Children are much better at math when they eat healthy, exercise: Maastricht researchers

School children perform much better in mathematics if they eat a healthy lunch at school and exercise more, a study by Maastricht University found. The researchers were surprised by how big the effect was, they told RTL Nieuws.

The researchers looked at data from a previous study into the influence of healthy food and exercise on school children’s general health. The study looked at children in eight primary schools between 2015 and 2020. At two schools, pupils were given a healthy lunch and exercised more. Two other schools only had extra exercise. The other four had everything remain the same.

The first study already made clear that a good diet and more exercise resulted in healthier children with less belly fat. The new study looked at how the children performed in their mathematics and language tests.

“We were really surprised by the results: the children were already doing better in math after a year and those effects continued,” professor Onno van Schayck of Maastricht University told RTL. “We expected a difference, but not so quickly and not so clearly.”

After just one year, the children at the two schools with healthy lunches and extra exercise performed better on the mathematics tests. After four years, they did much better than the pupils at the schools where everything remained the same.

With language development, there was no difference. Van Schayck was not too surprised about that. “You partly develop language skills at home. Children often practice words and sentences with their parents, but mathematics is less often done together.”

Providing a healthy lunch is not possible for all families, so Van Schayck believes it is important that more schools start serving them. He urged the government to intervene. The government allocated 135 million euros for meals at school this year. “That is mainly about a full stomach,” the professor said. “It is important that the food is also healthy.”