In 1978, Dan White murdered San Francisco City Comptroller Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. There was no doubt about it. White surrendered, then tearfully and contritely admitted to shooting each of the men—his former colleagues—multiple times. The only question at White’s trial in 1979 was how severe his sentence would be.
White’s attorneys mounted a masterful defense during the hearing. They claimed that their clients’ mental capacity was diminished by stress and severe depression. His heinous actions were not fully under his conscious control. Therefore, the first-degree murder charge, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, was a very harsh penalty.
During the trial, the defense team included a psychiatrist, Dr. questioned Martin Blinder. He told them that White was a fitness enthusiast who took pride in eating right and staying healthy. However, during depressive episodes, White would enter a “vicious cycle” of junk food consumption.
“When he felt like things weren’t going well, he would abandon his usual exercise and good nutrition program and start gorging on junk food: Twinkies, Coca-Cola,” Blinder testified.
Blinder later said:
“There is a significant amount of evidence that in vulnerable individuals, taking large amounts of what we call junk food, foods with high sugar content and lots of preservatives, can precipitate anti-social and even violent behavior. For example, taking so-called career criminals and removing all their junk food from dairy, meat and There were some studies where they fed potatoes and their criminal records instantly evaporated.”
The press went wild and dubbed the lawyers’ tactic the “Twinkie defense”: Were they trying to blame their client’s double murder on junk food?
Twinkie defense
In reality, White’s legal team referred to his unhealthy benders only as a sign of his depression, not the cause of it. Yet the “Twinkie defense” narrative stuck. And it may have paid off: White was convicted only of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to just seven years in prison.
In an article published recently International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, a multidisciplinary team of researchers referred to the “Twinkie defence”. In the decades since Dan White’s trial, scientists have investigated the relationship between nutrition and crime. They found intriguing signs that the two were connected.
One of the first signs to appear in the 1980s. Under the direction of a nutritionist, dining staff secretly altered the diet of a Virginia juvenile detention center to reduce the amount of refined sugar given to inmates. Social scientist and criminologist Dr. Stephen J. Schoenthaler presided over the hearing. It found that inmates on a better diet had 45% fewer documented incidents of disciplinary action. But the study was small and included only 58 children.
This preliminary success led to a dozen trials in other correctional facilities. Chefs have replaced sugary breakfast cereals with healthier ones. Canned fruits have been replaced with whole fruits. Fatty, sweet snacks were replaced by vegetables, cheeses and whole grain products.
“Across the twelve correctional facilities we studied through 1985, we found a 47% reduction in documented crimes, infractions, and other indicators of antisocial behavior,” Schoenthaler said in an academic interview published in 2023. open violence, acts of theft, verbal aggression and disobedience to correctional staff. Collectively, these studies involved more than 8,000 children.”
Schoenthaler then conducted two randomized, placebo-controlled studies that provided vitamin supplements to some inmates of correctional facilities and inert pills to others. There were significant reductions in rule violations among subjects who consumed the supplement.
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Since then, multiple research teams around the world have found that proper diet and nutrition can help reduce noncompliance and aggression in the prison population.
But today, most U.S. states allocate less than $3 per prisoner per day for food. Such inadequate funding means that almost all prisoners are fed fortified, overly processed products. Could investing in better nutrition in prisons save money overall? Schoenthaler thinks so.
“A single preventable violation leading to an additional four months in jail or prison can cost $10,000 or more. “If you look at this from a broader perspective of prevention and treatment throughout the entire criminal justice process, then the financial savings will be incalculable,” he said.
What about among the general population? Can proper nutrition prevent criminal activity? Various studies have shown that consuming nutritious, whole foods instead of processed, high-fat, high-sugar foods improves mental health, mood, and academic outcomes; All of these greatly affect a person’s likelihood of committing a crime.
“Is it a coincidence that the 10 states with the highest obesity rates in 2021 (Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio) are all in the upper tier of those states? The highest in 2021 incarceration rates?” asked the researchers behind the latest review.
There is, of course, no single cause for anti-social behavior, which makes the “Twinkie defence” highly suspect. However, based on the research conducted, nutrition certainly seems to be at least an indirect factor. So eat right. It will help you stay mentally fit and perhaps, in turn, stay out of prison.