Ask Dr Nerenberg | Health and Fitness

I need help finding opposing viewpoints? I can’t find any for my paper about how nutrition affects learning?

I’m writing a research paper for AP English and I have to include at least 2 sources that have opposing viewpoints. One problem, I can’t find any.

What you will have to do is look at specifics within the arguments to find counter-arguments. There are several studies that have shown consuming too much food also has a negative impact on cognitive learning and social skills. There is a report that shows that although vitamin deficiencies are a problem, simply raising the levels of consumption of those vitamins, through food or supplements, would have to impact on the results; this then begs the question and provides the counter argument that perhaps it isn’t the vitamin that is the issue.

Also look at the different studies and see how they dealt with external factors, such as environment, parent education level and involvement, these can impact learning and if not taken into account in the study could skew the results leaving it open questions of nutrition being the affect on learning.

Breakfast and performance. S. Cueto. Public Health Nutrition, 4(6A): 1429-31. 2001.
NAL Call Number: RA784-P83 is a study that looks at breakfast and performance and finds that the connection is not as clear cut as others say it is. Remember a counter argument doesn’t have to be the complete opposite (A says it is black and B says it is white) it can be the argument that one side is giving too much weight to a specific factor or looking at it in the wrong way ( the glass is half full/empty, counter no you just have a glass twice the size you need it to be)

Nutritional influences on cognitive function: mechanisms of susceptibility. E.L. Gibson and M.W. Green. Nutrition Research Reviews, 15(1): 169-206. 2002.
NAL Call Number: QP141.A1N87 looks at how what you eat has an impact so is high-protein better than high-carb, what about the concept of balanced diets.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/service/learning.pdf gives a list of papers and websites that deal with the issue so you might find something in there that will help.

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