How to eat yourself to better exam success!

Hi there, my name's Caroline Cavanagh, and I'm here today with the lovely Amy Richmond. And the reason we're talking today is because I know the impact that food has on a person's mood. Now, if you've got a teenager in your house that's facing exams at the moment, the chances are the stress levels are rising. You've got that situation where one minute they're, love you, Mummy, and the next minute they're slamming doors. And a lot of that is contributed to by the diet that you have. And I know myself, having teenagers in my house, how they react differently depending on the food that they've had. My daughter will say, I've been working really hard, and go and forage for the, for the Diet Coke or the chocolate bars. And as a mother, I'm thinking, oh, I know that's not the right thing that they should be eating, but at this time I don't want to add to that layer of stress by saying, no, you can't have that. So Amy, tell us how the impact of food has on our body's chemistry. Are we really damaging our children by having those sort of treats that we say, oh, well done, have a piece of cake? How can we as parents really help them through what we serve them in terms of their food?

Well, it's a really good question, and thank you for setting up this whole group really, because it's something that I see a lot of children, far too many children coming in that have ended up with digestive issues, psychological problems, sleep problems, all sorts of things starting with anxiety from exam stress. So when it comes to food, it is actually key. We are what we eat.

Yeah.

So we are literally made up of the food that we eat. So the food that we eat controls how our cells are made up, it goes in to make up our tissues, and it goes in to make up our bones. So Everything that we eat creates who we are, and you know yourself, if you don't eat well, you have these low moods, bouts of fatigue, and children are exactly the same. They are our mini-mes, aren't they? They are our smaller versions, so they are feeling what we feel when, when we've eaten badly. So at this time when— it's always important to eat healthily, obviously I wouldn't say that, but at this key time it is so important. So it makes such a big difference, and this isn't about getting better grades. No. If you change the way you eat now and include some great foods in your diet, some lovely superfoods, things like that, you may perform better on the day, but the key thing is you get through this without causing your body any harm, any adrenal burnout.

Mm-hmm.

You really want to get through this as psychologically unscarred as you possibly can, so this is about kindness to yourself and not about achieving massive great results because you've swapped a chocolate bar for extra kale. This is not necessarily how it works. However, when you reduce the inflammation in the body, your body does respond better.

Yeah, I think that's a really important point. It's about creating an environment to allow your child to do the best that they can do. It's not by eating a load of omega-3— I think it's something that a lot of people are aware of, brain food— by suddenly piling that into them, it's not going to turn them from a C grade to an A grade.

Yeah.

But it is all about optimising so they can be the best that they can be. We buy them the books, we make their study environment, but often I think we don't think about what we're putting inside because food is fuel, isn't it? And if you put in rubbish fuel, the output is not going to be as good.

Yeah.

So, but as you say, I think that's really valid as well, this is not the time to suddenly say, right, out with chocolate, out with fizzy drinks, Because, you know, that level of change in a stressful environment is— could be the thing that proverbially breaks the camel's back. So what are the subtle things that you can do that can really help create this optimal environment?

So it's a really good point you made there, that by changing everything now and saying, gosh, you know, Caroline and Naomi are right, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna change everything in the cupboards— that's a lot of stress. So if your child currently has a sugary cereal for breakfast, maybe sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bar for lunch and maybe more of a processed supper with extra cake and treats around. They're used to a high-sugar diet, so going home and changing everything now is actually going to be very stressful.

Put them in shock almost, doesn't it?

It will release more cortisol. Also, they'll feel like they're being punished. So because we use food as a reward— that's a whole other show in and of itself— but because that's part of our society and our culture, we have to be really careful that this is not seen as any sort of punishment.

Mm-hmm.

So in terms of making small changes and making sure that we can look after our children at this time, we really need to look at reducing the sugars slowly and subtly and also increasing the good fats. So that's really, really important for brain health, brain function, and for all-over happy mood. We want to release serotonin and And we want them to achieve the best that they can, be the best version that they can be. And this is what we're doing then by some of the practical tips we're going to mention now in terms of helping our children through this. Perhaps this is the first time you've not been able to help your child.

