The Global Food and Environment Institute are delighted to invite you to join our February 2021 webinar ‘Implications of food security (nutrition) for the academic & cognitive performance and nutritional status of children & adolescents'.

This will be a 20 minute webinar presented by Professor Louise Dye, followed by 10 minutes for Q&A.

Professor Louise Dye is Professor of Nutrition and Behaviour in the School of Psychology, University of Leeds. Louise is N8 Chair in Theme 3 (Improved Nutrition and Consumer Behaviour) and Academic Lead for the University of Leeds of the N8 Agrifood Programme.

She sits on BBSRC Strategy Board for Biosciences for an Integrated Understanding of Health, chairing their working group on Neuroscience and Mental Health and is a member of BBSRC’s Diet and Health Research Industry club (DRINC) Steering Group. She is Associate Editor of Nutritional Neuroscience and the European Journal of Nutrition. Her research interests include functional foods for wellbeing, stress management, mental health and cognitive performance/decline and in altered metabolic states such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. She has published influential systematic reviews and studies of the effects of breakfast on academic, cognitive and behavioural outcomes in children and adolescents.

Food insecurity is increasing in the UK, fuelled by austerity and now the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic which is increasing the number of families in poverty. Foodbank use is at an all time high and access to government schemes such as vouchers have proved problematic. Applications for free school meals increased by 1m in the month of October and celebrities such as Marcus Rashford MBE have implored the government to act. Our research on the effects of breakfast on cognitive function and academic performance is relevant to this debate. Our research provided the underpinning evidence for the SchoolBreakfastBill presented by Emma Lewell-Buck MP to Parliament on 13th October 2020 and for MagicBreakfast/Family Action’s bid for continued support of the National School Breakfast programme.

This seminar will give an overview of this evidence and of the impact that food insecurity could have on children’s academic potential, drawing on experimental, school based and local data which illustrates the effect of providing adequate nutrition for cognitive and psychological health.

The seminar will be chaired by Dr Bernadette Moore, Associate Professor of Obesity and leads the 15 academics in the Nutritional Sciences & Epidemiology Research Group within the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds.