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Toddlers' Junk-Food Diet May Lead to Lower IQ

danarhea

danarhea

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The human brain develops rapidly in early life — transforming helpless infants into walking, door-opening, question-asking, willful little people. And now a new study suggests that a toddler's diet may have some impact on his future cognitive abilities, with diets high in processed food at age 3 leading to lower IQ by age 8.
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A huge reason not to have McDonald's inside school cafeterias, don't you think?

Article is here.
 
I don't know how parents can let their kids eat that crap. It's not like they get to choose what to eat for themselves, just feed them healthy food for goodness sakes.
 
I kind of wonder how much validity there is to this study. Are they just looking at what all these people had in common and are just trying to pin it on junk food? Is there some chemicals in the junk food known to cause stupidity?
 
jamesrage said:
I kind of wonder how much validity there is to this study. Are they just looking at what all these people had in common and are just trying to pin it on junk food? Is there some chemicals in the junk food known to cause stupidity?
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It's in the 'special sauce'.... heh, heh...

j-mac
 
It may be junk food that resulted in the lower IQs. But, this study sure doesn't seem to confirm that. It's highly probable that the parents that serve their toddlers a lot of junk food have lower IQs then the parents that are on healthy diets. Heredity being what it is, would tend to lead to lower IQ's for their kids. Kind of a chicken/egg situation.
 
Is this just an attempt to create "evidence" to then back a move to legislate diet to reduce obesity to ultimately reduce health care costs?

Eating bad food is bad for you? What a brilliant study.
People sometimes choose to eat bad food? Amazing.

What's really happening is these kids are eating high fat high calorie fries and burgers and they get that warm full feeling after they eat, and they are content to just hang out. Meanwhile the kids eating celery and carrots are starving and yammering away at their parents to give them more food, thus helping develop the verbal centers of the brain at that young, elastic age.
 
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"their diet effects their cognitive ability"
NO ****, Sherlock.
I swear - these stupid studies come out that only support what is already common knowledge.

But this shouldn't be ignored because it's an equal factor in the findings:
It should be noted that the children included in the study already had many benefits known to foster cognitive development: they were more likely to live in homes owned by their parents, to have been breast-fed and to be from a high socioeconomic background.
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Mach said:
Is this just an attempt to create "evidence" to then back a move to legislate diet to reduce obesity to ultimately reduce health care costs?

Eating bad food is bad for you? What a brilliant study.
People sometimes choose to eat bad food? Amazing.

What's really happening is these kids are eating high fat high calorie fries and burgers and they get that warm full feeling after they eat, and they are content to just hang out. Meanwhile the kids eating celery and carrots are starving and yammering away at their parents to give them more food, thus helping develop the verbal centers of the brain at that young, elastic age.
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It doesn't seem ot matter how many studies are done - the problem doesn't rest with a lack of research and facts, the problem rests with people's lack of actual concern.

People just don't care and make excuses for their gross negligence

Just as Alexander Draper - well, his mother.
Instead of stepping up, intervening and taking action - she shoved all the blame off on her son.
 
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Mach said:
Is this just an attempt to create "evidence" to then back a move to legislate diet to reduce obesity to ultimately reduce health care costs?

Eating bad food is bad for you? What a brilliant study.
People sometimes choose to eat bad food? Amazing.

What's really happening is these kids are eating high fat high calorie fries and burgers and they get that warm full feeling after they eat, and they are content to just hang out. Meanwhile the kids eating celery and carrots are starving and yammering away at their parents to give them more food, thus helping develop the verbal centers of the brain at that young, elastic age.
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And our government subsidizes the bad food...that's the problem.
 
jamesrage said:
I kind of wonder how much validity there is to this study. Are they just looking at what all these people had in common and are just trying to pin it on junk food? Is there some chemicals in the junk food known to cause stupidity?
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Yeah, just based on the description in Time - the "study" isn't very convincing. They ran a bunch of regression analyses on an existing dataset and statistically controlled for what variables they could: "The association persisted even after researchers controlled for other environmental factors that can influence IQ, such as parental education level, maternal diet in pregnancy, socioeconomic status and stressful life events."