Yeah.

You've done a lot of the coursework, you've helped bake the cakes, colour in the artwork, you've done a lot, and this is the first time you're having to let them go out alone. And that can be very overwhelming for us.

Yeah.

And don't forget they watch how we eat. So no good giving them a lovely organic dinner and then going, I'm so stressed about these exams, and drinking a bottle of wine and eating yourself silly on ice cream, because they're watching that and saying, well, that's how mummy copes with stress.

Yeah.

So also remember that you are a role model. So I think it's important to sit the child down, depending on the age of that child as well, And the type of child that you have. And you know yourself whether you have an anxious, fretful child that's going through this stage now displaying signs that they're really suffering with stress, or if you have a child that's sailing through this whole process and doesn't know what all the fuss is about. You know how to position things with your children. So where possible, try and educate them as to why you're going to put some of these changes in place now.

Get their buy-in into it.

This is right, yeah, yeah.

And a technique that I often use that I find really helpful is coming up with some sort of metaphor or analogy that they can relate to. So it may be something like, okay, we've created your bedroom in a study area that really works for you, we've done this for you, and now this is just another thing. It's talking about how you can manage how you eat, and perhaps talking about it in terms of fuel. If you put good fuel in that feeds your brain, your brain's going to work better.

Mm-hmm.

So it's not that whole, I'm taking the nice things away, it's I'm giving you things that will actually help you do things. So finding a metaphor, analogy, that actually they kind of go, oh yeah, I understand now why. And it is from now until the end of exams. How you manage it after that is your own choice.

Mm-hmm.

But it's getting them in that environment that's gonna, for the few weeks, months that it may be until they finish their exams, that's contributing to them performing the best that they can. You know, I think it would be false to think that by eating a packet of omega-3 seeds they're going to go from a C grade to an A grade.

Yeah.

But if they are an A-grade potential, that perhaps creating these environments, helping them make those changes and giving them also responsibility for their own changes as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think is a really important thing to do.

And I think that's— I think you're right, it's about taking charge for themselves. So there isn't much we can do for them. We can't walk in and do the exam for them. We can make sure that they've got the right foods at home, the right snacks at home, and that they're eating regularly. So those are the key points. The right foods going in, the wrong foods coming out of your diet, and then making sure that you're eating regularly as well. So there's a few ways in which we would do that. So going on to the sort of practical side of how we can change things now. So really important to look at 3 meals a day and at least 2 snacks. We don't want the body becoming hungry, and that's because that's such a distraction. You know, when you start to feel grumbly and hungry, it's such a distraction. Also what it says is our blood sugars have dipped down again. So what we want to do is make sure that you have— try and do a bit of planning. So planning out 3 meals a day, at least 2 snacks, maybe 3 or 4 depending on the age and the size of your child. My son's 16, 6 foot 2. There's quite a few snacks! There's a lot of snacks that go into growing a child that big. But we pace them out, we space them out rather, so that they're not— if you put a whole bowl of snacks in front of a child, depending on the child, they may mindlessly go through 3 or 4 of these great energy bars straight away.

Yep.

So again, our responsibility as parents is to try and help educate them as to why we're spacing out those snacks and why we're eating at certain times. So if we start breakfast, for example, and we look at making a small change. So let's say your child currently has Coco Pops. No judgment here, okay? Any brand as well, whichever cereal brand, but a higher sugar cereal. So let's say they're having that. You can start straight away, you can start tomorrow, and you might want to continue this after the exams as well, on choosing a less inflammatory, less sugar-pumped product. So examples of that would be, as Caroline's already said, great, great, great fatty acid omega-3. So So we want to include more omega-3 in our diet. The reason for that is it's an anti-inflammatory, so it really helps calm everything down in the body, in a simplistic version, and it also helps all our body function better. So it's like an oiling from the inside out. So what you're doing is you're oiling all your joints, you're oiling your brain, and everything is functioning better. So again, if we want to talk about analogies, and perhaps you've got a boy that you're dealing with, And you want to talk about, do you want to be a Ferrari or do you want to be a Fiat? Nothing wrong with Fiats, nothing wrong with them, but you get my point. Race car or a standard road car, let's say that.

