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Executive function and dietary intake in youth: A systematic review of the literature
Trends in obesity research regard executive function (EF) to play a role in modulating dietary consumption, however, recent evidence points towards a two-directional relationship between diet and EF. To date, the level of understanding behind how obesity impacts EF in children remains insufficient. This systematic review by Egbert et al. (2019) outlines the available cross-sectional, longitudinal, and interventional literature on the relationship between diet and domains of executive function (namely, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition) in young people. The 26 studies that met inclusion criteria did not demonstrate a conclusive result, which could be potentially explained by the heterogeneity of methods used to evaluate diet and EF, in addition to not accounting for participant weight classification. However, a degree of evidence on a cross-sectional relationship between diet and executive function did exist, but the direction of such relationships could not be corroborated due to the lack of longitudinal results to support their findings. Finally, intervention studies did not demonstrate a beneficial impact of using diet to modulate EF. The authors conclude that further research adopting a standardized framework (in terms of EF domains, age, weight, and development) is necessary to draw the appropriate conclusions. [NPID: Obesity, executive function, literature review, dietary intervention]
Year: 2019
