Hew York City Schools Diet Study

A very revealing dietary study led to changes in the breakfasts and lunches
eaten daily by over 800,000 children at the 803 schools in the New York
City public schools from 1979 to 1983. (6) The amounts of sugar, synthetic
food colorings, synthetic flavors, and preservatives were reduced in the
meals served throughout the city school system.

Tracking back for a number of years before the study, the researchers found
that the academic test scores for the New York City schools never varied
more than 1 percent. The dietary changes, which were instituted gradually
over the four-year period, enabled the New York City public schools to
register an astounding 15.7-percent increase in the mean academic ranking,
measured against the rest of the nation's schools.

Another interesting and very important correlation revealed by this study
is that, before the dietary improvements were made, the schools where
students ate the most cafeteria-prepared meals had the lowest overall
academic performance within the New York City school system. After the
dietary revisions, this situation was reversed. The schools where students
ate the most cafeteria-prepared meals that were healthy had the highest
academic scores.

Another study, published in the January \9SS Lancet, showed that a
one-a-day vitamin pill taken throughout the school year by a group of
twelve- and thirteen-year-old British
schoolchildren produced increases in IQ scores. (1)

Studies like these indicate that most Americans are not getting the
nourishment they need from the standard American diet, the SAD diet.