Yeah.

So what you say to them is, it's all about the, the fuel that you're putting into your engine here. So what we want to do is put it with good, good fuel. So omega-3 is really the way to go in terms of increasing that. So let's start with breakfast and swapping that to something that contains eggs would be brilliant. Organic where possible because much higher version of quantity rather of omega-3 in organic eggs than there is in other eggs.

Interesting.

So you need to be careful of getting a good quality. Spend a bit more and you get a lot, lot more in terms of the good fats. So omelettes, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, doesn't matter how you're going to do it, but try and include eggs. If your child will not have eggs, then try and include some of the seeds and nuts. Preferably not peanuts because peanuts are quite high in omega-6. So it's very difficult to get our balance quite right, but too high levels of omega-6 can then end up being inflammatory as well. So if you think, ah, nuts, I know my child always loves a bag of roasted salted nuts, that's not quite what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

So I'm talking about plain organic nuts. So it's easier to sprinkle those Perhaps chop them up and sprinkle them over Weetabix or Shredded Wheat, some of the lower sugar breakfasts. So let's try and swap to those. Porridge oats are great as well, slower release of energy. So we're looking for higher fibre, slower release, and less sugar in our breakfast. So start with one meal and then we move on throughout the day.

Okay.

So snack-wise, so if you want to look at mid-morning snacks and things like that. So we need carbohydrates for energy, so they're going to need plenty of that. We need protein for growth and repair and also to stop us feeling full— stop us feeling full? No, create us feeling full and to stop us feeling hungry. And we need good fats to help satiate the body and also stop those hunger cravings and blood sugar levels dropping. So when we talk about high sugar foods, we look at foods that spike our GI, our glycemic index, and what happens then is what comes up has to go down. And we've all seen what happens after a sugar crash, especially with younger children, where it's absolutely mega, and they get— that can affect your sleep. It can also really affect your bowels right now as well. So we really want to reduce sugar in terms of making sure everything works better as well. So for snacks, look at real food. So look at fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, real live foods. If your children will munch on a boiled egg, great, just leave some cold in the fridge. If that's too much of a change and they're used to a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate and you say, if I come up to them with a bag of seeds, they're going to think I've gone mad, then just make a small change. You can cut up an apple, dry it out, with sprinklings of cinnamon and make little apple crisps. They're really sweet and tasty, or you can buy a bag of apple crisps. All of the supermarkets now do sweet potato crisps. You can get fruit crisps, so you can get dried-out raspberries, strawberries, dehydrated broccoli pieces, all sorts of different changes, but they're quite sweet and they're quite nice. So try and find some alternatives to what you are currently buying, so it's just a small change.

And perhaps again, get the teenagers buying, go shopping together because And go to the, you know, to one of the supermarkets or the health food shop and just say, right, what do you think is worth— what will you eat? Because there's no point, and the worst thing would be to go out and spend a whole load of money and they go, I don't think so.

Quite right.

So again, it's getting this whole buy-in from them into contributing to their own health and their own productivity.

Yes, absolutely. And reducing sugar is quite hard to do with children. One of the things that I think is a great tip to try and look at to reduce sugar is to download the Sugar Smart app, which is a free app from the NHS. Yes, I've got that one. And you can hold that, so you put it on your phone, you hold it up against any barcode and it will show you the amount of sugar. That's quite a good way of walking around the supermarket with your child, perhaps looking at the snacks you would normally buy and showing them how much sugar is in those snacks. Then once you've explained that that sugar is inflammatory, it's not helping them, sleep as well, function as well, they're not getting the right energy levels from it, then maybe we can look at scanning some of the others and choosing a lighter sugar version. So that's something to really think about in terms of reducing sugar in your diet and making sure that, that there's a good balance. So like anything in life, it has to be a good balance, but now more than ever at this critical time, You need to make sure they're getting protein, carbohydrates, and good fats. Yeah.

