Could the foods children eat in their earliest years shape their intelligence and brain development later on?
A comprehensive review published in Advances in Nutrition has shed new light on the relationship between diet and cognitive development in children and adolescents. (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Diet and the Developing Brain: A Systematic Review of Nutritional Influences on Adolescent Cognitive and Academic Outcomes
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The analysis combined evidence from 73 previous studies, including 48 controlled clinical trials and 25 long-term prospective studies, to investigate how eating habits influence brain function, learning ability, and academic performance among individuals aged 8 to 19 years.
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Why the First Years of Nutrition Matter for Brain Development
Supported by the IAFNS Cognitive Health Committee, the research found that dietary choices during early life may play a critical role in shaping cognitive outcomes later on. In particular, unhealthy eating patterns during infancy were associated with poorer intellectual development and lower cognitive performance during adolescence.
The findings suggest that nutrition during the earliest stages of life may have lasting effects on brain health, reinforcing the importance of establishing healthy dietary habits from childhood to support learning, memory, and overall cognitive development throughout the teenage years.
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Is Adolescence a Second Chance to Boost Brain Development Through Nutrition?
Professor Hayley Young, from Swansea University’s School of Psychology and lead author of the study, said: “What stands out most clearly is that the foundations of cognitive health appear to be laid very early. A poorer diet in the first years of life was linked to lower intelligence years later, in adolescence, even after accounting for many other influences.”
“The picture during adolescence itself is more mixed: some interventions show promise, but the evidence is far from settled. That is exactly why we need better-designed studies, so we can establish whether adolescence is a genuine second window of opportunity to support the developing brain through nutrition, rather than assuming it is.”
After infancy, adolescence represents a second key period of neuroplasticity, marked by widespread structural and functional changes driven in part by hormonal and endocrine shifts during puberty.
To reflect how brain development unfolds over time, the review draws on longitudinal studies exploring links between early-life diet and later cognitive and academic performance. This life-course approach recognizes that later abilities build on earlier developmental milestones, allowing the team to examine how early nutrition may shape outcomes years later.
The researchers assessed long-term evidence on a wide range of nutrients and dietary components, including iron, iodine, choline, vitamin D, polyphenols, fatty acids, grains and multi-nutrient interventions.
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Researchers Propose Seven Principles to Improve Nutrition Science
Although findings across the literature can appear inconsistent, the authors caution against interpreting this as evidence that diet has little influence.
Instead, they argue that the impact of nutrition depends on several factors — including the timing of dietary exposure during development, the characteristics of the population studied, the duration and type of intervention, and the particular cognitive abilities being measured.
To advance research in this emerging field, the team proposes seven guiding principles for future studies:
- Adopt a life-course perspective
- Move beyond nutrient isolation
- Use biologically valid biomarkers
- Include puberty and sex-specific analyses
- Standardize outcome measures
- Prioritize context and population characteristics
- Control for key confounders.
The authors conclude that further high‑quality research is needed to determine whether adolescence represents a unique window of opportunity to support cognitive development through nutritional interventions.
Reference:
- Diet and the Developing Brain: A Systematic Review of Nutritional Influences on Adolescent Cognitive and Academic Outcomes – (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2161831326000621?via%3Dihub)
Source-Eurekalert
