Timing is Everything

Pediatricians and nutritionists often stress how important it is
for kids to eat a good breakfast. But the exact benefits of a morning
meal may depend in part on how early breakfast is served.

While it's long been known that nutritional supplements given
during infancy and early childhood can improve IQ and memory later in
life, only recently have researchers begun investigating how nutrition
affects kids' memory and learning in the short run. A team of Israeli
pediatricians and psychologists, led by N. Vaisman, M.D., of the Kaplan
Hospital in Rehvot, reports a study in which children took memory tests
before being put on a daily at-school breakfast of corn flakes and milk.
After two weeks on the diet, these children--as well as other kids whose
meals had not been controlled--were re-tested.

The results, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine, showed that the youngsters who ate at school enjoyed a
significantly higher level of memory performance than children who
skipped breakfast. No surprise there.

But kids who ate at home (roughly two hours before the memory tests
were given, on average) also scored lower than the children who were
given cereal at school (about 30 minutes before the tests). This suggests
that when--and not just whether--kids eat breakfast determines how well
they retain the day's lessons. Filling their cereal bowl several hours
before school begins, the team concluded, may offer kids less of a
benefit than a meal consumed a half hour or so before classes
begin.