It is a well known fact that junk food is not good for health; however a new research reveals it is also bad for your child’s IQ.

The study in UK collected data about eating habits of 4000 children over 6 years. It  was found that three year old children who had a diet high in fat and sugar had lower IQ  five years later as compared to those who had a balanced healthier diet at age three. So if a child ate a diet comprising high amounts of processed food and heavy on sugar and fat at age three, five years later, at age eight to eight and a half, there was a small decrease in their IQ levels.

Alternatively children who had a healthy diet at the age of three had a small increase in their IQ  by age 8.5

Another interesting fact the study showed was that what a child ate at ages four and seven had less of an effect on intelligence than the child’s diet before age three.

The results were published Journal of Epidemiological Community Health