I was an invited participant at the 91st Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop: Nurturing a Healthy Generation of Children, held in Manilla, Republic of Philippines, on March 19-21 2018. I talked about Breakfast Glycaemic Index and Cognitive Function in School Children.
Brief interview
Full talk
Breakfast Glycaemic Index and Cognitive Function in School Children.
Breakfast has been claimed to improve cognitive function and academic performance, leading to the provision of breakfast initiatives by public health bodies. Children may be particularly sensitive to the nutritional effects of breakfast due to greater energetic needs compared to adults. However, there is a lack of acute intervention studies assessing what type of breakfast is optimal for cognitive performance.
In this paper, the impact of breakfast-based glycemic response on cognition in children will be reviewed. The data suggest that a more stable blood glucose profile which avoids greater peaks and troughs in circulating glucose is associated with better cognitive function across the morning. Although the evidence to date is promising, it is currently insufficient to allow firm and evidence-based recommendations.
What limits our ability to draw conclusions from previous findings is that the studies have differed widely with respect to subject characteristics, cognitive tests used and timing of cognitive assessment. In addition, few studies have profiled glycemic response in children specifically. There is therefore an urgent need for hypothesis-driven, randomized controlled trials that evaluate the role of different glycemic manipulations on cognition.
Originally published on the Nestlé Nutrition Institute website.
About NNIW91
Infant and childhood nutrition form the basis of an individual’s health in later life. Multiple lines of evidence – from experimental to epidemiological – are converging to highlight the importance of this early period for metabolic programming, physiological growth and cognition. This is the cornerstone of the ‘developmental origin of health and disease’ (DOHAD) paradigm, underscoring the significance of infancy and early childhood for setting the foundation for health. Any public health intervention that seeks to improve the general health of a population or combat disease should therefore target infants and children in order to reap the greatest benefits.
This workshop will enable you to:
- Explore early eating behaviour and taste development
- Understand what children eat
- Revisit the importance of breakfast for children’s health and development
