You simply must read this fabulous article in The Guardian, "Omega-3, junk food and the link between violence and what we eat: Researchers with British and US offenders suggest nutritional deficiencies may play a key role in aggressive behavior."
The wonderfully researched piece by journalist Felicity Lawrence provides a thorough and easy-to-read update about how what you eat could be partly to blame for violence. It also puts forth the notion that I explore in my upcoming book SUGAR SHOCK! — that eating more wholesome foods, increasing omega-3 and eating less junk food could cut back on criminal behavior.
Just listen to Lawrences’s eloquent explanation:
"…the new research calls into question the very basis of criminal justice and the notion of culpability. It suggests that individuals may not always be responsible for their aggression."
Then, in discussing two studies, she says that they show "that violent behaviour may be attributable at least in part to nutritional deficiencies." Right on!
Later, The Guardian’s‘ Lawrence observes:
"Although no one is suggesting that poor diet alone can account for complex social problems, the former chief inspector of prisons Lord Ramsbotham says that he is now `absolutely convinced that there is a direct link between diet and antisocial behaviour, both that bad diet causes bad behaviour and that good diet prevents it.’
"The Dutch government is currently conducting a large trial to see if nutritional supplements have the same effect on its prison population. And this week, new claims were made that fish oil had improved behaviour and reduced aggression among children with some of the most severe behavioural difficulties in the UK."
Darn, that’s so cool that the British and Dutch prison authorities are so open to this. Even more exciting for me as an American is that the U.S. government’s National Institutes for Health, near Washington, D.C. is at the forefront of this research with a study that is investigating the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplements on the brain.
In fact, as Lawrence puts it, the "results emerging from this study are at the cutting edge of the debate on crime and punishment."
While I’ve seen articles about this topic before, this has to be one of the best that I’ve come across.
Here’s how Lawrence sums up the U.S. take on the subject:
"For the clinician in charge of the US study, Joseph Hibbeln, the results of his trial are not a miracle, but simply what you might predict if you understand the biochemistry of the brain and the biophysics of the brain cell membrane. His hypothesis is that modern industrialised diets may be changing the very architecture and functioning of the brain.
"We are suffering, he believes, from widespread diseases of deficiency. Just as vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, deficiency in the essential fats the brain needs and the nutrients needed to metabolise those fats is causing of a host of mental problems from depression to aggression. Not all experts agree, but if he is right, the consequences are as serious as they could be. The pandemic of violence in western societies may be related to what we eat or fail to eat. Junk food may not only be making us sick, but mad and bad too."
Darn, this is an exciting project. Wish I’d interviewed the NIH people for my book!
What this points to is this — even though I quote some 250 experts in my book SUGAR SHOCK!, my work uncovering the bad food/crime connection only touches the surface. I’ll be eagerly following this story. I think this is BIG and more people need to know about it.