There is a well documented correlation between nutrition and childhood development, which in turn has a bearing on personality. Severe malnutrion can have devastating physical and mental effects. Moreover and more insidious, even mild caloric deficiencies in the diet of an infant or pregnant women can prove serious. Nutritional problems in early life to the behavioral and social development of youngsters as old as 6 to 8 years.

Furthermore, it suggest that simply providing calorids to undernourished infants and mothers to be seem to have a lasting effect on the way the child deals with others and make use of the environment. Somewhat of a puzzle is the fact that mild to moderate malnutrition does not appear to affect higher intelectual and learning abilities significantly.

Just why social and emotional characteristics are apparently more vulnerable to nutritional stress than are cognitive function is not known, but this fact does seem to indicate something about the development of the brain and central nervous system. Perhaps it is matter of evolution.

It perhaps emotional and social development are more recent vintage and therefore more vulnerable to stress