In 1978, Dan White murdered San Francisco City Manager Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. There was no doubt about this. White turned himself in and tearfully confessed that he had shot all of his former colleagues multiple times. At White’s trial in 1979, the only question was how severe his sentence would be.
Ms. White’s lawyer presented a skilled defense in court. They claimed that their client’s mental capacity was impaired by stress and severe depression. His heinous act was not entirely within his conscious control. Therefore, first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, was far too harsh a sentence.
During the trial, the defense questioned psychiatrist Dr. Martin Blinder.he Said They described White as a fitness enthusiast who takes pride in eating right and staying healthy. But when she becomes depressed, White finds herself stuck in a “vicious cycle” of eating junk food.
“Whenever he felt like things weren’t going well, he would abandon his regular exercise and proper nutrition program and start bingeing on junk food like Twinkies and Coca-Cola,” Blinder said. testified.
Blinder then said:
“We know that when susceptible people consume large amounts of so-called junk food, sugary foods loaded with preservatives, it can lead to antisocial and even violent behavior. There’s a lot of evidence that shows, for example, that when you take so-called career criminals and give them milk and potatoes instead of all junk food, their criminal records disappear immediately.
The media went wild, calling the lawyer’s tactics “.twinkie defense“: Were they trying to blame junk food for their client’s serial murders?
Twinkie’s defense
In fact, White’s lawyers referred to his unhealthy bent only as a symptom of depression, not the cause of it. Still, the story of the “Twinkie Defense” persisted. And it seemed to work, as White was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to just seven years in prison.
in paper recently published International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, The multidisciplinary team of researchers referred to the “Twinkie defense.” In the decades since Dan White’s trial, scientists have investigated the relationship between nutrition and crime. They found interesting signs that the two are related.
One of the earliest signs came in the 1980s. At a juvenile detention center in Virginia, school lunch staff under the guidance of a nutritionist secretly changed the diet to reduce the amount of refined sugar given to inmates. Social scientist and criminologist Dr. Steven J. Schoenthaler oversaw the trial. He found that inmates with better diets had a 45% lower incidence of documented disciplinary action. However, this study was small and only 58 adolescents participated.
This preliminary success led to more than a dozen trials at other correctional facilities. Cooks replaced sugary breakfast cereals with healthier ones. Canned fruit has been replaced with whole fruit. Fatty and sweet snacks were replaced by vegetables, cheese and whole grain products.
“In the 12 correctional facilities we studied, we found that by 1985, documented crimes, violations, and other indicators of antisocial behavior had declined by 47 percent,” Schoenthaler wrote in the paper. Stated. academic interview “This includes reductions in overt violence, theft, verbal aggression, and disobedience to correctional staff. In total, more than 8,000 youth participated in these studies.”
Schoenthaler then conducted two randomized, placebo-controlled trials in which some correctional inmates were given vitamin supplements and others were given inert pills. Rule violations were significantly reduced among subjects who took the supplement.
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Many research teams around the world have since discovered that proper diet and nutrition can help reduce rule-breaking and aggression in prisons.
But today, in most states in the United States, Each inmate can donate less than $3 per day. For food. Such scarce funds mean that nearly all prisoners are given enhanced, ultra-processed products. Could investing in improving prison nutrition potentially save money overall? Schoenthaler thinks so.
“Committing just one preventable offense can result in an additional four months in prison or imprisonment and can result in damages of more than US$10,000. When looked at from a broader perspective of prevention and treatment, the financial savings will be immeasurable.” Said.
What about among ordinary people? Can proper nutrition prevent criminal behavior? Studies have shown that consuming nutritious whole foods rather than high-fat, high-sugar processed foods improves mental health, mood, and academic performance. It has been shown to improve academic performance, all of which have a significant impact on the likelihood of committing a crime.
“The 10 states with the highest obesity rates in 2021 (Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama, Missouri, and Ohio) all had the highest obesity rates. Is it just a coincidence that the state has the highest incarceration rate in 2021?” asked the researchers behind the recent review.
Of course, there is no single cause of antisocial behavior, which makes the “Twinkie defense” highly questionable. However, based on the research conducted, it seems certain that nutrition is at least an indirect factor. So, eat right. It will keep you mentally healthy and even help you get out of jail.