So, just looking at children of parents with high education and social status -- should we really assume that the ones who feed their kids junk are no different than those who feed their kids healthy diets? Should we assume that the parent who provides mcdonalds and tv dinners nonetheless reads to their child and fosters their intellectual development to the same degree as the parent who provides healthy meals? That is what the researchers would have us believe.

Also - It's not clear how a "unit increase in processed food" translates into real world consumption, but a 1.67 point drop in IQ is not that much.
 
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When I was a kid I got McDonalds once or twice a year, at most. My mother made my lunch every day and I got milk money.

Government has NO BUSINESS feeding kids at school. None.
 
Actually - fresh fruits and veggies are terribly OVER hyped. It's been shown that consuming frozen produce is the only way to ENSURE you get those essential nutrients. The reason is because the moment a ripened vegetable is picked it begins to lose nutrients - they break down naturally by the vegetable to "stay fresh" (so to speak) and ripen.
So - after a few days of processing and shipping - it's reduced. A few more days on the shelf - it's reduced further. and then even more days in your fridge at home reduces it even more - in the end, some nutrients are depleted by over half.

Fresh is more expensive and sometimes without the significant health benefits that people tout them for.
Frozen is by far more economical and more nutritious.

I buy fresh fruits for everyone to snack on - I only buy frozen veggies to cook with dinner. . . Several bags of frozen veggies to last 2 weeks puts me back maybe $10 - $15 *if* that much (for a family of 6) . .. and it's always plentiful.

Ed Gein said:
When I was a kid I got McDonalds once or twice a year, at most. My mother made my lunch every day and I got milk money.

Government has NO BUSINESS feeding kids at school. None.
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So the government shouldn't try to care for it's people - gotcha. :roll:
 
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Taylor said:
Yeah, just based on the description in Time - the "study" isn't very convincing. They ran a bunch of regression analyses on an existing dataset and statistically controlled for what variables they could: "The association persisted even after researchers controlled for other environmental factors that can influence IQ, such as parental education level, maternal diet in pregnancy, socioeconomic status and stressful life events."

So, just looking at children of parents with high education and social status -- should we really assume that the ones who feed their kids junk are no different than those who feed their kids healthy diets?
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based on the study results, yes
Should we assume that the parent who provides mcdonalds and tv dinners nonetheless reads to their child and fosters their intellectual development to the same degree as the parent who provides healthy meals?
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i did not see where that analysis and comparison was conducted. would you please point out where that was addressed
That is what the researchers would have us believe.
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until you point it out in the study i have to insist that you made up such a comparison

Also - It's not clear how a "unit increase in processed food" translates into real world consumption, but a 1.67 point drop in IQ is not that much.
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to me - and for our general population - i believe the loss of almost two IQ points would be a significant loss of cognitive ability. but we have different opinions. i have no difficulty understanding that an increase in processed food has deleterious effects. but then i was not fed much processed food as a youngster ... perhaps not losing those two IQ points was the difference which allows me to comprehend what was written
 
j-mac said:
I thought we were a free society?


j-mac
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How does the government feeding some children prevent us from being free?

If I give my sister's children enough food to eat over the weekend am I enslaving them somehow?
 
Aunt Spiker said:
How does the government feeding some children prevent us from being free?

If I give my sister's children enough food to eat over the weekend am I enslaving them somehow?
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Yes because they achieve less than they otherwise would have if they were desperate and hungry, but free!!! (or so the anti-welfare logic goes)
 
Your Star said:
I don't know how parents can let their kids eat that crap. It's not like they get to choose what to eat for themselves, just feed them healthy food for goodness sakes.
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At about age 2.5-3, kids get pretty defined ideas about what they want to eat. Once they've tasted junk food, they want it again and again. We had many fights with my daughter and son, both, when they were 3. My rule was that they could not get up from the table until they'd tried what we were having for dinner. French fries and chicken nuggets were banned from my house. They were never given those as an option, so they never got hooked on them, like a lot of kids these days do. They might occasionally get Kraft Mac & Cheese, made with skim milk and no butter. My daughter and son basically ate what we were eating, which was healthy food made from scratch and lots of vegetables. My daughter's idea of junk food is spaghetti and lowfat turkey meatballs. My son, on the other hand, is addicted to McDonald's because his dad takes him there ALL THE TIME. Ugh.

