such as home environment and adverse child experiences.
Only one-quarter of secondary school children and 28 per cent of primary school children reported eating five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day – and one in ten weren’t eating any fruit and vegetables at all. Meanwhile one in ten primary pupils – and one in five secondary pupils – skipped breakfast, and one in ten secondary pupils skipped lunch.
“Among secondary school children in particular, there was a really strong link between eating a nutritious diet, packed with fruit and vegetables, and having better mental wellbeing,” says Dr Richard Hayhoe from UAE’s Norwich Medical School. “[We also found] that nutrition had as much or more of an impact on wellbeing as factors, such as witnessing regular arguing or violence at home.”
The study also found that secondary pupils who drank energy drinks for breakfast had particularly low mental wellbeing scores, even lower than for children who missed breakfast completely.
The researchers called for greater integration of nutrition into public health strategies around children’s mental health and for school policies to ensure access to good quality food before and after school.
“While the links between nutrition and physical health are well understood, until now, not much has been known about whether nutrition plays a part in children’s emotional wellbeing,” said Professor Alisa Welch, lead researcher at Norwich Medical School. “As a potentially modifiable factor at an individual and societal level, nutrition represents an important public health target for strategies to address childhood mental wellbeing.”
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