Effect of breakfast timing on the cognitive functions of elementary school students
N. Vaisman, H. Voet, A. Akivis and E. Vakil
Department of Pediatrics B, Kaplan Hospital, Rehovot, Israel.
OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of breakfast timing on selected cognitive
functions of elementary school students. DESIGN: A 2-week randomized
control intervention trial. SETTING: Five elementary schools. SUBJECTS: The
subjects comprised 569 children, 51% of them boys, aged 11 to 13 years; the
children were in grades 5 through 6 (17 classes). The subjects lived in
different areas and had different socioeconomic backgrounds. INTERVENTION:
Each subject was tested twice, by 2 versions of the Rey Auditory-Verbal
Learning Test, 2 alternative forms of the logical memory subtest of the
revised Wechsler Memory Scale, and 2 versions of the Benton Visual
Retention Test. On the first test, before any nutritional intervention, the
subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire about their food intake on
the day of testing. Two thirds of the subjects received 200 ml of 3%-fat
milk and 30 g of sugared cornflakes for the next 14 days, and all the
subjects were reexamined on the 15th day. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Scoring on
the different tests was compared with baseline scores. RESULTS: After 15
days, children who ate breakfast at school scored notably higher on most of
the test modules than did children who ate breakfast at home and children
who did not at breakfast. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that routinely
eating breakfast 2 hours prior to being tested does not improve cognitive
functions in 11- to 13-year-old elementary school students, but food
supplementation 30 minutes prior to taking a test notably improves scoring.
We suggest further studies on the relationship between meal content,
feeding time, and scholastic performance.
