Читать книгу They Are What You Feed Them: How Food Can Improve Your Child’s Behaviour, Mood and Learning - Dr Richardson Alex - Страница 81

Results of a study by my colleague Bernard Gesch,¹² funded by the charity ‘Natural Justice’, revealed the remarkable effects of micronutrients on behaviour. This was the most definitive study yet showing the impact of diet on antisocial behaviour, including violence: a rigorously controlled trial involving 231 young offenders at a high-security prison in the UK.

Half the young men received daily multivitamin and fatty acid supplements (providing micronutrients only at doses close to recommended daily intakes). The others received identical-looking placebo capsules. Each prisoner was followed for up to nine months of dietary treatment, and his rate of offending during that time was compared with what had prevailed over the preceding nine months.

Offences fell by more than 25 per cent in the group receiving active supplements. When analyses were restricted to those who actually took the supplements for at least two weeks, the reduction was 34 per cent; and for violent offences, it was 37 per cent. In each case, there was no significant change in offending rates for those on placebo.