Alexander Schauss has scientific proof that what you eat not only affects your physical shape but your state of mind, too. It follows that your eating habits could actually determine your personality. Are you on a diet to delinquency? Barbara Griggs investigates this controversial issue that could change any mom's ideas on nutrition.
Every schoolchild knows that we are what we eat. That too much rich, sugary food can lead to heart attacks. That bingeing on butter and cheese is bad for us. That not eating enough fruit and vegetables may lower our resistance to diseases like cancer.
That fatness is the foe to fitness.
But the idea that what we eat can also affect our minds, even our behavior, still strikes most people as bizarre and unacceptable.
The results seemed to bear Schauss out. When junk food was junked, delighted teachers reported quieter classrooms, more attentive children, peaceful bedtimes and fewer disturbed nights.
The number of black marks for bad behaviour against children on the healthier diet fell by almost half.
Even more interesting, it was the worst class of offenders which showed the most dramatic reduction: assault fell by 82 percent, theft by 77 percent. The delinquents who were there for the worst crimes – assault, rape, robbery and vandalism – benefited most of all.