Vitamins and Minerals: the Building Blocks of your Child

Your child's brain is like an elaborate stage productionmultivitamin supplement saw their non-verbal IQ scores
that needs hundreds of people working behind theincrease by more than ten points! Since the original
curtain to provide the supporting framework for thestudies, further research has been conducted using
main actors. The difference is that the brain utilizeslower, RDA levels of vitamins and minerals. These
vitamins and minerals as its supporting cast instead oflevels, while far lower than those used in the initial
lighting technicians and prop masters.study, still increased IQs by an average of nearly five
Vitamins and minerals are the architects of the brain,points.
creating and re-creating the brain and nervous system.Giving your child the best nutrition from the very
They grease the wheels of brain function bybeginning of his or her life can reap endless benefits.
performing the basic work of transformation in theJust in case you?re skeptical of the impact vitamins
brain, making neurotransmitters from amino acids,and minerals can have early on, a 16-year study by the
energy from glucose, complex fats (GLA or DHA)Medical Research Council should put your doubts to
from simple fats, and phospholipids from choline andrest. Four hundred twenty four premature babies were
serine.fed with either an average milk formula or a formula
In the early 1980s, Gwillym Roberts, a teacher andsupplemented with additional vitamins, minerals and
nutritional therapist from the Institute for Optimumprotein. At 18 months of age, the babies who had been
Nutrition, and Professor David Benton, a psychologistfed the enriched formula were doing considerably
from Swansea University, developed a study to chartbetter than those who had been given the average
the effect of vitamins and minerals on the intelligencemilk, and at eight years of age, the children who had
levels of schoolchildren. Thirty children were given ataken the enriched formula had IQs up to 14 points
specially designed multivitamin and mineral supplementhigher!
containing a high level of crucial nutrients. Thirty childrenSo, why do IQ scores increase with vitamin and
were given a placebo.mineral consumption? One possible explanation is that
The research results were published in a 1988 editionchildren think more quickly and focus their attention for
of The Lancet. After eight months in the study, nolonger periods of time when they ingest essential levels
differences were noted in the children who wereof nutrients.
taking the placebos, while those consuming the