Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Dr.sc. Tena Niseteo, clinical nutritionist
What is creativity?
Have you ever thought about how the mechanism of thinking actually works? Why don’t we all think alike and why children think differently than adults? Would you be more successful if you could think like children, and what is it that is so different in the way of thinking between children and adults?
The answer to all these questions lies in the mechanism which is, among other things, responsible for the so-called divergent thinking – or thinking in multiple directions which we call creativity.
Some scientists say that the difference between primates and humans is actually in the existence of creativity, and that the human ability to imagine and create ideas is what historically enabled us development and progress. Creativity basically involves the creation of original ideas, and what’s interesting is the assumption that with the increase in knowledge there should be an increase of creativity and the number of ideas.
How come then that creativity diminishes with a lot of people with age? Or does it really diminish?
In order to be creative, we need to find a situation that gives us the possibility to create a new idea. In the everyday life of the child, there’s a multitude of such situations, but with adults routines often take most of the day, and at the moment in which we are supposed to be creative, very often we are concerned with giving an accurate answer, which leads to existing ideas and solutions, or rather the default. Creativity, in fact, doesn’t decrease, but the number of opportunities to be creative does. A child will quickly and easily transform an ordinary box into a toy, create a story imagining a situation and the characters, and will live in the moment of fantasy, without the burden of chronology and accuracy – precisely because creativity is a game without rules. Without imagination, or without creativity, a child couldn’t learn at lightning speeds, and humanity wouldn’t be where it is today.
Does nutrition have anything to do with creativity?
Creativity is the child’s strongest characteristic. It allows them to get to know themselves and the world around them, and the task of adults is to allow children to fantasize. A healthy body can fantasize, and health largely depends on proper nutrition. Therefore even science decided to examine the extent to which certain nutrients and cognitive development and even creativity are related. Thus, in the last 4-5 years, several studies were conducted whose main objective was to investigate the relationship between iron and creativity.
One of the most common nutritional deficiencies in the world is the lack of iron in the body, and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that as many as over 35% of children have insufficient intake of iron and its deficiency in the body. Iron has several important functions in the body. As a component of hemoglobin, it carries the oxygen to all the cells in the body and thus, as part of the enzymes, it is involved in the metabolism of energy and proteins needed for growth and development. But when it comes to creativity, iron has a specific function – in the brain. This mineral, in fact, participates in reactions of the so called dopaminergic system, which is responsible for physical activity and abstract thinking – or creativity. Thus it has been proven that not only iron deficiency anemia, but also any minor lack of iron in a child’s body can negatively affect cognitive development, concentration, memory and finally creativity.
Help develop a child’s potential through nutrition!
Proper nutrition in childhood has a much more complex meaning, because, in addition to health, it must allow the child proper growth and development. Daily intake of all that is necessary to the child’s body, in sufficient quantities, is often not possible, and the reason for this is that children are often reluctant to eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals, especially those rich in iron such as red meat and green leafy vegetables. This is a problem that must be solved creatively! Therefore it is advised that children’s diet in the first place should be creative, and to offer the child those things that are not so delicious in variants that will be interesting and of acceptable taste. This is exactly an opportunity for parents to show they can be imaginative. Creative recipes and dishes are the best way for the child to accept new foods and give a chance to those they so far didn’t find so tasty. Even states have been creative in ensuring sufficient intake of iron in the age of intensive growth and development, so many have suggested the industry of food products to enrich the foods accessible to children and thereby ensure the required intake of iron and other minerals.