reprinted from Guardian
Felicity Lawrence
Tuesday October 17, 2006
continued from page 2
Aylesbury was at the time a prison for young male offenders, aged 17 to 21, convicted of the most serious crimes. Trevor Hussey was then deputy governor
and remembers it being a tough environment. "It was a turbulent young population. They had problems with their anger. They were all crammed into a small
place and even though it was well run you got a higher than normal number of assaults on staff and other prisoners."
Although the governor was keen on looking at the relationship between diet and crime, Hussey remembers being sceptical himself at the beginning of the
study. The catering manager was good, and even though prisoners on the whole preferred white bread, meat and confectionery to their fruit and veg, the staff
tried to encourage prisoners to eat healthily, so he didn't expect to see much of a result.
But quite quickly staff noticed a significant drop in the number of reported incidents of bad behaviour. "We'd just introduced a policy of 'earned privileges' so
we thought it must be that rather than a few vitamins, but we used to joke 'maybe it's Bernard's pills'."
But when the trial finished it became clear that the drop in incidents of bad behaviour applied only to those on the supplements and not to those on the
placebo.
The results, published in 2002, showed that those receiving the extra nutrients committed 37% fewer serious offences involving violence, and 26% fewer
offences overall. Those on the placebos showed no change in their behaviour. Once the trial had finished the number of offences went up by the same
amount. The office the researchers had used to administer nutrients was restored to a restraint room after they had left.
"The supplements improved the functioning of those prisoners. It was clearly something significant that can't be explained away. I was disappointed the
results were not latched on to. We put a lot of effort into improving prisoners' chances of not coming back in, and you measure success in small doses."
Gesch believes we should be rethinking the whole notion of culpability. The overall rate of violent crime in the UK has risen since the 1950s, with huge rises
since the 1970s. "Such large changes are hard to explain in terms of genetics or simply changes of reporting or recording crime. One plausible candidate to
explain some of the rapid rise in crime could be changes in the brain's environment. What would the future have held for those 231 young men if they had
grown up with better nourishment?" Gesch says.
He said he was currently unable to comment on any plans for future research in prisons, but studies with young offenders in the community are being
planned.
But when the trial finished it became clear that the drop in incidents of bad behaviour applied only to those on the supplements and not to those on the
placebo.
The results, published in 2002, showed that those receiving the extra nutrients committed 37% fewer serious offences involving violence, and 26% fewer
offences overall. Those on the placebos showed no change in their behaviour. Once the trial had finished the number of offences went up by the same
amount. The office the researchers had used to administer nutrients was restored to a restraint room after they had left.
"The supplements improved the functioning of those prisoners. It was clearly something significant that can't be explained away. I was disappointed the
results were not latched on to. We put a lot of effort into improving prisoners' chances of not coming back in, and you measure success in small doses."
Gesch believes we should be rethinking the whole notion of culpability. The overall rate of violent crime in the UK has risen since the 1950s, with huge rises
since the 1970s. "Such large changes are hard to explain in terms of genetics or simply changes of reporting or recording crime. One plausible candidate to
explain some of the rapid rise in crime could be changes in the brain's environment. What would the future have held for those 231 young men if they had
grown up with better nourishment?" Gesch says.
He said he was currently unable to comment on any plans for future research in prisons, but studies with young offenders in the community are being
planned.
For Hibbeln, the changes in our diet in the past century are "a very large uncontrolled experiment that may have contributed to the societal burden of
aggression, depression and cardiovascular death". To ask whether we have enough evidence to change diets is to put the question the wrong way round.
Whoever said it was safe to change them so radically in the first place?
Young offender's diet
One young offender had been sentenced by the British courts on 13 occasions for stealing trucks in the early hours of the morning.
Bernard Gesch recorded the boy's daily diet as follows:
Breakfast: nothing (asleep)
Mid morning: nothing (asleep)
Lunchtime: 4 or 5 cups of coffee with milk and 2½ heaped teaspoons of sugar
Mid afternoon: 3 or 4 cups of coffee with milk and 2½ heaped sugars
Tea: chips, egg, ketchup, 2 slices of white bread, 5 cups of tea or coffee with milk and sugar
Evening: 5 cups of tea or coffee with milk and sugar, 20 cigarettes, £2 worth of sweets, cakes and if money available 3 or 4 pints of beer.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
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medicine, but will interest his patients in
the care of the human body, in diet, and in
the cause and prevention of disease."
Thomas Edison
