Improved Grades Correlate to Improved Fitness for Children

By Jason Knapfel for DietsInReview.com

A sedentary lifestyle has many health implications for children. For instance, nearly ten percent of all U.S. children have diabetes. Now this sedentary lifestyle is also being connected to a child's performance at school, which makes the fact that gym classes are being cut from curriculum even more destructive.

Researchers have found that when sedentary, overweight kids begin exercising, their performance in math and overall thinking and planning capabilities improve. Experts also correlate exercise to increased activity in the "executive function" part of the brain.

Researchers evaluated children using their standard achievement tests. Some even completed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The MRIs revealed that the children who exercised had more activity in the "executive function" area, which is where self-control, planning, reasoning and abstract thought are managed.

"We know that exercise is good for you, but we didn't have very good evidence that it would help children do better in school," Catherine Davis said, lead researcher and a clinical health psychologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta.

While the study examined overweight children, Davis believes similar results would be true for kids at healthy weights.

A growing concern in the U.S. is how we are being outperformed in education. When you recognize that a third of children in the U.S. are overweight, it's not a stretch to think that a strong contributor to their academic under-performance could be largely due to being out of shape. Now parents more than ever have two reasons to ensure their kids are healthy: they'll perform better at school, and they will learn a healthy lifestyle in the process.

Learn more about preparing for a healthy school year:

Gluten-Free Lunch Box Snacks Kids Will Love

8 Ways to Avoid the Sandwich Lunch Rut

Mom-Approved After-School Snack Ideas