The modern Western diet bears little resemblance to the diet which forged the human genome over many million years. The change in basic food structure is operating to distort biology even before conception and into late years, with the epidemic of obesity and diabetes likely to lead to stroke, heart disease, and now dementia, being flagged as a consequence. In addition, mental ill health is overtaking all other burdens of ill health, and almost certainly has its roots in early disturbance of brain development. Whilst lifestyle will be playing its part, there can be little doubt that the common denominator is the aberrations in food development, predominantly in the last century. It seems it is time to reassess food policy. The principle of food production should be nutrition and human health. The globalisation of a food structure linked to such disorders and their appearance globally in response asks that steps be taken to protect other countries from making the same mistakes.
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.