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Why Children With Food on the Brain Fail to Learn

Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

OBESITY could damage a child's ability to learn, scientists claimed yesterday.

Researchers have found that a hormone helps brain cells to communicate with each other an essential part of learning and remembering new information.

But the hormone, called leptin, also tells the body when it has had enough food and those who eat too much become 'resistant' to it because so much is produced.

Dr Jenni Harvey, who led the study at Dundee University's Neurosciences Institute, said she was worried about the rise in childhood obesity as it could have potentially serious effects on still-developing brains.

Obese adults have a 75 per cent greater chance of developing dementia, while women have a 200 per cent greater chance, surveys have shown.

Dr Harvey said more work needed to be done but added that it did appear that leptin was more than an appetite suppressant.

She added: 'Leptin levels are related to food content in your body.

If you are lean, you have low levels.

But if you are obese, you have very high levels and you become almost leptin-resistant.

'People sitting in front of the TV eating loads are increasing the likelihood of becoming resistant to leptin.' Dr Harvey said this could prove to be a problem, as leptin's other role is in helping brain cells to communicate with each other.

Her research team found that when leptin was given to rats, it improved communication between brain cells.

Dr Harvey said: 'There isn't any direct evidence in humans but I think that's more because clinicians haven't really looked at it.' She added: 'The worrying scenario is that childhood obesity is becoming more prevalent. If there is a chance this causes cognitive impairment, what are the implications for a developing brain in children?' Dr David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, described the findings as a 'fascinating theory'.

However, he said he would not be convinced until it was shown that leptin affected humans' as well as rodents' ability to learn things and remember them.

He added: 'It will take a lot more research to make me believe it in humans, but all the great clinical discoveries have started in rats in a lab.' Separate research has shown children in Scotland are facing a weight crisis, with one in five P7 pupils clinically obese. Almost one in ten youngsters are obese when they begin primary school but by the time they leave seven years later the number has doubled.

Figures show 9.2 per cent of four and five-year-olds and 18.4 per cent of P7 pupils are seriously overweight.

Tayside has the worst record, with one in three pupils classed as obese when they leave primary school.

Argyll has the poorest record among young children more than one in ten youngsters aged four to five are obese.

The figures, published by the Scottish Executive earlier this year, raised fresh concerns over the quality of school meals and the lack of physical education In response, the Executive ordered school inspectors to crack down on junk food served in schools.

Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)

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