How Diet Affects Attention

It is well known that we need nutrients in our body to remain healthy, and most, if not all, people get that from food. From eating too much or too little, does the amount of food we eat everyday affect not only our body, but our brain too? According to WebMD, “Benefit your brain: Strive for a well-balanced diet full of a wide variety of healthy foods.” Eating a well-balanced diet is important for several reasons.

The way that you eat shapes many aspects of your life. ADDitude magazine says tha,“Diet and nutrition impact cognition, attention, sleep, and mood.” Many children across the world are diagnosed with ADHD, or attention deficit hyper disorder, at a young age. Poor diet doesn’t cause ADHD, but it does make an impact. “If the right nutrients aren’t accessible to the brain, its circuits misfire”, this is saying that not getting enough of the right nutrients could possibly worsen ADHD.  

UVA Today put out an article on links between students diets, and their performance in the classroom. They said, “Children who are hungry are not able to focus, so they have a low attention span, behavioral issues, discipline issues in the school… Having children who are well-fed and not hungry makes a difference in their individual performance…”, so this is clearly stating how the two correlate. The conclusion of this study was that schools decided to work on “improving the quality of the food that children receive in school by making small changes or substitutions that increase the amount of dietary fiber, with whole grains, fruits, vegetables or protein in school breakfasts and snacks.” The reasoning behind this was because the fact that healthier more filling meals helps to keep the kids going throughout the day. A senior at Harborfields high school, Katie Davis, said  “I can tell that when I do eat a good breakfast, I am more energized throughout the day.” 

Junior at Harborfields highschool, Justin Allen, tells us, “Whenever I have a test that day I always make sure to eat or else I can't focus.” This ties along with what was said in the WebMD article, “Studies have found that eating breakfast may improve short-term memory and attention.” Overall, this shows how eating well and making sure to eat enough, especially in the morning, will help you throughout the day.