Diet and learning: food for thought ...

Last week I sent out an email about some thoughts and concerns I have about our roles and responsibility in terms of the health and well-being of our learners. I received several responses to that email.


What follows is a copy of my original email and, below that, a copy of the responses (this is the interesting bit). I've added a few links for further reading below the staff comments.

I've kept the comments anonymous. If you'd like to add to the discussion, please use the click on "comment" at the end of this post and have your say (if you are not sure how to leave a comment on the blog, get in touch with me and I'll show you in person):


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Text of email sent to teaching staff: 05 Feb 2010


Hi

The other morning my students settled down to tackle a demanding practice reading assessment.

Before they started (at around 10 am) I asked them to jot down on the top of their scripts what they had eaten since they got up. This is a list of what they ate and drank:


· Can of Iron Bru and packet of pickled onion

· Glass of milk, orange, banana

· One piece of toast, banana lucozade, and bottle of water

· Cup of coffee, muesli, 2 bits of chewing gum, can of Iron Bru and 2 ½ cigarettes (smoked, not eaten)

· Half packet of skittles, half packet of Mexican Chilli crisps, half can of Iron Bru

· Toast, ham sandwich, Iron Bru, not chocolate

· Galaxy bar, Dairy Milk

· Bran Flakes, banana, toast

· 2 pieces of dry toast, glass of blackcurrant juice, cheese and onion crisps

· Mini Ritz Crackers, half can of coke, chewy vitamin C’s

· Grapes, Crème Egg,

· Crème Egg, can of coke

· English Muffins, cookies, Easter Egg, Crème Egg, milk, coke

· Bran Flakes with sultanas, coffee


We’ve all heard the sometimes slightly sanctimonious, but nonetheless sound, arguments and evidence which links a healthy diet to more effective learning. Schools have addressed this issue. The Curriculum for Excellence, rightly, sees “Health and Well Being” as a core component of the learning experience of tomorrow’s students. And if that's not enough, Jamie Oliver shouts at us from the telly that "good food = good learning is bleedin' obvious - in'it".

So how do we, at Stevenson, measure up to these developments in education?

What is interesting, and possibly disturbing, about my student’s list is that most of the junk food was bought in vending machines at the college. Many students arrive here in the morning without breakfast and rush to get something to eat before class. Is this something we need to address?

Jerry
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Jerry O’Neill
Teacher Fellow

ps. There is a touch of hypocrisy creeping in here … although I had porridge for breakfast, I wrote this whilst munching on some chocolate sweets which someone had kindly deposited near my desk … but then hypocrisy always tastes good.

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Responses from staff to email:

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Absolutely , Jerry. I’m on the catering committee… And am happy to take this up with them. Not sure if the vending machines belong to them though or if they are a college piece of kit. I’ll try to find out.

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I think so. All day breakfasts should be cheaper.

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I think it is up to them -they are all adults

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No surprise to me – l have asked similar questions to my students in the past.

I would also add we should make fresh drinking water much more readily available . When BS was based at Napier we had water coolers outside classrooms

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Thanks for this – really interesting for me as both health professional and tutor.
Given that you collected this information prior to an assessment – is there any pattern or correlation in results?
Whilst a great deal of junk food was consumed it might have provided a good sugar rush for the brain in some cases – would be interesting to see if there were any links.
You’re right of course hypocrisy does indeed taste good, but not as good as the bag or crisps I’ve just scoffed.

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Damn it Jerry ... you are so bloody mellifluous

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definitely think so plus same problem with how many hours sleep they have had although that is in their hands.

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Very interesting reading.

[We] are piloting a course called Fit for Life .... where we try to make our students aware of the benefits of healthy eating to promote physical AND mental well being. Not sure we are winning though!

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We’ll be wiping their a***s next……………………………

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… Aramark COULD turn off the vending machines until morning break and serve healthy breakfasts until then BUT where would that leave their profits?

