- Foods that contain lutein can improve a child’s performance in school
- The pigment is found in leafy vegetables, egg yolks, kiwi and broccoli
- A new study found high levels in children will lead them to do better on tests
- This was regardless of their IQ or other academic and personal factors
Cheyenne Roundtree For Dailymail.com
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Children should increase their consumption of broccoli because it can improve their academic performance, a new study claims.
A pigment found in leafy greens, egg yolks and broccoli has been found to increase a child’s overall brain health, especially during tests.
New research found that high levels of lutein helped children in school perform tasks better and more easily, regardless of their IQ or other factors.
Experts are now encouraging children and adults to eat more foods that contain lutein in order to achieve this brain power boost.
Children who ate more foods that contained lutein, such as broccoli and leafy greens, were found to do better in school
The two-part study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois in order to see how the protective compound affects children.
Signs of lutein in the body is evident through the eyes because it is beneficial for eye health, protecting against a condition that could lead to vision loss.
In the study, researchers first measured brain activity and eye lutein levels of nearly 50 children aged eight to 10 years old.
Children were asked to do a cognitive task, and those with higher levels of the substance did better on the task and didn’t have a brain spike in activity.
Experts said this spike in waves is associated with a person tapping into their brain for additional help to complete a task.
Researcher Anne Walk, a cognitive neuroscientist at Illinois, said: ‘The P3 potential is usually looked at as a marker of resource allocation or cognitive engagement.
‘In this case, it appears that children with more lutein in the eye had higher performance and needed less cognitive engagement to accurately perform the task.’
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WHAT IS LUTEIN?
Lutein is called a carotenoid vitamin. It is related to beta-carotene and vitamin A.
Foods rich in the substance include broccoli, spinach, kale, corn, orange pepper, kiwi fruit, grapes, orange juice, zucchini and squash.
In addition to the leafy greens, lutein is also evident in egg yolk.
Many people think of lutein as ‘the eye vitamin’ because it can protect the retina and prevent vision loss.
Doctors recommend a daily dose of 10mg of lutein – which is considered a safe compound – for anyone suffering from AMD.
The compound is said to also help reverse the signs of a fading memory.
Adults who have high levels of lutein are better able to recall skills and information they learnt many years ago.
The second test looked at eight-year-old and nine-year-old children.
Experts found those with higher lutein levels did better on standardized academic tests than those with lower levels, regardless of other performance factors.
Researcher professor Naiman Khan said: ‘All these factors—the physical measures of fitness, IQ, socioeconomic status, body mass index and the amount of lutein in the children’s eyes—together explain about half of the variability achievement among participants.
‘If you take lutein out of the equation, your ability to predict a child’s performance becomes less accurate.’
Khan acknowledges that these studies don’t prove that lutein is solely responsible for the change but said it was a start in learning of the pigment’s role in cognitive development.
The professor added: ‘In the United States and much of the rest of the world, children and adults often fail to meet the recommended daily intakes of foods like fruits and vegetables.
‘We often focus on how diet affects childhood obesity, but we haven’t really studied how it can affect cognition or achievement in childhood.’
Lutien has also been linked to helping elders achieve the brainpower of people 11 years younger.
Adults who have high levels of lutein are better able to recall skills and information they learnt many years ago.
The protective compound can be found in a range of green leafy vegetables and helps to preserve ‘crystallized intelligence’.
It is believed to accumulate in the brain, where it has a protective effect on the region responsible for memory.
The US researchers said this could protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s.
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