Sweets & Chocolate Linked to Adult Violence

An article by The Medibolism Team    No Comments

While Julia Hunt of the Food and Drink Federation calls it utter nonsense or a distasteful April Fool joke, Dr. Moore and his team of researchers from Cardiff University believe that confectionery is linked to adult violence but does not believe that the additives used in confectionery are to blame.

I do not think it any great secret that our eating habits have been linked with behavioural problems like aggression. However, the long-term effects of our eating habits in our childhood with regard to adult violence has never been studied, so the findings by Dr. Moore and his team of researchers is a first.

The researchers’ findings are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, and comes from a study of 17,500 people. The team are quoted as saying:

Giving children sweets and chocolate regularly may stop them learning how to wait to obtain something they want. Not being able to defer gratification may push them towards more impulsive behaviour, which is associated with delinquency. - Dr. Moore CU

It would appear that Dr. Moore and his team believe that bribing children for good behaviour with the promise of sweets and chocolate on a regular basis, may stop them learning the art of patience and how to wait for something they would like to own. The findings pointed to children aged 10 who had consumed excessive amounts of confectionery daily, having a much higher ratio of being convicted of violence at the age of 34yrs.

So in a nut shell it is more or less saying that when we bribe our children with the promise of a reward like sweets or chocolate for good behaviour, the child learns that being naughty at the right time will always lead to a reward for their continued good behaviour. We take this learned behaviour whether we realize it or not into adulthood. Where patience and consideration has not been learned you will find aggression. Aggression in the adult with no immediate reward may then lead to violence for no other reason than, “I could not get my own way!”

If you do accept that this kind of childhood behaviour results in adult violence then you would also have to consider that it does not only apply to sweets and chocolate. Rewards could also extend to a particular games machine that “you will not get if you show me up in public again”… or am I reading to much into the written word… kongang heyo.. Take care..