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Yes we should address this

My ultimate goal is to have an hour of Physical activity timetabled for all student and staff

Don’t want to list all the benefits in terms of: cross college communication, role models, health benefits, community involvement/feeling, …

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Just had a packet of cheese and onion McCoys and a chocolate Twirl myself – now feel slightly dirty

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This is something I have felt concerned about for ages. Isn't it an abrogation of the College's duty of care towards the school students and young people we teach, that we sell rubbish to them when they are in the College buildings? Shouldn't we be setting an example (not a dig at you Gerry. You eat your chocolate) by making sure only nutritious and cheap food is available?

Fizzy sweet drinks make people more thirsty, send them on the way to type 2 diabetes, as well as obesity. They compromise their immune systems and are highly addictive to boot. We don't sell heroin on grounds that people like it, it makes a profit and people can make up their own minds what they put into their bodies. Shouldn't we at least not provide this stuff. People would be free to bring it into the College (not heroin), but we shouldn't be selling it.

Your list makes frightening reading. ... [A]n ex teacher at Stevenson, died recently. It was mentioned at her funeral that she took matters into her own hands and used to organise a breakfast club for her art students. It helped them concentrate and ensured one good meal in their day. Pressures of work make that unrealistic for today's lecturers but could the College not run something?

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I do healthy living with ACE students and share your views - if you want to start a campaign for healthy food in the college count me in!

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When I was teaching in Canada, one of the English teachers organised a breakfast club (which she attended) for her class. Canteen were up for it, and many students got a decent start to their day. I think everyone was to be in by 8.30am. She may even have got funding for this (in the good old days.)

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I agree. We ... talked about this last year, Most of our NC students don’t eat a decent breakfast which most definitely has a bearing on their performance in class. They seem to depend on bottles of energy drinks top get them through the day. This no doubt has an effect on classroom behaviour and therefore retention.

If we could initially support the younger students in this way, educating them on diet, then it would over a period of time filter through the entire student population, maybe even to some of the staff!

Sadly our canteen is a commercial enterprise, I think It would be difficult for them to see this our way and clear out the crap from their shelves.

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Yes, but how did each do in the assessment?

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We used to run a breakfast club for our young CPC group – funding was from ESF pot which, of course, ran out. We tried to keep it going but it was too expensive.

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I cannot understand why the college allows such rubbish to be sold. Ban the fizzy drinks and crisps for a start. I was at a meeting in the college some time ago with representatives from local schools and was asked what arrangements the college made for those school kids who had to take Ritalin over the course of the day … We know that all this crap that they eat and drink contributes to concentration and behaviour problems (not to mention health difficulties) so why do the college allow it in the door? Well we know why ………………………

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... This has been a worry for me with my INT 2 class for some time. I have printed out the list you sent and am going to think about how I use it. I have TALKED to them about the importance of breakfast blah blah, but am at a loss about how to change things which are so personal and ingrained and unquestioned and comforting… a tough nut to crack.
I had muesli and am feeling smug. Though I had a lovely square of chocolate to help me to get to bed last night.

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Interesting Jerry – I think I’ll conduct a similar survey prior to an assessment on Friday.

If we are going to take it forward re vending machines and healthy eating perhaps a college wide survey of classes on a given day would be interesting – I wonder if students eat differently prior to exams/assessments?

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... there was one laddie here recently who bought four bottles of lucozade each morning, a fiver at todays prices and that sustained him all day!

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I don't think it's our job to be telling students what they should be eating. They all look healthy to me.

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Do you know how much does a banana cost in the refectory?

45p, almost as much as a chocolate bar. No wonder that students prefer to buy chocolate bars than fruit in College.

End of staff comments

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And here's more for you to digest ....

Edinburgh University research on teenagers and breakfast

banana or kit-kat?

http://www.mind.org.uk/foodandmood/food_and_mood-the_mind_guide


http://www.dascot.org/depression/treatment/food.php