Csaba Toth, a blog reader from Hungary, sent me the link to an article that claims that fresh fruits, whole-grain bread, and a salad bar are the real way to fight crime.
The most compelling part of the article reads as follows:
Bernard Gesch, physiologist at the University of Oxford, decided to test the anecdotal clues in the most thorough study so far in this field. In a prison for men between the ages of 18 and 21 in England’s Buckinghamshire, 231 volunteers were divided into two groups: One was given nutrition supplements along with their meals that contained our approximate daily needs for vitamins, minerals and fatty acids; the other group got placebos. Neither the prisoners, nor the guards, nor the researchers at the prison knew who took fake supplements and who got the real thing.
The researchers then tallied the number of times the participants violated prison rules, and compared it to the same data that had been collected in the months leading up to the nutrition study. The prisoners given supplements for four consecutive months committed an average of 26 percent fewer violations compared to the preceding period. Those given placebos showed no marked change in behaviour. For serious breaches of conduct, particularly the use of violence, the number of violations decreased 37 percent for the men given nutrition supplements, while the placebo group showed no change.
Far be it from me to dismiss out of hand subtle factors that have unexpected consequences on crime. Still, the link between vitamin pills and crime just doesn’t make much sense to me unless one has a reasonable theory about what it is in the supplements that could make a difference.
The article also makes references to how the rise of fast food and convenience food parallel the rise in crime, trying to link this controlled study back to broader social changes. I have two problems with that argument. First, it does not appear that people are more inherently criminal today than 40 years ago when fast food was rare. Second, I highly doubt if you look at the evidence that people today are getting less vitamins and minerals than in the past. They may be eating more fat and more calories (although the latter is a contentious issue among nutrition researchers), but that has nothing to do with the controlled study above.
I am skeptical of the whole thing. Still, if small changes in nutrition radically affect criminal behavior, it certainly would be a better solution than the ones we have, like incarcerating 2 million Americans. So perhaps it is worth further investigation.
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This may be contraversial but after two quarters of radical food experimention. I.E. proto-vegan with almost every supplement under the sun, I’d almost agree.
Avoiding all the sugary stuff makes you calm and you’re very stable. Using it makes you all jittery and sometimes very irritable. When a body has received all the nutrients it needs the message is “REST.”
However, sometimes being jittery is a good thing, I find that I’m most creative when I eat a lot of junk food. I survived the summer on stuff like snickers bars and that allowed me to produce creative stuff.
So in short, it allowed me to advance as the person I am.
For criminals, if you accept that they’re inveterate criminals, i.e. forever battling against the boundaries created by society, then they become better at that too. All of the crappy food really does allow you to kind of find your element. Whether or not that be explosive it often signals a release of some sort. Of something pent up inside that struggles to get out.
Schizophrenia sitings skyrocketed when sugar consumption in Britain skyrocketed. Consumed in the right qualities its probably like a lighter version of LSD. You see and hear, you’re more aware.
This may be contraversial but after two quarters of radical food experimention. I.E. proto-vegan with almost every supplement under the sun, I’d almost agree.
Avoiding all the sugary stuff makes you calm and you’re very stable. Using it makes you all jittery and sometimes very irritable. When a body has received all the nutrients it needs the message is “REST.”
However, sometimes being jittery is a good thing, I find that I’m most creative when I eat a lot of junk food. I survived the summer on stuff like snickers bars and that allowed me to produce creative stuff.
So in short, it allowed me to advance as the person I am.
For criminals, if you accept that they’re inveterate criminals, i.e. forever battling against the boundaries created by society, then they become better at that too. All of the crappy food really does allow you to kind of find your element. Whether or not that be explosive it often signals a release of some sort. Of something pent up inside that struggles to get out.
Schizophrenia sitings skyrocketed when sugar consumption in Britain skyrocketed. Consumed in the right qualities its probably like a lighter version of LSD. You see and hear, you’re more aware.
