It's a fact that what we eat affects who we are. Most people know that what is put into our bodies on a daily basis will always come back to bite us or reward us. However, many people mindlessly fill their bodies with unhealthy foods and then wonder why they feel that way. Some search for why they feel so bad, but overlook the fact that the cause may be in the bag of Doritos next to them. Nutrition plays a vital role in our lives and manifests directly through daily cognitive abilities, overall quality of life, and even lifelong cognitive development. The development of the mind is a constant process. It is the continuous and ever-changing source of all human knowledge. Everyone grows and learns differently, so it is very difficult to find, or even collect, accurate data corresponding to mental health and development on a large scale. However, the easiest place to find information like this is in schools. Students are subject to constant monitoring and objective evaluation on a daily basis, and elementary students in particular offer treasures of developmental data that we can use to make inferences about a number of independent variables, one of which is food intake throughout the course of the day. a normal school day. In the first years of a child's life, it is important for optimal growth that he or she receives better nutrition and better learning opportunities. Not only are these two factors independently crucial to early development, but they have been said to have a direct correlation. Among the plethora of findings gleaned from a 2011 study by Kate Northstone et al are “novel associations between early childhood eating patterns and current diet, with… half of paper… ec 2013 .Gropper, Sareen Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2008. eBook. Mozes, Alan. 01 Dec 2013.Northstone, Kate. “Are Eating Patterns in Childhood Associated with IQ at 8 Years of Age? A population-based cohort study." J Epidemial Community Health 66. (2012): 624-628. Database. 01 December 2013. Ross, Julia. The Mood Cure. California: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.Stanley , Jonathan. "Diet and its effects on emotional well-being and mental health". National Children's Office (2006): n.pag. BCN. Database. 01 Dec 2013. Widenhorn-Muller, Katharina on cognitive performance and mood in high school students aged 13 to 20 years: results of a crossover study". Pediatrics 122.2 (2007): 279-284. Database. 01 December 2013.