Sean Moloughney09.08.08
More than 1000 prisoners in three U.K. prisons will be subjects in a new study investigating the link between nutrition and behavior. Wellcome Trust, a U.K. charity that funds innovative biomedical research, has offered $2.6 million for the Oxford University project.
Professor John Stein and colleagues intend to learn if dietary adequacy and optimum nutrient dosages required to support brain function and behavior are responsible for the significant reduction in antisocial and violent behavior demonstrated through previous studies conducted in North America and Europe. This investigation will also help determine which dietary supplements might further benefit participants.
“If this study shows that nutritional supplementation affects behavior, it could have profound significance for nutrition guidelines not only within the criminal justice system, but in the wider community, in schools, for example,” said Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust. “We are all used to nutritional guidelines for our physical health, but this study could lead to revisions taking into account our mental health, as well."
Alexander Schauss, PhD, FACN, senior director of natural and medicinal products research at AIBMR Life Sciences, Puyallup, WA, has spent more than 30 years conducting research on this topic. “Seeing the level of research on diet and crime reach this level of financial support by the medical community is heartening,” he said. “But it took over 30 years, even though the evidence was there back in the 1970s.”
Mr. Schauss also said he hopes better nutrition education starts with “pre-conceptual care programs that focus on nutrition and other lifestyle factors and behaviors that can decrease the risk of antisocial behavior.”
In 1978, Mr. Schauss published a controversial work entitled “Orthomolecular Treatment of Criminal Offenders,” which suggested that diet could be used to reduce the incidence of antisocial behavior. After reading the manuscript, Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Laureate, asked to include his signature on the cover as endorsement of the book. Two years later, Mr. Schauss had an expanded work come out, “Diet, Crime and Delinquency,” which was reprinted 14 times between 1980 and 1992, and adopted as required reading by courses at many universities and colleges.
Since the publication of the second book, more than 20 controlled clinical trials have been performed in various state and county juvenile and adult institutions and the results published in the scientific literature confirming that diet could indeed be used to reduce the incidence of antisocial behavior by up to 60%.
The Oxford University-led study, one of the largest conducted to date to determine the affect of nutrition on behavior, is being conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at Imperial College, University of London, the University of Surrey, and the University of Liverpool and the Medical Research Council on Human
Nutrition Research.
Professor John Stein and colleagues intend to learn if dietary adequacy and optimum nutrient dosages required to support brain function and behavior are responsible for the significant reduction in antisocial and violent behavior demonstrated through previous studies conducted in North America and Europe. This investigation will also help determine which dietary supplements might further benefit participants.
“If this study shows that nutritional supplementation affects behavior, it could have profound significance for nutrition guidelines not only within the criminal justice system, but in the wider community, in schools, for example,” said Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust. “We are all used to nutritional guidelines for our physical health, but this study could lead to revisions taking into account our mental health, as well."
Alexander Schauss, PhD, FACN, senior director of natural and medicinal products research at AIBMR Life Sciences, Puyallup, WA, has spent more than 30 years conducting research on this topic. “Seeing the level of research on diet and crime reach this level of financial support by the medical community is heartening,” he said. “But it took over 30 years, even though the evidence was there back in the 1970s.”
Mr. Schauss also said he hopes better nutrition education starts with “pre-conceptual care programs that focus on nutrition and other lifestyle factors and behaviors that can decrease the risk of antisocial behavior.”
In 1978, Mr. Schauss published a controversial work entitled “Orthomolecular Treatment of Criminal Offenders,” which suggested that diet could be used to reduce the incidence of antisocial behavior. After reading the manuscript, Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Laureate, asked to include his signature on the cover as endorsement of the book. Two years later, Mr. Schauss had an expanded work come out, “Diet, Crime and Delinquency,” which was reprinted 14 times between 1980 and 1992, and adopted as required reading by courses at many universities and colleges.
Since the publication of the second book, more than 20 controlled clinical trials have been performed in various state and county juvenile and adult institutions and the results published in the scientific literature confirming that diet could indeed be used to reduce the incidence of antisocial behavior by up to 60%.
The Oxford University-led study, one of the largest conducted to date to determine the affect of nutrition on behavior, is being conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at Imperial College, University of London, the University of Surrey, and the University of Liverpool and the Medical Research Council on Human
Nutrition Research.