Proper nutrition can provide an answer to crime

OVER the past two decades there has been a dramatic increase in the level of anti-social behaviour on Irish streets at night and over a similar period there has been a marked reduction in the quality of food that young people have been consuming.

Regular family meals are becoming a thing of the past and the consumption of fast food and nutritionally inadequate snack foods has increased exponentially. The consumption of fruit and vegetables by children is abysmal.

The results of a scientific study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry (Vol 181: 22-28) prove that offenders consume diets lacking in essential nutrients that could adversely affect their behaviour. Antisocial behaviour in prisons, including violence, are dramatically reduced by vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, with similar implications for those eating poor diets in the wider community.