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Dietary Causes of Criminality, aggression and antisocial behaviour
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes:
High-carb diet — sugars and starches; low-fat diet; low blood cholesterol.Diet in criminality
In 1995 I travelled among the islands of the South Pacific. I was particularly struck by the lack of any need for locks on house doors. In Western Samoa, for example, their 'fales' (houses) were merely thatched roofs supported on poles, with no sides at all for most of the day. A woven matting was all that they wrapped around the sides when they wanted more privacy.
Dr. Weston A. Price also noted that crime was non-existent in primitive cultures. In his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, he writes:[1] 'After one has lived among the primitive racial stocks in different parts of the world and studied them in their isolation, few impressions can be more vivid than that of the absence of prisons and asylums.' He continued: 'Few, if any, of the problems which confront modern civilization are more serious and disturbing than the progressive increase in the percentage of individuals with unsocial traits and a lack of responsibility.'
The fact is that primitives, uncontaminated by civilisation, do not suffer from crime. That is not the case here. We have seen more and more money ploughed into being 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime' with:
- more and more prisons being built;
- prisoners released earlier or tagged or given community service orders merely to relieve the pressure on overcrowded prisons;
- and more calls for ever more police.
There is no doubt that the last century witnessed a marked decline in physical health. We can see and recognise these physical defects. What is less recognised is that there has also been an equally marked mental degeneration — and, an equally marked increase in antisocial behaviour and criminality, particularly involving children and young adults.
The problem of lowered mentality and its place in our modern conception of bodily diseases has never been placed on a physical basis as have the better understood degenerative processes, with their direct relationship to a diseased organ. This has led to its being largely ignored — and for a very long time. As long ago as 1937, Edward Lee Thorndike of Columbia University wrote that 'thinking is as biological as digestion',[2] which implies that a defect-free brain is required if we are to think coherently.
The origin of mental dullness in children seems to have been assigned very largely to some experience in that child's life which becomes a conditioning factor and which thereafter strongly influences his behaviour. The problem of the relation of physical defects to delinquency in its various phases, including major crime, constitutes one of the most alarming aspects of our modern problems in social degeneration. In the 1930s, C.F. Chassell made an exhaustive study from reports of workers in several countries. She summarised her finding as follows: 'The correlation between delinquency and mental inferiority as found in the case of feeble-minded groups is clearly positive, and tends to be marked in degree.'[3] Another worker at the same time, Dr C. I. Burt, who had made an extensive study of the problems of the backward child and the delinquent child in London, stated:
'Both at London and at Birmingham between 60 and 70 per cent belong to the (innately) "dull" category. . . . In the majority the outstanding cause is a general inferiority of intellectual capacity, presumably inborn and frequently hereditary.'[4]
Burt also noted that criminals also tended to have physical defects. Indeed physical and mental damage often went together. He emphasised a relationship between delinquency and physical deficiency, thus:
'Most repeated offenders are far from robust; they are frail, sickly, and infirm. Indeed, so regularly is chronic moral disorder associated with chronic physical disorder that many have contended that crime is a disease, or at least a symptom of disease, needing the doctor more than the magistrate, physic rather than the whip. . . . The frequency among juvenile delinquents of bodily weakness and ill health has been remarked by almost every recent writer. In my own series of cases nearly 70 per cent were suffering from such defects; and nearly 50 per cent were in urgent need of medical treatment. . . . Of all the psychological causes of crime, the commonest and the gravest is usually alleged to be defective mind. The most eminent authorities, employing the most elaborate methods of scientific analysis, have been led to enunciate some such belief. In England, for example, Dr. Goring has affirmed that "the one vital mental constitutional factor in the etiology of crime is defective intelligence." In Chicago, Dr. Healy has likewise maintained that among the personal characteristics of the offender "mental deficiency forms the largest single cause of delinquency." And most American investigators would agree.'[5]
The point is that physical deformity, low mentality and criminality are all noticeable by their absence in primitive societies, untouched by our civilisation. Adele Davis, in her book Let's Have Healthy Children also found that mothers and their offspring who were correctly fed also did not have either physically or mentally damaged children. If that was clear three-quarters of a century ago, why is not more done to correct the situation? But what should be done? you may ask. Well, a change of thinking on diet would help.
Antisocial behaviour
Studies showed that children between 6 and 16 years of age whose cholesterol concentration was below 3.77 mmol/L (145 mg/dL) were almost three times more likely to have been suspended or expelled from schools than their peers with higher cholesterol levels.[6] The conclusion was that low total cholesterol may be a risk factor for aggression or a risk marker for other biologic variables that predispose to aggression.
Food as a cause
The food we eat has a wide range of effects on our body systems. Apart from water, our brains are about three-quarters fat. We need a steady intake of fats for our brains to function properly — and that intake must be of the right fats. Also, while our brains account for only about 2.5% of our body weight, they use about 20% of our bodies' total energy. For these reasons, food intakes and fluctuations in energy levels can have a profound effect on how our brains are formed as infants and how well they perform later in life, as well as affecting our behaviour and emotions. The various major food groups — carbohydrates, proteins and fats — have different effects on the brain. Carbohydrates engender a feeling of well-being and induce sleepiness. But they also have a wide range of other effects. For example:
- Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, concentration difficulties, and crankiness in children.[7]
- Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly.[8]
- Sugar can cause depression.4
- Many neurological illnesses are also associated with cereal grain consumption.[9]
- Nearly one out of every five paediatric patients with type-2 diabetes also has a brain-development disorder, psychiatric illness or behavioural disorder.[10]
This last case tends to confirm the link between diet and these diseases. The sad thing is that instead of correcting diet, psychotropic medications are often prescribed. This treatment can only make the situation worse. Changing eating habits away from carbohydrates and damaged fats and towards healthy fats and protein prevents many increasingly common conditions.
References
[1]. Price WA. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Paul B. Hoeber, Inc, New York, 1939, Chap. 19.
[2]. Thorndike EL. Big Chief's G. G. Time, 30:25, 1937.
[3]. Chassell CF. Relation between morality and intellect. N. Y., Columbia, 1935.
[4]. Burt, C. L. Backward Child. Appleton, New York, 1937.
[5]. Burt, C. L. The Young Delinquent. University of London Press, London, 1925.
[6]. Zhang J, Muldoon MF, McKeown RE, Cuffe, SP. Association of Serum Cholesterol and History of School Suspension among School-age Children and Adolescents in the United States. Am J Epidemiol 2005; 161:691-699.
[7]. Goldman J, et al. Behavioral Effects of Sucrose on Preschool Children. J Abnormal Child Psych 1986; 14: 565-577
[8]. Christensen L. The Role of Caffeine and Sugar in Depression. The Nutrition Report 1991; 9 (3): 17-24.
[9]. Hadjivassiliou M, et al. Does cryptic gluten sensitivity play a part in neurological illness? Lancet 1996; 347: 369–371.
[10]. Levitt Katz LE, et al. Neuropsychiatric disorders at the presentation of type 2 diabetes mellitus in children. Pediatr Diabetes 2005; 6: 84-89.
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