An infant is not born with a brain completely built like the heart. The brain continues to be built after birth. From the moment of pregnancy until a child is two and a half, there is a 1,000-day period of very rapid brain growth.
After about nine months, the primary foundations are laid down but the days that follow are also critical. And how the infant's brain is nourished can have an impact on their ability to learn complex problem-solving skills.
This 1,000-day period is a very big opportunity for parents to ensure they secure the best foundations for the cognitive development of their baby.
Dr. DeLong explains that access to healthy food is the most significant environmental influence on babies in the womb and during infancy. In short, poor food directly reduces brain development. And this can cause reduced brain developmental and IQ potential. This is linked to the fact that homo sapiens have been a hungry species since the dawn of time. Most of our ancestors were hungry. Life was feast or famine—mainly famine. But we survived and our species has flourished, even with the relatively limited access to food.
Today, in many places, the situation has pretty much reversed—fridges are always full and this leads to obesity. However, in countries like the USA and the UK, malnutrition remains the major challenge as people are eating too much of the bad stuff. Most people eat too much poor quality food and tend to hand these habits over to their offspring. This influences the Gut-Brain Axis. Recent research on the Gut-Brain Axis by Dr. James Graham has provided evidence that the health of gut microbiota directly influences brain function.
Many neural pathways are involved in communication between the gut microbiota and the brain, but this is a topic for another blog post. The point here is that poor diet directly reduces brain function, and in turn slows down neural development in this critical 1,000 window. You may have heard the phrase “You are what you eat." This quote can be traced back to a book in 1826: The Physiology of Taste by Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. He wrote, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” He said that if you eat healthy foods you will also be healthy—and vice versa. This is obvious now, but it was not the case in the 1800s.
The problem today is about food type selection and volume. In the past, high-calorie foods were not readily available. So, when our ancestors found high-calorie foods like honey or bananas, they gorged. These calories were stored for when there was famine, which was pretty much most of the time.
As mentioned, times have changed, in fact, reversed. Over 99 million are overweight (45 million women and 54 million men) in 2016. The statistics showed that about 39.6% of American adults were obese. This is over a third of the population! Obesity is directly correlated with overnutrition and poor food selection. And this is where the developing baby-brain comes in. For children, obesity goes up to almost 20%. That is 13.7 million 2- to 5-year-olds, which is a monumental concern as it impairs physical and cognitive development, according to Dr. David Perlmutter and Carol Colman.
The wrong kinds of foods can ruin cognitive and overall healthy development. Unhealthy and processed foods have even shown to destroy brain cells. So, what can be done to ensure that a child has their full brain potential actualized?
OK—first the good news—helping a child grow to be healthy is easier than you think. Homo sapiens in the past have obviously been doing something right to get us here. Now there is an opportunity to further enhance the growing brain’s functions and improve IQ. For this to occur, eating the right food is mandatory. For example, certain foods can be used to stimulate and improve memory. Eggs are a great protein source. The yolk has a lot of choline, which may be beneficial for memory.
In an infant study by Dr. Willatts and colleagues, a group of babies and their mothers were split into two subgroups. Half the babies in the study were in the control group and these babies received standard infant formula. The second group of babies got the same formula but with DHA, arachidonic acids added. These are supplements have ingredients derived from vegetable oils, fats, egg lipids, and other animal fats.
Babies in the control and study group both played the same game of their mother hiding a toy. The study group who got the supplement was found to be more effective in finding the toy. This suggests that the group was more effective at problem-solving than the control group who did not receive the DHA-supplemented formula.
The findings indicate that parents would do well to include essential fatty acids into infant nutrition. Obviously pregnant or lactating women should consult with their health care providers before taking any supplements. Of course, the toddlers on the study were too young to complete an IQ test, but it could help a toddler find that lost bunny quicker.
Every parent’s job is to do whatever it takes to build the best brain possible for their child. Food is a key indicator, but so is the environment, caregivers' care, cognitive challenge, as well as peer and other social experiences. There are countless opportunities to make your child smarter, happier, and better prepared to excel. It all starts with finding time to pay intelligent attention. Food is a key ingredient. Nutrition improves cognition! Maybe that's food for thought?