And what about suppers? I mean, most of us lead very busy lives ourselves. You come in, you think, oh, what can I grab? Because they're going, feed me! And so it's, yeah, it's grab something that might have been lurking in the freezer for a little bit. What can— what's an easy tip now that you can just again make that change that's going to contribute to this overall improvement in their diet?

First of all, we've all done it, so no judgement. You know, we, we all sometimes have to get out a frozen pizza or fish fingers, and it's processed and it's quick and easy, and that's just life. So firstly, don't have any guilt about that. But during this time where we're trying to do what we can to help, given that we can't take the test ourselves, what we can do is just spend a few more minutes preparing the food. So if you've gotten up a bit earlier and made an omelette for breakfast, You're one step ahead, good pat on the back for you. In the evening, if you could just take a few minutes longer, and well, it's not even longer, maybe a little bit of preparation and chop up some veg ready for a stir-fry, for example, so you've got the meat as your source of protein. If your child's really not a meat eater, not a fan of meat source protein, you can always put fish in. If that won't do, you can add egg in so that you're getting Sort of like more of a Chinese-style stir-fry. And if your child is vegetarian or vegan, you really must increase the amount of seeds and nuts that you're throwing into something like a stir-fry. So you're getting the veggies, which is our carbohydrates.

Yeah.

So fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates. We often think, well, isn't that just bread and pasta and potatoes? Well, those are the more complex carbohydrates, so those ones we need to reduce because they are higher in sugars. And the other carbohydrates, the more leafy greens and the other vegetables and fruits, will contribute to our energy levels and give us sustained energy levels throughout the day. So we want to make sure we're getting some complex carbs. So very important that we use things like brown rice. Perhaps just change over, see how they like it. If they hate it, maybe try half and half.

Yeah.

Any change is better than doing nothing and saying, I'm sorry, my child won't eat that. There's always a change you can make, always a change, even if it's the oil you cook with. So even if you would normally use sunflower oil, which is quite inflammatory, swap to coconut oil to cook the steak in, for example, and you're already making a better choice. So all those little choices for your children add up. So try and use lean meats, organic where possible, good source of vegetables, and save your more complex carbohydrates for the lunchtime and afternoon. They'll still be requiring it if they're studying in the afternoon. At night, you want to make sure, most importantly when it comes to your question about evening meals, that you don't eat too late. What happens when we eat is our bodies have to— has to burn that.

Has to work hard.

Yeah, has to work hard. And what we're trying to do is take the pressure off. So we don't want your body working on, or your child's body working on breaking down that food lead to sleep problems. So what you want to try and do is eat slightly earlier, so around 6-ish. Hopefully that fits in with your family life so that there's plenty of time for digestion and plenty of time for those good nutrients to be absorbed. Not too heavy a meal either, that's not really the time to be having a massive heavy meal, and then hopefully sleep will come a bit better. So try and look at foods that don't come out of a packet, that's quite a key. So you know you're on a good winner when you're just getting fresh meat, Fresh fish, great if you could include salmon. Wonderful choice for omega-3. Wild-caught salmon, even better. When we look at farm-reared salmon, we've got to think of it a bit like the meats as well. That's why I say organic and grass-fed wherever possible. Farm-reared fish is fed growth hormone and antibiotics in order to speed them up and get them out to the supermarkets as quickly as possible. So you really need to look at wild-caught, and then you know what you're eating. You're eating fish that have been allowed to feed on their natural habitat. So wherever possible, try and get lean meats, lean fish, and great source of veggies in there as well. You can pile up the plate if you've got a hungry eater. The worst thing I want— I don't want anybody cutting portions or putting anybody on a diet right Right now, this is the wrong time to tackle any weight issues or any poor psychology over food. What we really want to do is nourish the body. This is all about love, making them feel safe and secure and loved, and they will start to feel better as the days go on and they're eating slightly better foods and snacks. But often with teenagers, the meals that we provide them are actually quite good and quite balanced. It's the snacking in between where they tend to go wrong, like you were saying, grabbing for the Diet Coke. Don't keep it in the kitchen. It's too— it's unfair. We're asking them to apply control, and that sort of self-discipline is very difficult, even as you get older, and it's very, very difficult.

