The Interplay Between Nutrition and Development

Meal Times

At Cherry Tree, meal times are part of a ritual. A wave of calmness comes over the class, and we all sit quietly, waiting for the lunchtime candle to be lit. With the candlelight dancing around us, we sing a song and thank the earth to show appreciation for the colourful food on our plates.

Everyone at school, including the teachers, eats the same food (with a few exceptions on a case-by-case basis). During this time, students reflect on the day’s events, but most importantly, discuss their meal. Children talk about what they see on their plates, how it tastes, and what type of food (vegetable, fruit, grain, protein) it is. This allows children to consume their food mindfully, while also learning what type of food they need to eat every day to stay healthy.

Screen Free Zone

Cherry Tree is a screen-free zone. This means children have no access to screens throughout the day, and this is especially crucial at mealtimes. During lunch, children are encouraged to have discussions amongst themselves and with teachers. For example, children take great joy in listing all of the colours they can see on their plates. This develops children’s awareness of all the different vitamins and minerals around them, as well as the vitality of a vegetarian lifestyle.

By using healthy protein substitutes, such as tofu, beans, and chickpeas, children receive the nutrients they require for healthy growth. Research has shown that as long as a vegetarian diet provides a variety of plant-based foods and adequate protein, its benefits outweigh those of the standard diet. Moreover, teachers encourage children to feed themselves. By independently using utensils and serving themselves, children’s motor skills undergo a fine-tuning process.

This is in addition to children’s confidence and self-esteem being boosted. All children take great pride in the ritual of eating and cleaning up afterwards. Furthermore, by creating a safe space where children can get messy while eating, children feel confident in pouring themselves some water or helping themselves to more fruit and vegetables from the middle of the table. Therefore, lunchtime is not only a time to eat at Cherry Tree. It is a time when children can feel supported in their independence and self-development, as well as in their social skills.

Vegetarian Diet

Cherry Tree prides itself on its sustainable, earth-friendly, and colorful vegetarian diet. Vegetarian diets in childhood and adolescence have been associated with higher intakes of healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and proteins across development, and lower intakes of fast food, salt, sugar, and soda drinks. The standard Western diets, which rely heavily on salt, sugar, and meat intake, have very poor outcomes when examining later health, vitamin deficiencies, sub-optimal development, and obesity. To further underline the long-term benefits of a vegetarian diet, research has found that vegetarian adolescents perform better in endurance-based sports when compared to their omnivore counterparts.

Health First – The Imune System

Thus, at Cherry Tree, we see it as our responsibility to put children’s health first by providing them with colourful, healthy, and balanced vegetarian meals. To further emphasize the importance of nutrition and healthy food, a body of research highlights the relationships between the immune system, nutrition, and infectious diseases. These interact in a cyclical manner, where they feed into each other either positively or negatively. When children eat nutritious foods, their immune functioning improves and works effectively to prevent and fight infectious diseases. Due to this protection, the child’s body can thrive, further strengthening its immunity and nutritional absorption. However, when malnourished, the child’s immune functioning is inefficient, thus paving the way for infectious diseases. This in turn leads to a loss of vitamins, minerals, and crucial nutrients that further affect the body’s nutritional state and immunity.

Therefore, creating further susceptibility to more infectious diseases. This occurs not only in the more generalised state of malnutrition, but also in single nutrient deficiencies. Deficiencies in any nutrient lead to dysfunctions in the entire immune system. A fantastic advantage of the vegetarian diet, as underlined by research, has been the adaptive outcomes of an increased vitamin C intake, lower levels of cholesterol, higher levels of healthy fatty acids, and lower levels of saturated fatty acids. These benefits support children’s immune functioning and provide protection from infectious diseases, thus allowing children to grow in an optimal manner. Healthy fats are crucial in development, not only in the children’s growth, but especially in their brain development. The brain needs healthy fats to form synapses and neurons (the anatomical pathways in which brain areas communicate with each other), as well as to maintain optimal brain structure. In development, children’s brains grow at a uniquely fast speed, much quicker than at any other time in their lives.

Therefore, ensuring that our students eat flaxseeds, avocado, walnuts and soy products, all of which are rich in healthy fats, we are able to support their optimal brain development and growth. Vegetarian diets also have been found to lead to more diverse and thriving gut microbiomes. The gut microbiome is an incredibly complex organism that supports and protects the body in ways that are still being researched. However, what we do know is that what we eat affects our microbiome, which further impacts our immunity and wellbeing. These diverse gut microbiomes in vegetarians and vegans are associated with increased immunity, as well as increased blood-brain barrier integrity. The blood-brain barrier is crucial in monitoring what substances in our blood can pass into our brain, and thus affect our cognitive and neural functioning. Therefore, research suggests that plant-based diets not only improve immunity but also defend the state of our brain structure.

Summary

It is not only the teachers, atmosphere, materials, and resources at Cherry Tree that support children’s development. It is also the nutrition and the consideration given to mealtimes that allow children to relax and take time to be mindful about their food. We encourage children to develop their confidence, social skills, and calibrate their motor coordination, in order to ensure we are supporting their development into healthy and competent individuals. Every aspect of Cherry Tree is formed with children’s happiness, well-being, and health as the utmost priority. Our children are our future, and it is crucial that we provide them with the most advantageous foundation possible.