Added sugar and dietary fiber consumption are associated with creativity in preadolescent children

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Creativity requires the ability to combine existing mental representations in new ways and depends, in part, on the hippocampus. Hippocampal function is, in turn, affected by a number of health factors, including aerobic fitness, excess adiposity, and diet. Specifically, in rodent studies, diets high in saturated fatty acids and sugar – hallmarks of a western diet– have been shown to negatively impact hippocampal function and thereby impair performance on cognitive tasks that require the hippocampus. Yet relatively few studies have examined the relationship between diet and hippocampal-dependent cognition in children.

Methods: The current study therefore sought to explore the relationship of several diet quality markers including dietary lipids (saturated fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids), simple carbohydrates (added sugars), and dietary fiber with creativity in preadolescent children. Participants (N = 57; mean age = 9.1 years) completed the Verbal Form of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), a standardized test of creativity known to require the hippocampus. Additionally, participants completed a 3-day food intake record with the assistance of a parent, underwent dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to assess central adiposity, and VO₂max testing to assess aerobic fitness.

Results: Added sugar intake was negatively associated, and dietary fiber was positively associated with overall TTCT performance. These relationships were sustained even after controlling for key covariates.

Discussion: These findings are among the first to report an association between added sugar consumption and hippocampal-dependent cognition during childhood and, given the key role of the hippocampus in learning and memory, as well as creative thinking, have potential educational and public health implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Creativity
• hippocampus
• Western diet
• added sugar
• dietary fiber
• development
• childhood
• nutrition

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jeanine Bensken and Linda Steinberg for recruiting and scheduling participants, and Sarah Zola, Caitlyn Edwards, Alicia Covello, and Morgan Chojnacki for assisting with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Kelsey M. Hassevoort is a postdoctoral research associate with the Center for Brain Plasticity. She earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois in 2018 and has cultivated an interdisciplinary program of research that investigates the relationship between physical health factors – including aerobic fitness, body composition, and nutrition – and hippocampal function throughout the lifespan. To explore these relationships, she utilizes multiple methods, including behavioral, eye-tracking, physiological, and structural neuroimaging techniques.

Anna S. Lin earned a B.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Illinois in 2018.

Dr Naiman A. Khan’s research interest is in the area of Nutritional Neuroscience. His laboratory utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to integrate knowledge in the disciplines of dietetics, body composition, and cognitive neuroscience to understand the interactions between lifestyle behaviors (e.g. diet and physical activity), abdominal adiposity, and cognitive and brain health in the pediatric and adult population. The knowledge gained from this work is used to develop effective behavioral or environmental strategies of mitigating the detrimental effects of obesity and metabolic risk on measures of physical and mental health.

Dr Charles H. Hillman received his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 2000, and then began his career on the faculty at the University of Illinois, where he was a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health for 16 years. He continued his career at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he currently holds appointments in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Health Sciences. He directs the new Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, which has the mission of understanding the role of health behaviors on brain and cognition to maximize health and well-being, and promote the effective functioning of individuals across the lifespan. Dr Hillman has published more than 170 refereed journal articles, 10 book chapters, and co-edited a text entitled “Functional neuroimaging in exercise and sport sciences”. He has served on an Institute of Medicine of the National Academies committee entitled Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School, and is currently a member of the 2018 Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for American’s Advisory Committee. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), and several private sponsors. Finally, his work has been featured in the media including: CNN, National Public Radio, Good Morning America, Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times.

Neal J. Cohen is Professor in the Department of Psychology, the Neuroscience Program, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, and the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He serves as (founding) Director of the Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory (CNLM), a public–private partnership between the University of Illinois and Abbott Laboratories that is the nation’s first nutritional neuroscience research center, in addition to his role as (founding) Director of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), supporting efforts to catalyze, facilitate, enhance, and coordinate health sciences-related research activities at Illinois. Dr Cohen’s work on the cognitive neuroscience of memory has been instrumental in the discovery and characterization of multiple memory systems of the brain, and has advanced the development of novel methods and paradigms for assessing memory in various populations and in interventions aimed at improving memory and cognition. Dr Cohen is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) [grant number HD069381] (to CHH), and by the University of Illinois and Abbott Nutrition through the Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory (CNLM) [grant number ANGC1206] (to NJC).