Maybe it has something to do with so many people in prison having drug problems? Addicts are notoriously bad at taking care of themselves, so maybe even a little extra nutritional support is enough to make a difference?
Maybe it has something to do with so many people in prison having drug problems? Addicts are notoriously bad at taking care of themselves, so maybe even a little extra nutritional support is enough to make a difference?
That does not sound off the wall to me at all. A book I was reading last night made mention of the link between crime and triglyceride levels.
“A string of other evidence incriminates triglycerides in brain disturbances and behavior. British researchers found that men with abnormally high triglycerides tend to have denigratory attitudes toward women, are more apt to commit hostile acts and have a ‘domineering’ attitude. Brandeis University pshycholgists have linked high triglycerides to ‘cognitive impairment’. including depression and memory problems among some diabetics. As triglycerides rose over a five-year period, so did hostility in a group of young men ages twenty-three to thirty-five, reported University of Alabama investigators in 1997.” (quoted from “Your Miracle Brain” by Jean Carper)
Since reading that I’ve been wondering if crime rates could be affected by improving nutrition in schools with a high number of at risk youths, or by providing nutrition services through community centers based in high crime areas. Could investing more money into the nutrition of children pay off in lower jail populations?
That does not sound off the wall to me at all. A book I was reading last night made mention of the link between crime and triglyceride levels.
“A string of other evidence incriminates triglycerides in brain disturbances and behavior. British researchers found that men with abnormally high triglycerides tend to have denigratory attitudes toward women, are more apt to commit hostile acts and have a ‘domineering’ attitude. Brandeis University pshycholgists have linked high triglycerides to ‘cognitive impairment’. including depression and memory problems among some diabetics. As triglycerides rose over a five-year period, so did hostility in a group of young men ages twenty-three to thirty-five, reported University of Alabama investigators in 1997.” (quoted from “Your Miracle Brain” by Jean Carper)
Since reading that I’ve been wondering if crime rates could be affected by improving nutrition in schools with a high number of at risk youths, or by providing nutrition services through community centers based in high crime areas. Could investing more money into the nutrition of children pay off in lower jail populations?
There is no good data on this. My bet is that you would have to follow people for years in order to truly see the effect of a high calorie western diet. How would you get a control group to cooperate for years? Would it be ethical to mess with people’s diets over a lifetime?
I do think that circumstantial evidence…(ok my gut feeling) is that we are eating more calories. Even people of normal weight probably get more calories that they did thirty years ago. It is known that there are many people who respond with metabolic and energy changes to a slightly higher calorie diet for years before they actually gain weight. I mentioned this before, but the incidence of women with increased androgens (ie testosterone and its analogues) has increased. My instinct tells me that this is probably related to diet and total calories (women with this condition do have insulin resistance… a marker of pre-diabetes that is associated with obesity.) While most men and women are not affected to this level, I am speculating that more subtle increases in androgens may be prevalent and not easily detected on lab tests with a wide range of normal values determined by testing a group of “normal” volunteers. Of course, increased androgens would be expected to affect behavior…ie violence, aggression etc.. You do the math..
There is no good data on this. My bet is that you would have to follow people for years in order to truly see the effect of a high calorie western diet. How would you get a control group to cooperate for years? Would it be ethical to mess with people’s diets over a lifetime?
I do think that circumstantial evidence…(ok my gut feeling) is that we are eating more calories. Even people of normal weight probably get more calories that they did thirty years ago. It is known that there are many people who respond with metabolic and energy changes to a slightly higher calorie diet for years before they actually gain weight. I mentioned this before, but the incidence of women with increased androgens (ie testosterone and its analogues) has increased. My instinct tells me that this is probably related to diet and total calories (women with this condition do have insulin resistance… a marker of pre-diabetes that is associated with obesity.) While most men and women are not affected to this level, I am speculating that more subtle increases in androgens may be prevalent and not easily detected on lab tests with a wide range of normal values determined by testing a group of “normal” volunteers. Of course, increased androgens would be expected to affect behavior…ie violence, aggression etc.. You do the math..