Exam stress sees kids turn to quick junk food, says survey

A New School Food Trust study revealed that a healthy diet has a direct impact on a child's ability to study; children who eat a healthy breakfast achieve better results and children who eat a healthy lunch are more focused and better able to learn. Despite students acknowledging that brain-fuelling foods like fish and fruit would be best to help them when revising or studying, 42% chose chocolate, a third chose fizzy drinks (33%) and biscuits (31%), and one in four (26%) chose caffeine laden energy drinks as their snack of choice when cramming for exams. When asked what they felt were the top 'brain-fuelling' foods to aid concentration kids put healthy choices on top; one in three chose fish (34%) and fruit (33%) and a quarter chose pasta (25%) and vegetables (24%), relegating the more unhealthy chocolate (15%), fizzy drink (12%), sweets (8%) and biscuits (7%), to the bottom. Surprisingly then, despite being clued up about the benefits of healthy eating, eight out of ten (79%) agree that they are more likely to snack more and eat less healthily when studying or revising. In addition, four in ten (42%) kids have skipped meals in order to make time to study and 91% say they regularly feel tired as a result of their school work. As a result of this half (50%) of kids can only study for 30 minutes before losing concentration on their work, nowhere near the two hour+ needed for exams this summer. Prue Leith, celebrity chef and School Food Trust chair, commented: "It's often said you get out what you put in - our research shows that children are able to perform better in class when they have had a healthy school lunch rather than junk food. "Children aren't stupid and they know that healthy food is better for them, and that a healthy breakfast and a balanced school lunch will give them more energy for their studies and help them concentrate more. Making that choice, and sticking with it, especially come exam time, could be the difference between success and failure." Further findings found that 31% said they eat school lunches only every now and again, yet 47% said they agree that having a school lunch helps them to concentrate more during lessons, meanwhile only 48% agreed that eating properly was important to help them study.