Derech HaTeva: A Case Study of How Food Impacts Kids’ Behavior

I’ve mentioned before how diet can impact behavior, and how it impacts behavior in children more than in adults.  Most of us have seen the comparison between a kid who eats lots of candy and one who’s eaten a heavy, meaty meal.  But it may not be so common to compare behavior between kids who eat healthy diets rich in fresh fruits and vegetables and those who eat fatty, sugary foods devoid of nutritional benefits.  Some teachers or others who work closely with diverse groups of students may have seen this firsthand, but even many people in these professions are dealing with fairly homogenous groups of kids.  Often, kids attending the same classes come from similar backgrounds both socioeconomically and educationally.  Thus it would not be uncommon to have a class where the vast majority of the students (if not all the students) are eating a similar diet.  And many teachers do not have the time or wherewithal to inspect each student’s food choices at school and at home.

As a mum, my exposure is primarily to my own children, and to their friends.  Of course, their friends (as they are still very young) are determined by my own friendships.  If I find another mum and strike up a friendship, it is likely that we have things in common, and one of those is highly likely to be an interest in healthy food and healthy kids’ diets.  Therefore, even as a mum who pays close attention to the food my children and their friends consume, I do not often have a strong and sustained basis for comparison.

Of course I do see other children at the parks, playgrounds, and play groups whose parents make radically different food choices.  But this is not a fair basis for comparison.  Behavioral patterns must be established over a period of time, so a “snapshot” of a child’s behavior at a given time is insufficient.  Food is, clearly, not the only impact on a child’s behavior.  We all have “good” days and “bad” days. We all have days when we’re feeling ill or when someone has hurt our feelings. We all have days when we get really lucky or when someone has given us a great compliment.  Children are no different. We cannot simply look at a child’s behavior on a given day and attribute it to their diet.  However, in the long run it is possible to establish patterns and causation, on an observational, if not scientific level.

To my mind, this is the problem with some scientific studies that show sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children.  I have read several studies that claim this and they all seem to have the same design flaw: they give children either a high dose of sugar drink or a sweet placebo. Then they observe their behavior. But this does not take into account long-term behavioral patterns in individual children.  A very retiring child who consumes sugar might exhibit hyperactivity but to a researcher who does not know that child’s normal behavioral patterns it may simply appear to be normal energetic behavior.  Also, these children may be more constrained in new environments. Or their parents may have previously admonished them to behave.  There are a plethora of factors not controlled for in these studies, which is why those of us who have or work with children all agree that kids who eat lots of sugary foods tend to behave in a more uncontrolled fashion, even though scientific studies might claim they don’t.

My husband saw the effects of food on children’s behavior firsthand a couple of years ago. He led a group of a dozen teenaged boys on a month-long trip called Derech HaTeva (“Nature’s Path”), hiking through mountains, forests, and deserts. All the kids were given the same rations, but they could trade amongst themselves and with the trip leaders. Thus, a boy could trade his ration of fruit for another boy’s ration of chocolate. He could trade his ration of whole grain oatmeal for another boy’s ration of white flour.

All the boys had to contribute to building and setting up camp, cooking, cleaning, and packing, in addition to hiking many hours a day, and doing learning sessions with group leaders. They rotated chores so that every boy spent some time during the trip doing everything, whether pleasant or unpleasant. My husband quickly noticed that certain boys would eat lots of certain foods, and would always trade for the same ones. He also noticed patterns of behavior that seemed to correlate – eerily – depending on what kind of diet each boy was eating.

The boys who ate lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains were always first up in the mornings. They set to their chores with enthusiasm and speed and were often finished with enough time to help others, or to go off on their own to meditate, pray, or relax. These boys were healthy, had lots of stamina on hikes, and did not exhibit any health issues, either mental or physical. On the other hand, the boys who ate lots of sugar, white flour, and other highly processed foods were tired and slow. They had to be prodded awake in the mornings and were surly and negative about the chores they had to do. Their energy was limited to the time period just after a meal, then they would crash and have no energy at all until the next meal.  Most of them were on medication of one kind or another.

After spending a month observing the same persistent behavior in these boys, my husband concluded that this was more than just coincidence: it was correlation.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have been able to observe children with very different nutritional backgrounds for an extended period of time? If so, what did you observe?