mind the fat: does fast food = slow kids? 21.00–22.00
We know that a bad diet can affect a child’s physical health, but could it be bad for their minds as well? In this fascinating documentary, four clinically overweight children who are struggling at school take part in a groundbreaking 12-week experiment to test the theory that better food will lead to better minds. With more than 30% of British kids obese or overweight, the results could have major implications for a whole generation.
The four children taking part in the experiment are eight-year-old Zach, who weighs eight stone; George and Rochel, who are both 11 and weigh 11 stone each; and 13-year-old Gareth, who weighs 12 stone. Leading neuropsychiatrist Professor Basant Puri will scan their brains before and after the programme to assess whether the size and makeup of their brains has altered. He will also put the children through a series of brain-teasing tasks designed to measure intelligence. Will they perform better after the lifestyle changes?
Professor Puri is an advocate of a dietary supplement called EPA, or fish oil, which has been shown to promote brain growth. And while Puri’s existing research shows a strong link between mental performance and EPA, he is hoping that combining these supplements with a change in diet will produce even more remarkable results. “Junk food contains bad fats, and those bad fats insinuate themselves into the brain,” he explains. “They replace the good fats and make brain cell membranes dry up so that signals don’t pass well between one brain cell and another.”
Paul Sacher, a specialist dietician at the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital, is in charge of radically overhauling the children’s junk-heavy diets. He quickly realises that it could be hard to keep them motivated, especially when some of them view healthy food with such suspicion. “I’m worried something bad might happen by eating too much fruit and veg,” admits Zach, while Gareth insists that a £100 cash incentive is the only thing that will make him exercise a few times a week.
After a challenging 12 weeks during which all the participants manage to eat more healthily, exercise more and take daily fish-oil supplements, a weighin reveals that three out of four have lost weight. Of course, this was not the primary purpose of the programme. More significant is the fact that all the children now perform much better than before in the four challenges Professor Puri sets them to test their handwriting, concentration, problem-solving ability and memory. In fact, they all perform at least one-and-a-half years above the expected results for their age group. Professor Puri is excited by this excellent outcome, but the final test will be the scans he is about to perform. Will the children’s brains have grown? If so, Puri will be armed with evidence worthy of extensive investigation into whether a combination of fatty acids and a change in diet could enable kids to eat themselves cleverer.
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