Nutrition that Helps to boost your Child’s Academic Performance
Preparing for exams requires more than just studying. A balanced diet is an essential part of a student’s learning journey. While a diet of fruits and vegetables alone won’t turn your child into a superhero overnight, healthy eating can enhance their academic performance. A wholesome diet, rich in healthy fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, can nourish and protect the brain. This, combined with a good learning approach, can optimize brain power and provide the mental clarity needed, especially during exams.
Consuming foods like cheeseburgers, pizzas, crisps, and candy can mess with your child’s energy levels and memory power, which are integral tools for academic preparation. Here are ten foods that can help enhance brain health and improve exam performance:
1. Water-rich fruits and vegetables, like cucumber, celery, spinach, lettuce, zucchini, apples, tomatoes, watermelon, peaches, plums, and oranges, are crucial for better brain function.
2. Cruciferous vegetables, such as cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli, contain high levels of Vitamin B6 and B12, which improve alertness and build muscle memory. These vegetables also have choline and Vitamin K, which are known for their memory-boosting compounds.
3. Complex carbohydrates, such as oats, quinoa, rice, bread, legumes, fruits, and vegetables, provide glucose, which acts as fuel for the brain. These carbs take longer to break down, providing the brain with a slow and steady dose of glucose.
4. Beetroot contains nitrates that help dilate blood vessels, increasing blood flow to the brain. This power-packed vegetable fights inflammation and can be cooked, steamed, or juiced.
5. Healthy fats, such as Omega 3 and Omega 6, are essential fat components in the brain. Walnuts, whole eggs, fatty fish, chia seeds, and extra virgin olive oil are great sources of healthy fats.
6. Avocados are rich in lutein, carotenoids, folate, potassium, and oleic acid, making them an excellent source of brain-healthy nutrients. Try making avocado toast for a perfect mid-day snack.
7. Citrus fruits, like lemons, oranges, grapefruits, and key limes, are rich in flavonoids that boost memory and promote learning. Drinking citrus fruit juice can also help with better mental performance.
8. Lean proteins, such as meat, poultry, dairy, soy, and lentils, raise amino acid levels, which help neurons in the brain communicate better.
9. Green and orange vegetables, such as carrots, tomatoes, spinach, kale, sweet potatoes, and papayas, are loaded with carotenoids, anti-inflammatory agents that protect and maintain cognitive health. Leafy vegetables are also rich in folate and essential vitamins like E and K.
10. Antioxidants, found in foods like dark chocolate, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, squash, and kale, help protect the body against oxidative stress, an essential part of brain health.
By incorporating these ten brain-boosting foods into your child’s diet, you can help them perform better in exams and beyond. Remember, a healthy diet, coupled with a good learning approach, is the key to a student’s success. There are more ways apart from nutrition that can help in boosting your kid’s academic performance, visit Extramarks the learning app and discover how?
Last Updated on September 1, 2023