How Nutrition Impacts Your Child's Reading Ability

If your child struggles to read or doesn’t enjoy diving into books, it can be heartbreaking to see them miss out on the joys of learning through the written word. As well as being important for academic success, reading skills also shape self-confidence. Reading well can open career doors, and better literacy can also mean a longer life expectancy. That’s why getting to the root causes of a delay in reading age matters so much to both a child’s short- and long-term trajectory.

After 30 years working with families, I’ve learned that reading difficulties rarely stem from a single cause. There is a whole host of reasons why a child is behind in their reading age. These can include vision problems, hearing issues, neurodivergence like dyslexia or ADHD, language development differences and even emotional barriers, which all play their part. But there’s one often overlooked factor that can make or break a child’s reading journey, and that is their nutrition.

The good news is that when we address a child’s nutritional deficiencies, parents and teachers often see real and measurable improvements in their reading ability and their confidence. This is because your child’s brain needs specific nutrients to help coordinate the complex processes that make reading possible.

Get our lovely Healthy Bites newsletter!

Each week, you’ll get an amazing recipe, a useful health tip, and an ingredient to jazz up your shopping basket!

What does reading demand from your child’s brain?

Reading isn’t a natural human ability like talking. It requires your child’s brain to perform multiple sophisticated tasks simultaneously to be able to decipher and make sense of a string of words on a page.

To be able to read, your child needs to visually track letters across a page, hold information in their working memory long enough to process it, translate visual symbols into sounds, blend those sounds into words, access word meanings, understand grammatical structures and make inferences about what they’re reading. All of this happens in seconds for a fluent reader, but it can be super hard for a child who does not have strengths in all these areas.

When any part of this intricate reading system falters, whether from visual processing issues, working memory issues or processing speed differences, reading can become tricky and exhausting.

Some children describe letters jumping around the page. Other kids lose their place on the page constantly or can’t remember the start of a sentence by the time they reach the end of it. Many can decode individual words perfectly but have no idea what the paragraph means because they’ve used all their mental resources.

These kids are certainly not lazy, and the effort involved when trying to read is like climbing Everest every single day. Reading difficulties often signal that the brain’s processing systems need some extra nutritional support to help them function at their best. Here is a roundup of the research into the links between nutrition and reading ability, and how you can help your child’s reading one mouthful at a time.

Watch out for mineral imbalances

There are certain nutritional patterns in children who struggle with reading fluency. Many kids who find it hard to read show specific mineral imbalances that directly affect their brain function, working memory and visual processing. I will explain more.

Studies and our clinical findings at NatureDoc consistently show that children with dyslexia very often have high copper levels combined with low zinc levels. When there is too much copper compared with zinc a child will find it harder to learn and may say their brain feels foggy and stressed. Even mild imbalances in this copper:zinc ratio can significantly affect concentration, working memory and the ability to process visual information and might explain why a bright child struggles so much with reading ability. Zinc is vital for processing, working memory and the overall brain development, as well as the functioning of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, adrenaline and GABA.

We test both copper and zinc levels at NatureDoc and when we rebalance their zinc and copper by adding in more zinc through food (think pumpkin seeds, shellfish, fish, meat and eggs) and a zinc supplement, parents frequently tell us that their child can focus better and also catch up on their reading age more easily.

Iron deficiency can also pose another major roadblock to reading and overall literacy. Research shows that many children with dyslexia are either anaemic or have suboptimal iron levels. Why is this important? It is because iron is critical for carrying oxygen to the brain and supports cognitive clarity. Without enough iron in their system, even a capable child will struggle to concentrate, process information efficiently, and sustain the mental effort required by reading.

Processing speed, which is how quickly your child’s brain can recognise letters, access word meanings, and understand sentences, is also significantly affected by low iron status. And when someone is low in iron, they often describe reading as feeling like wading through treacle. By the time they’ve decoded one sentence, they’ve forgotten the previous one.

Environmental toxins add another layer of complexity to a child with low mineral status. Exposure to lead (often from old paint) and cadmium (from passive smoking or fossil fuel pollution) have been linked to reading difficulties and developmental delays. And, these toxins are particularly problematic for a child when their zinc and iron levels are already low, creating a compounding effect that makes reading even harder.

The essential fats your child’s brain needs

Your child’s brain is made up of nearly 60% fat, and the types of oils and fat a child eats matters enormously for reading ability.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is the most important omega-3 fat for eye and brain development and this comes from eating oily fish and shellfish. Studies show that even small shortfalls in DHA affect a child’s ability to track words along a line, process visual information and utilise their working memory.

I’ve worked with many families where increasing omega-3 intake through diet and supplements has made a noticeable difference to their reading fluency within weeks. Children report that words stay still on the page. They often say they can remember what they’ve just read, and their parents report that reading becomes less of a battle.

Some children with reading difficulties have a specific condition called Meares-Irlen Syndrome, where poor signals between the eye and brain cause words to shift or blur on the page. Research shows these children often have very low cholesterol levels alongside insufficient DHA. When cholesterol levels drop too low, the body can’t efficiently transport omega-3 fats to the eyes. This creates a double problem that makes reading particularly challenging. To raise the ‘good’ and beneficial cholesterol try and feed them lots of eggs, butter and liver.

Vitamins and antioxidants for reading skills

Certain vitamins are vital for eye health, visual processing and the cognitive functions that reading requires. Research finds that optimising levels of vitamins A, C, D and E supports optical health and can reduce sensitivity to bright lights as well as improving overall vision. So ensure your child’s multivitamin contains enough of these and they are eating foods rich in these vitamins.

B vitamins are also essential for energy production in brain cells, neurotransmitter synthesis, and the maintenance of myelin sheaths around nerves. Children with shortfalls in their B vitamins often struggle with concentration, memory and processing speed, which are all essential for reading.

Carotenoids are colourful antioxidants that are found in red, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, peppers, oranges and mangoes. Studies show they work together to support both eye health and cognitive performance.

Two specific carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, deserve a special mention. You’ll find them in dark leafy greens like spinach and kale, as well as in peas, broccoli and egg yolks. Research suggests these antioxidants provide protection against damage caused by blue light from screens, something increasingly relevant as children spend so much more time on their digital devices.

When children eat enough of these protective nutrients, their eyes typically cope better with the demands of reading, especially extended reading sessions or during screen time.

Round up

To be able to read fluently, this requires an intricate coordination of visual processing, working memory, phonological awareness and focus. When any of these systems struggle, whether from neurodivergence, developmental differences or nutritional deficiencies, reading becomes a challenging task.

Research consistently shows that children with reading difficulties often have specific imbalances in zinc, copper and iron, alongside insufficient intake of omega-3 fats and antioxidants. These nutritional gaps can affect eye tracking, working memory capacity, processing speed and the brain’s ability to coordinate the multiple tasks that reading demands.

If you would like to explore nutritional testing and get personalised nutrient recommendations for your child to help them catch up on their reading age, then get in touch with the NatureDoc clinical team, who specialise in identifying and addressing the nutritional patterns that support reading ability.

Ask me what supplements can help… or anything else!

Nutrition strategies to help your child catch up on their reading age