Why teens need proper nourishment

Nutrition expert Lucinda Miller (NatureDoc Clinic) was recently invited to Bryanston to deliver training for all staff on how food choices affect teenagers. In this special guest post, Lucinda explains why encouraging teens to make healthy food choices is important now and even more so for their future health and happiness…

When some teens seem to get by on crisps, chips, sweets and fizzy drinks, you could be forgiven for thinking ‘What’s all the fuss about healthy food?’ The truth is that medical research is increasingly establishing the links between ultra-processed and sugar-laden food, and poor mental health, lower IQ, and physical health conditions. Conversely, a well-balanced diet, avoiding the nasties and loading up on veg is associated with better outcomes in these areas.

But healthy food doesn’t have as good marketing or instant gratification as sweet treats, brightly coloured packets, or convenient ready-meals, and teens are especially susceptible to the lure of these things. And when the human brain continues developing well into their twenties, it’s worth trying to get the good habits in before it’s too late.

Food and diet choices are extremely complex these days, and the media sends lots of mixed messages which can confuse even the most educated. This can manifest in a myriad of different relationships with food amongst teenage children. For example:

· some teens live to eat, have a passion for food and love to try new things;

· others are more cautious and conservative when it comes to what they eat;

· then there are those who don’t seem to know the difference between a meal and a snack, and they graze all day;

· the latest Instagram foodie trend captivates others; and

· some have developed such a poor relationship with food that they control what, when and how much they eat, which can potentially lead to eating disorders.

Sometimes when kids are let loose for the first time in a boarding environment, their eating habits go downhill, as this can be the first time that they have had to make their own food choices. If left to their own devices, their tuck boxes, Amazon Pantry orders and toast habits can start to crowd out their appetite for the nourishing meals provided at school. I know that Bryanston is keen to nurture healthy eating habits in all its pupils, so that by the time pupils leave the School, they are ready for full independence and able to make healthy choices for themselves. This is why Bryanston is encouraging healthier tuck box choices.

Whether you are a foodie or not, it’s important to understand why a healthy diet is so important for your children, and I am going to share with you some key snippets of recent research focused on child and teen nutrition. It’s not too late to upgrade your child’s eating habits and encourage them to eat more of the good stuff. So here goes...

Why at least five a day?

Firstly, children benefit from eating at least five different fruits, vegetables and salads a day and the variety really counts. Studies have found that children and adolescents who consume more fresh fruit and veg have higher self-esteem, are more creative and are less likely to be bullied – so it’s certainly not just about weight and growth.

The gut

The gut microbiome is a rapidly growing area of research in both child and adult health, and vegetables, fruits, salads, pulses, seeds, and live yoghurt help to build healthy, diverse bacterial colonies in the gut. There were over 15,000 papers published on the microbiome in 2019 alone, and studies have now found how important probiotic foods and supplements are for gut health in a huge variety of conditions that affect teenagers including eczema, asthma and acne; as well as the formation of neurotransmitters - the brain hormones that regulate impulsivity, motivation and keep teens calm and well balanced. 

Healthy food and IQ 

IQ is also known to be affected by diet, and research has found that a diet high in processed sugary foods can reduce IQ and equally a healthy diet full of fresh food can increase IQ. School performance was also measured in a study of over 350,000 teenagers and those who consumed healthy foods instead of ultra-processed foods generally performed better. It was found that eating three times per day without skipping meals (especially breakfast) and frequent intakes of fresh fruits, vegetables and milk were related to good school performance. However, regularly eating convenience foods including soft drinks, instant noodles, fast foods, sweets and chocolate more than seven times a week showed a correlation with poor school performance.

Inflammation and mental health

A healthy diet is also key for keeping chronic inflammation in check. Pesky inflammation drives many of our modern-day disease states including autoimmune conditions, cancers and cardiovascular problems, so it’s super important to take this seriously. Chronic inflammation is also closely linked to negative mental health outcomes, and it’s thought that a diet rich in freshly prepared nutritious food is a critical step to keeping children happy, healthy and well.

