Skipping breakfast, failing exams: Shocking link no one talks about

Time of India

8 hours ago

Here's what Japan got right about school lunch and why India must follow (Image: Pexels)
In a typical Indian classroom, children learn how to calculate compound interest, dissect frogs, recite Shakespeare and yet, many will graduate without ever learning how to fuel their own bodies.
They will leave school knowing the capital of Venezuela but not the consequences of skipping breakfast. We have managed to make food, the very thing that sustains life, an afterthought in education. This blind spot is not just ironic. It is dangerous.
A crisis that begins on the plate
Nutrition is not just about food, it is about futures. In an interview with TOI, Dr Saiyam Sahni, Director at The Beacon School in Gurugram, shared, "Poor nutrition in childhood is linked not only to stunted growth and weakened immunity, but to diminished cognitive ability, mood disorders, chronic disease and even academic underperformance.
In India, we are witnessing both ends of the malnutrition spectrum: children who are undernourished and children who are overfed but undernourished — living on a diet of ultra-processed, high-calorie, nutrient-empty foods.
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They know Algebra but not how to eat: The crisis in Indian classrooms (Image: Pexels)
In this context, banning junk food from school canteens or hosting the occasional 'Fruit Day' is like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. According to Dr Saiyam Sahni, the real solution lies in equipping children with the tools to understand why food matters—not just biologically, but culturally, psychologically and ethically.
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From curriculum gaps to cognitive gaps
Most school curricula treat nutrition as a footnote in science textbooks — wedged between digestion and photosynthesis, never to be revisited. There's no critical thinking around food, no space to ask:
Why do I crave chips when I'm sad?
What does iron really do for my body?
Why do certain communities eat what they eat—and why does it matter?
This absence is not just an academic gap. It is a cognitive one. The ability to make conscious, informed food choices is a foundational life skill and we are not teaching it.
Making nutrition a core subject
Imagine a world where children learn how to read nutrition labels the way they learn to read poetry—closely, thoughtfully, critically.
Where understanding gut health is as normalised as learning algebra. Where students explore food through the lens of science, culture, sustainability and social justice.
From timetables to tiffins: Here's why schools must teach food literacy (Image: Pexels)
Dr Saiyam Sahni opined that a core subject in nutrition could teach students how:
Macronutrients and micronutrients influence learning, sleep and emotions.
Cultural food systems are tied to identity, history and climate.
Cooking isn't a gendered chore, but an act of agency.
Mindful eating can help prevent disordered eating patterns in adolescence.
He asserted that such an approach would not moralise food — it would deconstruct it, humanise it and return its complexity to the classroom because a packet of instant noodles is not just dinner — it is convenience, marketing, socioeconomic context and sometimes, necessity.
The role of schools (and why it is not just about the cafeteria)
Schools are not just venues for learning—they are ecosystems of habit formation. Children spend six to eight hours a day in school, eat at least one meal there and internalise patterns of behaviour from their peers and role models. If we only focus on academic literacy and neglect food literacy, we are failing them.
Rethink school: Teach nutrition like we teach Math (Image: Pexels)
Dr Saiyam Sahni suggested, "A progressive school should make nutrition a cross-disciplinary concern—not a subject siloed to health class.
Math can be taught through reading recipes. History through traditional diets. Environmental studies through food waste. Psychology through emotional eating. The possibilities are endless—if we allow them to be."
A new policy imperative
Countries like Japan have long treated nutrition education as a national priority, with measurable outcomes in student health, behaviour and academic engagement. Dr Saiyam Sahni recommended, "India, too, must rise to meet this moment.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 speaks of 'holistic and multidisciplinary education.' Let's ensure food isn't left out of that equation. We need central and state boards to recognize nutrition education not as a soft subject, but a scientific and social necessity.
We need teacher training programs that address food literacy. We need school leaders to rethink timetables and policymakers to fund curriculum innovation that integrates nutrition across grades and disciplines."
Food is power. Let us teach children to use it
What we eat shapes how we think, feel, grow and connect. It shapes the kind of adults our children will become — resilient or reactive, self-aware or susceptible, nourished or numb and yet, we are sending them into the world with hardly any education on how to use this everyday power wisely.
It is time to stop treating nutrition as a one-day workshop or a PTA talking point. It is time to teach it—systematically, scientifically and sensitively because food is not an extracurricular activity. It is life's most consistent teacher and it belongs at the heart of every classroom.