And I think sometimes as well it's preempting. Rather than waiting for them to come out their bedroom and go, I'm starving, something that I found that works really well with my children is making them a smoothie, because again, they don't know what's gone in that, so I can sneak all sorts of yummy things in it and just put it down, and you'll just find that they're just supping every little bit every now and again, but it then avoids that, I'm really hungry.

Yeah.

So what sort of things can you easily slip in?

Sneak into a smoothie. Okay, so this should be like a really private group now where parents share all the little things that we sneak in, but smoothies are a Absolutely fantastic for this. As you say, if you put down a plate of spinach or kale, for some children they'll be like, forget it. Blitz it up with some fruit, then you'll sweeten it up and they might not even notice. So the key to smoothies is not to make them too sugar-based. The problem that we have is when they're just so sweet because they're just banana, apple, pear.

Strawberries.

Yeah, and it's just too much sugar. So even natural sugars, fructose, from fruit is too much of a spike. So you want to make sure when you fill up your whatever Blitzer that you have, that you try and make it 50/50 fruit and vegetables.

Okay.

So that you're trying to weigh it out. So now you've got your carbohydrates because you've got fruit and vegetables. What are you missing? There's no protein in there. Okay, so what I like to do is add a little bit of Greek yoghurt. You could add any sort of organic yoghurt you want, and if you're lactose intolerant, dairy intolerant, I suggest coconut yoghurt. But what you're looking for is adding the protein. If you are vegan, obviously you can go with a coconut yogurt, or you can add something like chia seeds in there. So a good source of protein that will get blitzed up, hardly even noticed, but great source of protein. The other great thing about chia seeds and adding them into a smoothie is that they're a great source of omega-3 as well.

Mmm.

So you've got a good source of fat. So if you can't sneak in a little bit of avocado, Which avocado, when blitzed up, is just really creamy, so it doesn't really taste— a lot of people have a problem with the texture of avocado actually, so once it's blitzed up you can hardly tell. So sneak in a bit of that. The other thing I love to sneak in— I'm really hoping my children aren't in this group— are seaweed flakes. So you can buy seaweed. Seaweed is one of the most nutrient-dense powerhouses for great brain function. Yeah, I love seaweed. And you can buy dried seaweed flakes at the health food store and you can just add them in. You can't even taste it, it just maybe a slight hint of salt to it, but really it's just so many great minerals, great vitamins you're getting in there. And it is because it's a superfood, you don't need very much, it's a concentrated source. So you can hide so many things, as you say, in a smoothie, but just remember 50/50 fruit and vegetables. And make sure there's always a source of fats and a source of protein in there as well. So you need to make a balance even in your snacks.

And something I'm very aware of with my children is drinking. I think a lot of the time their tiredness, their general ability to stay alert, is not just the food, it's they're dehydrated. I think a lot of children don't have an understanding of how much liquid you actually need.

A lot of adults don't have that understanding either!

True, and the temptation again is to reach for the fruit juice Or the Coke or the fizzy drinks. Yeah, so, you know, getting, getting my 2 to drink water is really quite a challenge. But again, that's perhaps where smoothies can, can just tip that balance. You say it's not about making quantum leaps. This is not the right time of their lives to be doing that. But perhaps using the smoothies, it can tick both boxes, get a bit more hydration going.

