How Can A Healthy Diet Improve Your Kids’ Reading Skills?

Most parents are well aware of the importance of ensuring that their child has a healthy diet. A healthy diet gives children the energy and nutrients they require to grow and develop. Recent research has also found that a healthy diet can help children in school.

A Healthy Diet To Improve Reading Skills

The study, which was published in the European Journal of Nutrition stated that children who had a diet with large amounts of vegetables fruits, berries and whole grains fared better in tests for reading skills.

The study analysed the food habits of 161 children between the ages of 6-8 using food diaries and then issued them standardised tests to gauge their reading skills.

The results found that children who had healthier diets improved their reading skills from Grade 1 to Grades 2-3. On the other, children who had poor diets’ had less improvement in reading in Grades 2 and 3 as compared to Grade 1.

“Another significant observation is that the associations of diet quality with reading skills were also independent of many confounding factors, such as socio-economic status, physical activity and physical fitness,” said Eero Haapala, Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, which indicates that a healthy diet alone can greatly enhance reading skills.

What Constitutes A healthy Diet?

While typically healthy diets include high amounts of vegetables and whole grains, the researchers specifically recommend a Baltic Sea or Finnish Diet.

These diets are high in vegetables, fruits, berries, fish and whole grain sand have reduced amount of red meat, sugary products and saturated fat.