Download Poor Diet Can Take Toll on Children`s Mental Health, Study Finds

Poor Diet Can Take Toll on Children's
Mental Health, Study Finds
An unhealthy diet during pregnancy and the early years of a child's life can
adversely affect that child's mental health, a large long-term prospective
study of about 23,000 mothers and their offspring suggests. The study,
published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, was headed by Felice Jacka, Ph.D., director of the
Division of Nutritional Psychiatry Research at Deakin University in Australia
and funded by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Data about the mothers' diets were collected from them when they were
pregnant. Once their children were born, the children were evaluated at ages
6 months and 1.5, 3, and 5 years at which times researchers assessed
internalizing and externalizing problems. Even when possible confounding
factors were considered, the mothers who had higher intakes of unhealthy
foods during pregnancy were more likely to have children with behavior
problems, such as tantrums and aggression, than mothers who had higher
intakes of healthy foods during pregnancy. In addition, the children's diets at
18 months and 3 years were also evaluated, and those with unhealthy diets
were more likely to experience not just behavior problems, but also
internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression, than were children
eating healthy diets.