Certainly helps to be sipping, just getting into the general habit of having something and sipping. But I do think there's some great water bottles out now, and if you follow me on Instagram, you'd have seen I was promoting a Hydrate 8 bottle. There's loads of different ones out there, but they actually have timelines on the side of them, and so that you can see if you've hit it by 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock, so you can see what the recommended amount is per day and you can drink down. So if you do have a child that's maybe more focused orientated hitting targets, they would be much more aware of the fact that, oh, it's 12 o'clock and I'm only at the 8 AM banner, I need to drink up. So it's quite a good prompt if you can get a water bottle like that, or just keep one next to them. If they don't like— again, talk to your child. Maybe room temperature water is not right for them, maybe you need to put a bit of ice in, maybe you need to put squeeze of lime in it, you need to jazz it up with some mint leaves. You need to find out how you can— Prepare it better so that it is consumed. You don't want it to sit there all day and not be used because, as you say, so important for brain function.

And I think it is, it's that you taking control as a parent of having it available. And I've noticed myself, if there's a jug of water on my desk, I'll just keep, whereas if I have to get up and walk to the kitchen, I don't do it.

Yeah.

And so constantly just popping in and saying, you know, here's a smoothie, here's a glass of water, here's this. Yeah. So you're not disturbing them, they're not making much effort, but you're providing again the scenario.

Absolutely.

So fantastic. And we've been speaking a lot about how you can help your teenager, but obviously the parents are a major role model in their life. So do you think it would really help not just the teenager but the parent as well? We're saying, right, have eggs. Do you sit down and have eggs with them?

I think a family should try and eat together more, absolutely. I think it's really important, and I think it can, depending on whether you have fussy eaters as well, when they see Yeah. Again, it works the same way. They see you eating ice cream and delving into chocolate, then you're not setting the best example of how to cope with stress and anxiety. If you say, I'm going to do this as well, I'm in this with you, and this is— I want to feel better as well, I want to wake up with more energy and feel brighter and more alert, then yes, sitting down as a family and eating together is really quite important. That is not always possible And again, there's no— just because you can't do that and you're juggling 3 jobs and you're coming in and out, your child's still gonna turn out fine. So you don't need to worry about any of that. I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. What you need to make sure is that the ingredients are in the house so that you can prepare that food and you can have it ready for them.

Make it easy.

Make it easy. And a little bit of prep, even if you have to get up 10 minutes earlier to do more of a, let's say, proper breakfast. That involves a bit more preparation than cereal and milk, then that's your investment in trying to help them through it. So there are things you can do, and making sure that you buy and spend a bit more on organic foods to reduce the toxins going into the child, making sure you increase the omega-3s, the good fats, the salmons, the eggs, the seeds, the nuts, cooking with coconut oil, again another good fat, and reducing the sugar as much as possible. Use the Sugar Smart app, really look at cutting it back wherever you can. Remember, sugar is everything, so it's in cereals, it's in soups, it's in tomato ketchup, it's in bread, it's everywhere. So we're consuming so much more than we need. So just keep scanning, have a look, right, I'm going to make that change, I'm going to cut that in half.

Yeah.

You're not going to be able to convince most children to go from a bar of Dairy Milk to a bar of 80% dark chocolate. You can buy cacao nibs or cacao powder and maybe add that to the smoothie as well. So that's the real great B vitamins in the raw product of chocolate as well. So hopefully that has been of some help.

Yeah, so some fantastic tips from Amy there. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Now Amy is part of the Exam Stress 101 group as well, so if you have particular questions, I know Amy would be very happy To reply to those. And actually, if you, if you would like to actually post in the group and say, I have this particular child, then we'll obviously respond to that as much as possible. Amy is based in New Street in Salisbury, and I know would be very delighted to see people one-on-one should you want to have something more on a deeper or more private, private level. Her company is Body Fabulous, which you can't actually see because it's I'm just reflecting. So Amy Richmond, Body Fabulous, and she would love to help you. So hope this has given you some, some hints and tips. Really, is that the main message for us is this is not the time to make quantum leaps in your diet, but by positioning food as a good fuel and making some subtle changes, any changes that you make is going to be hugely to creating an internal environment that will optimise how your child can study and how they can personally deal with the stress. So thank you very much for watching or listening, and we will be back with you to answer any questions that you may have. Bye-bye for now.

Bye.