Academic performance and nutrition

As far as academic achievement in university and college students, results suggest that diet may be associated with academic achievement, with the majority of studies associating more favourable dietary intake with higher academic achievement.

The conclusions section for the 2017 Swiss medical journal article Associations between Dietary Intake and Academic Achievement in College Students: A Systematic Review published in the medical journal Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) states:

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This review examines the current evidence base relating dietary intake and academic achievement in university and college students. Overall, results suggest that diet may be associated with academic achievement, with the majority of studies associating more favourable dietary intake with higher academic achievement. Therefore, health promotion practitioners in the university setting should consider the positive role diet may play in students’ academic achievement when developing initiatives to promote healthy eating to students. Furthermore, health promotion practitioners may utilise the findings from the review to advocate within the university setting for the need to better support students to improve their eating habits, due to the potential impact on their academic performance. However, a limited number of lower methodological quality studies were identified, and some significant limitations of the available evidence are highlighted. Further research to more accurately determine the impact of diet on academic achievement in university and college students is warranted. Future studies should consider the use of validated dietary assessment methods, comprehensive measurement of overall dietary intake, standardised assessment and reporting of academic outcomes, and appropriate adjustment of analyses for confounding factors.

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Wilder Research, a nonprofit research and evaluation group, notes: "Recent studies have demonstrated that nutrition affects students’ thinking skills, behavior, and health, all factors that impact academic performance. Research suggests that diets high in trans and saturated fats can negatively impact learning and memory, nutritional deficiencies early in life can affect the cognitive development of school-aged children, and access to nutrition improves students’ cognition, concentration, and energy levels."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): "Data from the 2019 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) show that students with higher academic grades are more likely to engage in healthy dietary behaviors compared to students with lower grades."

The journal article The influence of eating habits on the academic performance of university students published in the Journal of American College Health notes:

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Our study found that breakfast consumption, i.e. the number of days students consume breakfast per week, has a positive effect on their self-reported GPA. Students who had breakfast on at least five days per week reported a significantly higher GPA than students who had breakfast on three days or fewer. However, there are other factors, such as sleep habits and hours worked, that may have a greater positive or negative influence on student grades than eating breakfast. Fast food consumption, on the other hand, has a negative effect on student achievement. Students who had fast food at least seven times in the past week reported significantly lower current GPAs than students who had eaten fast food less than four times or not at all.

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Picture of Cheetos.

According to Newsweek, "Since 2012, some schools in California, New Mexico, and Illinois have banned the hot Cheetos due to their lack of nutritional value, and, well, messiness."

The journal article The Relationship of Food and Academic Performance: A Preliminary Examination of the Factors of Nutritional Neuroscience, Malnutrition, and Diet Adequacy states:

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Adequate and sufficient healthy intake of food is essential to brain function (Bloom, 2009; Dauncey, 2009; Kazal, 2002; Shariff, Bond, & Johnson, 2000). Moreover, maximizing brain function is a prime factor in seizing appropriate cognitive capability – for example, ability to focus, comprehension, evaluation, and application – in learning (Kretchmer, Beard, Carlson, 1996; Schmitt, 2010)... The human brain needs sufficient energy – specifically glucose – and a variety of micronutrients to perform cognitive functions. A long-term deficiency of any or numerous macro- or micro-nutrients causes malnutrition and consequential cognitive impairment, the extent of which depends on the duration and degree of the malnourishment and the timing of its occurrence in development. In the United States, macronutrient malnutrition (i.e., starvation) is rare, but the diets of America’s schoolchildren lack quality as measured by adequate and varied consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and moderation of saturated fats and extra-calorie foods. Therefore, it can be inferred that U.S. students’ brains are often malnourished, as they are undersupplied of the micronutrients needed for effective cognition. Improvements in the nutritional quality of students’ diets are associated with academically beneficial gains, but have not been repeatedly and causally correlated to increased academic achievement. Concrete links between food consumption – either at large or in specific foods – and academic performance have not been established, likely because of the complex nature of the variables, the abundant confounders, and the longitudinal design necessary to understand the enduring effects. In general, however, it is clear that consistently eating sufficient quantity and variety of nutrient-dense foods will improve children’s diet quality, and consequentially reduce the potential for the cognitive impairments associated with malnutrition.

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See also

• Consumption of ultra-processed foods and health risks
• Nutrition
• Nutritional science
• Vitamins
• Academic excellence
• Food science

Exernal links

• How Diet Affects GPA