How Diet And Exercise Can Affect Your Child’s Grades

Did you know that there is a lot more you can do for your kid’s education than to just drop them off at school everyday or even provide them an after school tutor? Did you know that healthy eating habits and regular physical activity can do more for your child’s potential to excel than anything else? It’s true and there’s plenty of evidence to back this up.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of funding and programs like “No Child Left Behind” are making it more and more difficult for your child to eat well and exercise properly at school, rendering your parenting decisions more vital than ever before.

Exercise

Not only does a child need a fair amount of physical activity to keep fit, but also, a growing young body needs exercise to develop properly. And yet, I don’t know if you have noticed or not but our schools have begun to cut recess time AND P.E. classes out of the daily schedule. This not only makes it harder for children to concentrate on their academics during the day, but it’s obviously a leading cause in the childhood obesity epidemic that’s sweeping the nation.

When I was in school, some (gasp!) 35 years ago, I had no less than four recess periods a day plus P.E. every day all the way through 6th grade. This year, my daughter who is in 5th grade has had her recess times cut down to two and the P.E. time has been cut down to once a week. Twice a week/every other week. That to me is tragic. Fortunately we eat healthy and my daughter does stay very physically active all on her own. (More on that in a bit)

While there are plenty of studies that show the connection between physical fitness and academic performance and overall brain health, it’s still a challenge for school administrators who feel they must focus on academics or risk losing their funding. One researcher, Dr. John Ratey of Harvard, does brain research on physical fitness and calls physical activity “miracle growth for the brain.” Despite this, it’s still an uphill battle.

Ken Reed, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Physical Education says “The situation isn’t good and it’s getting worse. Physical activity levels have dropped dramatically in the last 25 years and we believe there’s a direct link there to childhood obesity, as well as a dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol levels in children. It’s primarily because of budget problems in schools. Also, the focus is on the educational assessment test that almost every state has due to No Child Left Behind and other factors. It’s become the scorecard for administrators and teachers. The focus is on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Parents are also picking up on the state assessment scores as their scorecards on how their school’s doing, so they put more pressure on schools to focus on those areas. Something’s got to give, and unfortunately it’s usually PE, music, and art classes.”

Diet

According to statistics cited in Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, the worst-quality food goes to fast food restaurants, schools, and pets, in that order—a pretty scary thought when we consider that fast food restaurants and the school cafeteria make up a large percentage of what is forming the dietary pattern of our future generation.

It’s easy to see the food vs. performance relationship in school kids. One example, Appleton Central Alternative High School in Appleton, Wisconsin, implemented a health-food program in 1997 and saw a dramatic increase in student performance. By removing soda and candy machines, and changing the cafeteria fare from the standard burgers, fries, etc., to salad, veggies, whole-grain breads, fresh water, and healthy recipes, they saw grades go up, truancies go down, and disciplinary matters nearly vanish.

Mary Bruyette, an Appleton teacher says “If you’ve been guzzling Mountain Dew and eating chips and you’re flying all over the place, I don’t think you’re going to pick up a whole lot in class.” While there’s little doubt that better food choices would increase scholastic performance, there’s also little chance that anything is going to change, at least not on a wide scale anytime soon. That’s why as parents, it is extremely important that you feed your kids healthy, balanced meals and perhaps even up the “homemade” lunch options. Plus, we need encourage as much physical activity as reasonably possible.

My motto is “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. And I believe it is time to stand up to our schools and express our concerns. I know that is what I am trying to do in my community.

One way to help your kids at home with physical activity is to invest in a fun, exercise program such as Shaun T’s Fit Kids Club DVD. I got this one for my daughter to do in the winter time, and she really has a good time with it. And it is a great workout. I plan on hosting a Fit Kids Club night and do the workout together with other kids in the community.

Another way is to instill healthy eating habits. But unfortunately eating healthy sometimes is usually not enough. That’s where high quality supplementation comes in. I only trust the health of my kids to 4Life Research. As a family, we have been using many, many of their products for the past 8 years. And I can’t tell you how much we have benefited just in the “wellness” factor.

What are you doing to insure the future success of our next generation? Garbage in … Garbage Out is what I always say. It’s never too early or too late to start a healthy eating pattern and a physical activity routine for your child. Won’t you join me?

To your Extreme Health,
Mellisa

Resources:
Team Beachbody Products – Shaun T’s Fit Kids Club DVD
4Life Research Products – 4Life Transfer Factor Chewables