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Essay On Nutrition And Sleep

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The Impact of Nutrition and Sleep Upon the Learning Process

The effects of nutrition can begin before birth, with the nutrition of the mother. Under nutrition can result in negative effects of the development of the brain that can become permanent and irreversible. One example is the lack of iron, which is a necessary part of the brain’s tissue. When iron deficiency is present nerve impulses tend to move slower. “Iron deficiency…is associated with behavior changes and delayed psychomotor development” (Nutrition and Cognitive Development, 2001), as well as decrease attention span, irritability, fatigue, and difficultly with concentration. “ Anemia is one of the most prevalent nutritional disorders in the world, affecting nearly one …show more content…

An increase in poverty contributes to the lack of nutritional care within low birth weight children.

The rise in poverty and how it has affected young ones:

The rise in poverty has led to the increase in nutritional needs for young ones.
Children who live in low-income housing tend to be under nutrition which results in lost of knowledge, brain power and productivity. The children’s ability to learn in school fails because of diminished attention spans and memory due to the lack of nutrition.
Many school districts have tried to improve low-income children’s learning by providing programs such as the School Breakfast Program. The School Breakfast Program is a wonderful program that allows children to receive the nutrition they need. It is shown that ‘children who participate in school breakfast have lower rates of absence and tardiness’ (Nutrition for Learning, 2004). Children who have eaten breakfast also tend to show a general increase in math and reading scores. Unable to distinguish among similar images, increase in error and slower memory recall are all associated with children who skip breakfast. Overall, ‘the effects of breakfast program participation on school-related outcomes, such as student achievement, cognition, attendance, and psychosocial measures’ (Designs for Measuring How the School Breakfast Program Affect…, 2000) have shown to be positive outtakes from the School Breakfast Program. The only

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