Can a Nutrient-Poor Diet Lead to Violence?

Food has been linked to a host of mood disorders. But did you know an ultra-processed, nutrient-poor diet is also linked to changes in behavior and even acts of violence? In fact, it might be partly responsible for the growing conflicts in our society—in politics, race relations, schools, religion, our mental health crisis, kids’ poor academic performance, and even our rising prison population.
When I started digging into the research, I was shocked by the data linking our ultra-processed, nutrient-poor diet to bad behavior, conflict, mental illness, and even homicide and suicide.

Research on Nutrient-Poor Diet and Mood Disorders

Here’s what some of the studies show:

Junk food makes kids act violently—bullying, fighting—and suffer more psychiatric distress, including worry, depression, confusion, insomnia, anxiety, aggression, and feeling worthless. Those who consume high levels of refined oils (currently more than 10 percent of our diet and found in all ultra-processed foods) and low levels of omega-3 fats from fish have higher rates of depression, suicide, and homicide. (1)

What’s scary is that our consumption of these refined omega-6 oils (mainly soybean oil) has gone up 248 percent from 1970 to 2010 and 1,000 percent from 1900.

Another study found that violent juveniles given a vitamin and mineral supplement reduced violent acts by 91 percent compared to a control group. These kids were deficient in iron, magnesium, B12, and folate—all needed for proper brain function. (2)

In that same study, they wired the kids up to EEG machines to look at their brain waves and found a major decrease in abnormal brain function after just 13 weeks of supplementation. They also advised kids to improve their diet. The ones that didn’t show any reduction in violent behavior. The kids that improved their diets showed an 80 percent reduction in violent crime.

In another similar double-blind, randomized controlled trial (the best kind of study), researchers found a 37 percent reduction in violent crime in those taking omega-3 fats and vitamin and mineral supplements. (3)

Yet another experimental study of 3,000 incarcerated youth replaced snack foods with healthier options and dramatically reduced refined and sugary foods. Can you guess what happened?

Over the 12-month follow-up, there was a 21 percent reduction in antisocial behavior, a 100 percent reduction in suicides, a 25 percent reduction in assaults, and a 75 percent reduction in the use of restraints. (2) Considering suicide is the number one killer of kids between 10 and 19 years old, this should be headline news.

This is stunning!

Can We Fix Our Broken Food System by Reducing Our Nutrient-Poor Diet?

Clearly, crime and anti-social behavior arise from a complex set of social, economic, and environmental factors. But what if a big part of the solution to our increasing social strife, exploding rates of depression, mental illness, ADHD, bullying, violence, crime, and our overflowing criminal justice system is fixing our broken food system?

If these foods perpetuate a cycle of poverty, food insecurity, poor brain development, mental illness, violence, homicide, and suicide, what should be the implications of regulating these products?
Smoking kills far fewer people than food (7 million vs. 11 million a year). Yet, it is highly regulated—high taxes, no advertising, and severe restrictions on where you can smoke and who can buy cigarettes.

Should the same be done for food? Should we regulate the ultra-processed food that is driving a greater loss in quality of life, productivity, and direct and indirect costs from mental illness than any other disease, including obesity and type 2 diabetes?

I say yes.

Practical Solutions for Community Health

In my book, Food Fix, I outline practical solutions to some of our biggest problems driven by bad food, including how we can fix our personal health and the health of our communities, youth, schools, and more.

If you’re a parent, a teacher, a caregiver, a community leader, or just someone who is fed up with our broken food and healthcare systems, I’d like to ask you to join me on this mission.

Let’s fix the problem by addressing the cause of these terrible injustices.