Iron: essential to healthy brain function
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...