Breakfast and Cognitive Function Flashcards
How much energy in % do our brains use?
20%
How much more energy does a child use compared to an adult?
200-300% more
What micronutrient are required for key metabolic and control processes in brain development?
- Iron
- Zinc
- Iodine
- B-vitamins
What can iron deficiency throughout the life span cause?
- poorer memory at 9 months
- Delayed motor development by 10months
- Delayed cognitive processing by 10 years
- Altered recognition memory & executive function at 19years
- Poorer emotional health in mid 20s
Does iron supplementation affect IQ?
Yes - but only if anaemic or deficient
How did iron supplementation improve cognition in Rwanda study?
Improve cognitive performance - memory search and speed of retrieval in women (18-27 years)
what are the 2 domains that low iron intakes are associated with?
- Cognitive performance
- Work capacity
Who is most at risk for breakfast skipping?
Female adolescents (1 in 7 skip breakfast with an aim to restrict calorie intake)
What effect did the school feeding program have on children in Malawi?
- 1 sig effect = improvement in reversal learning (IED task)
Also, middle, upper arm circumference increased more compared to controls
Why may there have been a lack of effects in the Malawi school feeding program?
- Malawi gov did not pay for 25% of meals
- Mothers of children on program would give other children their home time food
what is test sensitivity?
the ability of a test to correctly identify those with the disease (true positive rate)
what is test specificity?
the ability of the test to correctly identify those without the disease (true negative rate).
What did the study “Effect of BF vs No BF on Corsi Block tapping task” find?
- performance was better following Breakfast.
- However, a significant condition*IQ interaction was also found
- for participants with lower IQs, the consumption of breakfast improved performance
- for higher IQ children - not difference
What are some issues with measuring breakfast in studies?
- Sample - e.g. including breakfast skippers (won’t be used to breakfast)
- hard to blind conditions
- ecological validity
What did Cooper et al (2001) find about breakfast?
Performance on day when they had breakfast didn’t decline as much as when they didn’t have breakfast = maintenance of performance
What did Defeyter & Russo (2013) find about breakfast?
Small enhancement of performance in breakfast condition
What did Adolphus et al find about breakfast on mood and cognition?
- Reaction time = Movement time was significantly faster following breakfast vs. no breakfast
- Sustained attention = No effect of condition on any indices of visual sustained attention
- Immediate visual-spatial memory = No effect of condition on any indices of immediate visual-spatial memory
- Mood = There was an advantage for breakfast for each of the eight subjective states assessed.
(These effects were apparent immediately after consuming breakfast and continued until the mid- or late-morning)
What are the domain specific effects of breakfast on cognition?
Cog domains = Attention, memory, and executive function
Other domains = maths and cognition
What did Wesnes’ (2013) breakfast study find?
- Benefit of breakfast on ‘power of attention’ and ‘quality of episodic memory’
- Advantage of breakfast but small effect of breakfast type (little difference between Cheerios and Shreddies)
What does the evidence suggest about GI/GL breakfasts?
- differing GI/GL, energy, high CHO vs. high PRO
- Few studies and inconsistent findings
- Emerging evidence that low GI/GL is more beneficial
- Suggests that the post-prandial blood glucose profile may mediate the effects
How does breakfast affect academic performance?
- positivity effects for on-task classroom behaviour
- Less consistent = distractible, hyperactive & disruptive behaviour
- Effects in: Well & undernourished, Low SES & more affluent
- positive effects in maths and arithmetic
How does breakfast affect GCSE performance?
- School-day breakfast skipping was negatively associated GCSE performance (10 points lower)
- Rarely consuming breakfast on school days was significantly associated with lower odds for higher Mathematics grades compared to frequent school-day breakfast consumption (effect specific to low/middle SES)
What is Breakfast skipping is associated with?
- Increased levels of snack food consumption
- increased likelihood of being overweight or obese
What did the school breakfast program in Peru find?
- Showed effects on a number of measures
- Depending on the type school
- In better schools – less effect was shown
- In mixed ability school – positive effect of breakfast
What may be a confounder to the breakfast - cognition link?
- Decreased absenteeism
- IQ
- SES
Is there evidence for breakfast composition on cognition
No (little)
In the essential reading, what did the study of breakfast on CAT performance find?
there was no evidence to support the hypothesis that habitual breakfast skipping is negatively associated with CAT performance in this sample of 11- to 13-year olds.
Why can it not be confidently be concluded that habitual breakfast consumption has no association with academic performance?
Because a proxy indicator for direct measures of academic performance was used.
What tests are not sensitive and which may be more sensitive to effects of breakfast on cognition
Not sensitive = reasoning tests
More sensitive = achievement tests