Most of the adults I know did not choose that route with their children (forcing them to eat healthy food), and instead allowed the children to dictate what they would eat. Their kids eat almost nothing but chicken nuggets and fries. I'm not even exaggerating.

It's hard to get your kids to eat healthy and like it, particularly in the toddler years. They will reject ANY unfamiliar food (or even food that they haven't had in the past week). You have to work at it.
 
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megaprogman said:
Yes because they achieve less than they otherwise would have if they were desperate and hungry, but free!!! (or so the anti-welfare logic goes)
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What power does a child have to change their situation? Children can't actually change their lot in life. It's not their fault that Mom's a miserable drug addict or Dad's abusive and selfish or that both parents are ill - or whatever. The kids can only live the life they're in.

I don't approve of giving money TO the parents - or supporting adults, period - but their kids? I don't condone forcing children to suffer more because of the gross negligence or ineptitude of the parents.

So - feed a bunch of kids or buy some more stealth air-fighters?
 
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Aunt Spiker said:
What power does a child have to change their situation? Children can't actually change their lot in life. It's not their fault that Mom's a miserable drug addict or Dad's abusive and selfish or that both parents are ill - or whatever. The kids can only live the life they're in.

I don't approve of giving money TO the parents - or supporting adults, period - but their kids? I don't condone forcing children to suffer more because of the gross negligence or ineptitude of the parents.
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I completely agree. History has shown that giving money does not work while giving an opportunity for a leg up often does. That is still welfare, but it is another type. However, there is always going to be a faction that will never do anything for themselves, what we must do there is keep them from looting and revolting while helping those who will allow themselves to be helped and hope that some of the more hard headed ones will come to a point of maturity.
 
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jamesrage said:
I kind of wonder how much validity there is to this study. Are they just looking at what all these people had in common and are just trying to pin it on junk food? Is there some chemicals in the junk food known to cause stupidity?
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Protein. Junk food diets lack protein and protein is important for growing and developing normally.
 
Hoplite said:
Protein. Junk food diets lack protein and protein is important for growing and developing normally.
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Not just protein - that's just one component of a balanced diet.
But on that note - some issues (like the autism spectrum of disorders) actually are related to a lack of protein-synthesis and processing. . . such as casein. Ergo: my older son's on a low-casein diet.
 
justabubba said:
i did not see where that analysis and comparison was conducted. would you please point out where that was addressed
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It wasn't addressed. That's the point. The methodology makes assumptions that aren't tested.

justabubba said:
until you point it out in the study i have to insist that you made up such a comparison
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Yes, I came up with the comparison, they did not. There are many potential reasons why this correlation exists. They tested only a few, and therefore leave themselves open to criticism.

justabubba said:
to me - and for our general population - i believe the loss of almost two IQ points would be a significant loss of cognitive ability. but we have different opinions. i have no difficulty understanding that an increase in processed food has deleterious effects. but then i was not fed much processed food as a youngster ... perhaps not losing those two IQ points was the difference which allows me to comprehend what was written
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"Almost two points" is too small to even be measured reliably, much less describe a meaningful difference in behavior. If you're worried about the "iq of the general population," there are a thousand better ways to spend tax dollars.

i have no difficulty understanding that an increase in processed food has deleterious effects. but then i was not fed much processed food as a youngster ... perhaps not losing those two IQ points was the difference which allows me to comprehend what was written
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What you have difficulty understanding is that if the above is true, this particular study provides little or no evidence to support it. To understand this requires not only the ability to comprehend what was written, but to critically evaluate the conclusions drawn from work performed.
 
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