Chapul Blog: nutrition, recipes, and and current events for the Chapul adventurer — Vegetarian

In 2001 U.S. researchers studied a group of 5398 children who were attending school, searching for possible links between academic success and nutrition. Although important micronutrients such as Vitamin B12 are often implicated in these kinds of studies, The results of a 2001 study on a group 5,000 US elementary school students were somewhat alarming: lower math scores correlated strongly with iron deficiency (IDA). In fact, researchers calculated that children with an iron deficiency “had greater than twice the risk of scoring below average in math than did children with normal iron status.” Although  Appreciating the impact of iron levels on cognition and other biological processes is important because IDA is the most common nutritional deficiency in the U.S. Aside...

 Vitamin B12-deficiency is linked to the depression, dementia, and unhealthy aging. Dietary sources remain the gold standard, but pay attention to the finer details. Absorption and bioavailability matter.    According to the Anxiety and Depression Association, depression is “the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44,” affecting about 6.7% of the U.S. population. When thinking more generally about neurological disorders, the figure is much higher. In Europe it’s estimated that “neuropsychiatric diseases make up approximately 35% of the total burden of disease in Europe.“ [1] Neurologists are discovering that, despite their very different origins, many of these diseases involve improperly functioning metabolic pathways, largely due to poor nutrition. Within this context, one of the...