Healthy Diets in Children Result in Higher IQs

A new study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology concludes that children who consume a healthy diet during early childhood years might have higher IQ scores in later years than their junk-food-eating counterparts. The study examined the dietary habits of 7,079 kids at six, 15, and 24 months old, following with a standard IQ test at age eight. Children who were breastfed at six months and followed with a healthy diet including foods such as legumes, fruit, and vegetables at 15 and 24 months had scored on average one to two points higher than those whose diets were high in foods such as biscuits, chocolate, sweets, and soda in their first two years. The study considered a variety of dietary patterns including traditional and contemporary home-cooked meals, ready-made baby foods, breastfeeding, and “discretionary” junk food.