Do kids who eat right earn more as adults?
Say what?
A new study shows that kids who were given proper nutrition during the first two years of life out-earned their nutritionally-deprived peers by 50 percent as adults. That’s surprising, even though earlier studies reported that kids who ate better early on were more productive in adulthood.
This is the first direct evidence that eating well as an infant and toddler translates into greater earning potential as an adult, according to the study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet.
About 200 million children in less developed nations pay a terrible price for not getting the right foods when aged one and two, the period when nutrition is most critical for future health.
Iron and iodine deficiencies, for example, can lead to stunted growth, poor cognitive development and energy-sapping anaemia. Such handicaps prevents children from realising their full potential.
This study was conducted in Guatemala, and the results only seemed to apply for men - but consider that there aren’t as many economic opportunities for women in that area. Also, the men with better nutrition as young children didn’t outscore their peers academically as adults, so nutrition didn’t seem to play as large a role in actual cognitive ability. I just thought this study was interesting, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Posted by Sunshine.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:42 am
The article made it sound like the men earned more because they were stronger/healthier and could do jobs that required strength/stamina. So perhaps this only applies to countries where that ability is required to get a good job. I’d like to see a study like that in a country where higher earners often have desk jobs rather than doing physical labor.