Adolescence

Abstract

Adolescence is often associated with exploring boundaries, rapid growth, hormones and pimples. A stable feature of this turbulent age is that these young people are highly over-represented in the criminal justice system. Adolescents account for disproportionate proportion of police-recorded crimes, and this seems to be a cross-cultural phenomenon. Furthermore, disaffected young people often have limited routine access to healthy foods and make poor food choices. These people form a large proportion of the prison population and there are concerns that insufficient attention is paid to their health. Hence their diet tends to be poor compared with international standards of dietary adequacy, which typically are set to protect the heart but not for optimal brain function. Thus, it has been posited that a poor diet may be a modifiable causal factor in antisocial behaviours. We tested what happened to the behaviour of violent young adult prisoners (18-21years) when nutrients missing from their diets were reinstated. We used food supplements as an analogue of a better diet because it provided the possibility of a placebo control. On a random basis, where neither the volunteers, prison staff nor researchers in the prison knew who was getting which type, 231 volunteers were given either placebo or real capsules containing broadly the daily requirements of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. The number of proven offences committed by each prisoner was monitored before and while taking supplements. The result was that those who received the extra nutrients committed significantly (26.3%) fewer offences compared with placebos. Those consuming real supplements for at least 2 weeks committed 37% fewer (highly statistically significant) of the most serious offences, such as violence. These findings have been replicated by the Dutch Ministry of Justice; their double-blind study reported a 48% difference between groups. If these studies are widely replicated -and they need to be -we may have a simple and humane means to help reduce and prevent a significant proportion of violence and antisocial behaviour. This should also work in the community, because it is not about where you eat but what you eat. Indeed, criminal justice systems are often over-represented with ethnic minorities, but providing a more nutritious diet is never going to be discriminatory to these young people. The only risk is better health. KeywordsViolence; nutrition; brain Reprints and permission: sagepub.co The nutritional ascent of manNo species can flourish without food and water. This global necessity highlights vast inequalities. Many of the world's population starve while at the same time we are witnessing an epidemic of obesity. Good nutrition is considered to be essential to our physical wellbeing. It is widely accepted as a major factor in the prevention of chronic disease. The tragic consequences of malnutrition include death, disability, and stunted mental and physical growth. 1 This may be the visible tip of an iceberg and, to ex...

Nutritional psychiatry research: an emerging discipline and its intersection with global urbanization, environmental challenges and the evolutionary mismatch

“…At the outset, we acknowledge that much of our focus here is on depression. This is largely because depression has received the lion’s share of international research attention as it relates to some of the nutritional and environmental variables; however, it should be understood that these discussions are of relevance to diverse topics ranging from reductions in violent behavior [ 54 ] to overall positive mental outlook in those who are otherwise well-adjusted [ 55 , 56 ].…”