Much of the research on chronic inflammation is drawn from the work of Professor Edward Bullmore, who is the Head of Psychiatry Research at Cambridge University. He writes on the link between inflammation and depression in his book The Inflamed Mind. The AVON study is an insightful research study where 4,500 perfectly happy, healthy and well nine-year-old children were tested for inflammation markers, and those with higher inflammatory markers were more likely to develop depression and psychosis by 18 years. This data is so significant that researchers are using it for predicting bipolar disease, eating disorders and even suicide risk.

It is thought that food choices and lifestyle can make all the difference at preventing this inflammation from building up and causing havoc later on down the line. A Mediterranean diet rich in fresh vegetables, salads, fruits, olive oil, fish, wholegrains, pulses and seeds help to reduce inflammation, whereas a diet rich in ultra-processed convenience foods drives inflammation up.

This is why encouraging your children to make healthy food choices at mealtimes, and in the comfort of their boarding houses is important now and even more so for their future health and happiness.

Lucinda Miller is the clinical lead of the NatureDoc team, specialising in child and teen nutrition and functional medicine. She is the author of The Good Stuff cookbook and is a mum of three. www.naturedoc.co.uk

References:
On carrots and curiosity: eating fruit and vegetables is associated with greater flourishing in daily life. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjhp.12113

Many apples a day keep the blues away--daily experiences of negative and positive affect and food consumption in young adults. White BA et al. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23347122

Let them eat fruit! The effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on psychological well-being in young adults: A randomized controlled trial. Conner TS et al. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28158239

The microbiome and atopic eczema: More than skin deep. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26821151

The role of the microbiome in childhood asthma. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29130800

Potential Role of the Microbiome in Acne: A Comprehensive Review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6678709/

Are dietary patterns in childhood associated with IQ at 8 years of age? A population-based cohort study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21300993

Dietary Habits Are Associated With School Performance in Adolescents https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4998375/

Is there an association between dietary intake and academic achievement: a systematic review. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27599886

Association of serum interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein in childhood with depression and psychosis in young adult life: a population-based longitudinal study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25133871

Childhood interleukin-6, C-reactive protein and atopic disorders as risk factors for hypomanic symptoms in young adulthood: a longitudinal birth cohort study. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/childhood-interleukin6-creactive-protein-and-atopic-disorders-as-risk-factors-for-hypomanic-symptoms-in-young-adulthood-a-longitudinal-birth-cohort-study/C177043D1EDA4F5F5849EAE1EC02F9E9

Inflammatory Markers in Anorexia Nervosa: An Exploratory Study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30355978

An inflammatory profile linked to increased suicide risk. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30654266

The Dietary Inflammatory Index: A New Tool for Assessing Diet Quality Based on Inflammatory Potential https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264554956_The_Dietary_Inflammatory_Index_A_New_Tool_for_Assessing_Diet_Quality_Based_on_Inflammatory_Potential

Why we should be encouraging our children to read more

In celebration of World Book Day, Louise Boothman, Teacher of English reflects back on a time before digital distractions and explains why we need to be encouraging children to read more... 

Back in 1980 something, the Casio Databank really was a thing of wonders. With its red numbers, tiny-but-functional calculator and reassuringly Space 1999 aesthetic, it really was the birthday present of choice. We were confident that there was more technology on our wrists than went into getting Neil Armstrong to the moon. We were probably right. The flashing 24-hour clock – no hands for us, thanks – was a taste of the future and unpinned a lot of our spy game antics; press the back light and talk into your Casio, imagining that it had a walkie-talkie function, press the other button and a zip line would emerge. One friend sagely predicted that the little digital screen would one day be a tiny telly! As if. Imagine being able to watch Grange Hill on your wrist and radio your friends via your Casio…

Had I been given a sneak preview of the wristwear habitually sported nowadays, I think it would have blown my tiny mind. Everything and anything, that flashes, beeps and distracts, is available – if not on your wrist, then certainly on something that fits in your pocket and is little bigger than a match box… Had I had a smartphone at 13 would I have been quite so interested in books? The internet is full of endless rabbit holes to fall down, with click leading to click, so easy, so passive. Is it any wonder that reading for pleasure seems to be becoming something of a lost art, side-lined as niche and antiquated against such alluring technology? The first generation of tablet-savvy children are coming through our doors and it’s increasingly hard to match the lure of the smartphone, the laptop, the tablet or the smartwatch with the printed word. If I had a penny for every time a parent has lamented: ‘My child does not read anything, they used to love reading at prep school’, I would currently be mulling over this thorny perennial from the deck of my super yacht, but as it stands, we are all trying our best to work out how we make analogue sexy in an almost entirely digitised world. It’s tough.

