Snack-making stimulates kids' brains: study

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camomile at 01:46 PM JST - 19th October

15 years ago when my sons were kindergardener, there was an event to make hotcakes and eat them with their classmates who were bron in the same month and their mothers in the birthmonth in a small room in the kindergarden. That was a wonderful kindergarden!!
Yelnats at 02:02 PM JST - 19th October

The occurs when doing art work. Get rid of those stupid electronic games, and supply your kids with art materials.
kirakira25 at 02:45 PM JST - 19th October

Right with you Yelnats. I can`t bear those games. I see kids sitting around in the park in a group, not talking, not running around, just focused on the screens in their hands.

Kids need to get back to basics - just like this article says. Baking, painting, creating things with lego bricks. I ahve to admit I agree with Cleo though - ANYTHING will stimulate the mind, not just "sugar laden dough" (we`ll keep that for Mum once the kids are in bed!!!)
kokorocloud at 03:02 PM JST - 19th October

I agree with everyone else who mentioned that it's less about hotcakes and more about spending time with your kids. Children learn best through doing and exploring, and it's always best when the parent is there to do it with them.
isthistheend at 03:52 PM JST - 19th October

Yes. In this case its the snack-making, but as pointed out, it could be doing almost any activity with the parents. Playing catch, playing cards, washing the car, the point is to spend time with parents. That usually makes the kids excited doesn't it? Just walking with mom and dad, going anywhere is a source of a happening, an exciting happening. At least until age 9-10 or so.
stirfry at 05:25 PM JST - 19th October

pancakes are a proper breakfast, not a snack.
Infernus at 05:49 PM JST - 19th October

Plus if they are stimulating their minds by making snacks from scratch, they won't be destroying their brains with msg from instant snacks.

I also agree that children should get out more and have more exercise and do art. Art helps stimulate and build parts of the brain that other subjects don't, I would imagine that cooking snacks(among other things dinner etc.) would help this as well. Since cooking can be an art itself.
dolphingirl at 07:14 PM JST - 19th October

Wow! A major breakthrough here! Let's get cracking!
kadenmaya at 09:27 PM JST - 19th October

How about just making anything healthy and spending time with your kids....Sugar, Fat and salt, the new epidemic.
Sarge at 10:12 PM JST - 19th October

I have found that snack eating stimulates my brain.

"I encourage some posters on JT to start snack making"

Har!
marushka at 12:23 AM JST - 20th October

and eating snacks doest it stumalte brain?:) pls tell me it does:)
Mexicanish at 01:26 PM JST - 20th October

"a study carried out by an academic and a major confectionery maker."

Eh... Shouldn't we look at unbiased studies?

Although it is always good to encourage bonding with your children and cooking is a fun/positive way to do it, so I'm not disagreeing with the article... but still... the source is .. strange.
Cicada at 04:33 PM JST - 20th October

Yeah, and children who play computer games with their parents will be geniuses too.

You know who the really smart people are? The ones who figure out how to get grant money from a "major confectionary maker".

So we can assume that when Tohoku University professor Ryuta Kawashima was little he was always hanging around his parents pretending to play with them so he could get some money to buy snacks.
Klein2 at 06:27 PM JST - 20th October

Ah cynicism springs eternal!

I think that making things is a great way to learn and gain confidence. That is involved here.

Using tools and one's hands to do it helps too.

Being able to experience the product by eating it is great too. There is a lot involved here that makes sense. Kidzania is reasonably popular for Tokyo kids for just this reason.

Have to add that some of the electronic games are not so bad. RPGs especially can be good for kids. There was one... doubutsu no mori... that gives kids jobs, loans with payments and interest rates, etc. Comparative advantage and opportunity cost even rear their ugly heads. Wonderful. Dragonquest presents constant optimization problems and unfair games that can be challenging. Of course, most parents cannot recognize those things, so they just lump all games in the "bad" pigeonhole.

And OK, Morinaga gave the guy the grant, but that is disclosed, and hey... who else is going to support something like this? Which would you rather have, a stupid 30 second commercial broadcast for one day, or a professor and three grad students practicing the scientific method and publishing possibly meaningful results related to cognitive development?

I will go "glass half full" on this one.
bdiego at 04:32 AM JST - 21st October

I love how we always need scientists to tell us common sense. With health advice, it keeps changing on a daily basis. Sadly, people thousands of years ago knew better - see the story of Daniel in the bible or even the teachings of Buddha. Everybody knows you just gotta eat more vegetables and less steak. Damn you Atkins for all the people you gave heart attacks to.