Books are enchanting, they can take you anywhere, all from the comfort of your armchair, but they don’t sing for everyone. The allure of children’s fiction, with their gorgeous illustrations, all too soon ebbs away as the text grows denser, the pictures vanish and the pages contract down to the size of a house brick. This progression to ‘young adult fiction’ usually chimes with a move to senior school, the arrival of a new mobile phone and the marvel that is puberty. There’s a lot going on. Couple this with the boarding environment; deliberately busy and full of hustle, there’s not always time and space to be quiet and reflective. Besides which, when you do wind down of an evening, some well-meaning adult will bang your lights out at 9.50pm, so that thwarts most potential bookworms…

Reading requires time and space and quiet. It also requires a text that really grabs you. It seems a long time since the reign of the Goosebumps series, where obsessed children had resorted to stealing the next exciting edition of the horror series from bookshops. In the 2011 riots the only shop to remain blissfully ‘unlooted’ was Waterstones. The windows were fully intact, as nobody wanted to lift the contents. Not even the Moomin pencil cases. To be considered a ‘big reader’ (i.e. someone who reads a lot), Waterstones have set the bar at four books a year.

So how do we turn this around? It seems to me, that just like the resurgent vogue for vinyl records, ‘The Book’ is ripe for a hipster makeover. E-readers are all very well, but I have little truck for reading a book on your laptop or phone. I like paper in my grubby mit, I like to be able to flick back and read a favourite passage, and I like knowing how many pages I have left for the unknotting to unfold. So, let’s go old school and have a real, actual, physical book. We also have to model good reading habits; if you are endlessly noodling on your tablet, why should your children not do the same? Let them catch you reading. To that end, if you spot a member of staff reading in main hall, it’s all part of our ‘Visible Reader Scheme’, as spearheaded by our very own Will Ings. Designed to set a good example and flag the importance of reading for pleasure, we hope to get some older pupils onboard too in the coming weeks.

 

Emma Minter, our librarian, is full of plans and schemes to encourage reading; do visit Ashmore and see the work she has done. Now open to all, not just the preserve of sixth formers, there are some beautiful books to borrow; Emma has a wonderful eye and her displays are vibrant and carefully curated. Welcoming and cosy, the range of non-fiction she has brought in is particularly strong. In addition, Emma has also ploughed ahead with the introduction of the Accelerated Reader scheme, which places the emphasis on at least five, half-hour reading sessions a week. Hsms have been instrumental in facilitating this, while the English department are chivvying away to ensure that our Ds complete the accompanying comprehension quiz every time our pupils read one of the recommended books. 

While there is a satisfaction to reading everything by a particular author, the Accelerated Reader homes in on the pupil’s reading age and encourages stretch and challenge, to help the reading age ‘accelerate’. We also have a Reading Passport, where D, C and B pupils are rewarded for reading x number of books in a term. Equally, in English we are pushing the Bedrock vocabulary builder to help give pupils the academic vocabulary they need to succeed; if you don’t have the vocab, you really can’t access the curriculum.

But reading is not just the key to academic success, it’s about your mental health, too. Reading to escape, reading to understand how other people tick and putting a hand across time to make a connection with someone from a different age is a most powerful thing. Reading shouldn’t be like taking your medicine; it’s good for you, but you don’t really like it. Being lent a book by someone you respect is a tremendous incentive to read it; it’s great to see some of our pupils reading challenging material that has been recommended by their tutors and I always enjoy having recommendations from my tutorial pupils. Thanks to one notable, I have just read my very first Agatha Christie. What can I say? I’m a late adapter.

In such a busy environment, it sometimes seems decadent to sit down with a book. And there is also the delightful contradiction that while reading is an activity that requires some form of isolation, it is also the very thing that helps you feel connected. I’ll leave my summation to F. Scott Fitzgerald: ‘That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.’

Books are wondrous, have your fill.