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Eating Candy in Childhood Linked to Adult Crime
Time ^ | Oct. 3, 2009 | ALICE PARK

Posted on 10/03/2009 3:09:15 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

What parent hasn't used candy to pacify a cranky child or head off a brewing tantrum? When reasoning, threats and time-outs fail, a sugary treat often does the trick. But while that chocolate-covered balm may be highly effective in the short term, say British scientists, it may be setting youngsters up for problem behavior later. According to a new study, kids who eat too many treats at a young age risk becoming violent in adulthood.

The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University in the U.K., who specializes in the study of vulnerable youngsters. Moore had been investigating the factors that lead children to commit serious crimes, when, during the course of his work, he discovered that "kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers, and that these kids had terrible diets - breakfast was a Coke and a bag of chips," he says. (See nine kid foods to avoid.)

Intrigued by this association, Moore turned to the British Cohort Study, a long-term survey of 17,000 people born during a one-week period in April 1970. That study included periodic evaluations of many different aspects of the growing children's lives, such as what they ate, certain health measures and socioeconomic status. Moore plumbed the data for information on kids' diet and their later behavior: at age 10, the children were asked how much candy they consumed, and at age 34, they were questioned about whether they had been convicted of a crime. Moore's analysis suggests a correlation: 69% of people who had been convicted of a violent act by age 34 reported eating candy almost every day as youngsters; 42% of people who had not been arrested for violent behavior reported the same.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crime; foodpolice; psychology; riskybehavior; sugar; uselessinformation
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To: Free ThinkerNY

These researchers should demand their money back from whatever schools gave them degrees.


41 posted on 10/03/2009 4:42:00 PM PDT by Kirkwood
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To: Free ThinkerNY

It is called poor parenting and candy/treats only reinforce the bad behavior. The treats themselves have nothing to do with it.


42 posted on 10/03/2009 4:42:51 PM PDT by EBH (it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

What about wearing diapers? Did you know that 100% of all killers and rapists once wore them?? 100% correlation!!!!


43 posted on 10/03/2009 4:44:23 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Corn Flakes are just mashed up bits of gypsum like corn stuck together with a liquid sugar cement. Even if it isn’t in your face sweet its still mostly that liquified sugar. I used to eat lots of different types and most cereal flakes are created that way. These days I have switched to an old boy scout favourite up here in Canada called Red River cereal (not sure if it is available in the US or not) and it is very healthy with no sugar but I do add some maple syrup for flavour.


44 posted on 10/03/2009 4:54:16 PM PDT by xp38
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To: Yaelle; SunkenCiv; null and void

I suppose prosecutors all ate sauerkraut as children


45 posted on 10/03/2009 4:56:08 PM PDT by ValerieTexas
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Sugar-coated utrajunk science.


46 posted on 10/03/2009 4:57:47 PM PDT by NightOfTheLivingDems (Destroy the Dems in Two Thousand Ten)
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To: ValerieTexas

Would you believe there was a recipe bouncing around in the 70’s for “sauerkraut chocolate cake.” You just mixed the kraut in with the cake mix and some eggs and baked, and it was touted as the most wonderful thing. My mother tried it, and I am convinced the recipe was a prank. Cherries fill out a chocolate cake nicely — but the other stuff? Phew and yuck!


47 posted on 10/03/2009 4:59:32 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

And the first thing you learn in either Psychology or Statistics is that Correlational Studies CANNOT be used to establish cause-effect relationships.


48 posted on 10/03/2009 5:07:55 PM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and I'm tired of smiling.)
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To: clee1

True. Even if the correlation is valid, i.e., repeatable, representative of a true correlation, it doesn’t mean cause and effect. The first thing that occured to me was that parents who are lazy and indulgent get poor results.

It’s what’s known in statistics as colinearity. Many traits may be associated.


49 posted on 10/03/2009 5:11:58 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Don't tell 0bama what comes after a trillion.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Yes... like it completely fails to examine the “spoiled-child” hypothesis.


50 posted on 10/03/2009 5:15:50 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Is said candy stolen?


51 posted on 10/03/2009 5:16:39 PM PDT by Feline_AIDS (Boop boop hoop yeah!)
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To: Cvengr

And every dead person has eaten a carrot.

52 posted on 10/03/2009 5:18:53 PM PDT by MaxMax (Obama can't play in the Olympic reindeer games)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Good thing we weren’t really allowed to eat candy children and I never cared for sugar soda, chocolate(especially dark) and candy in general.

Never liked cake but, would eat the frosting. Now I don’t care for either.

Use to like Lemon cake but rarely touch it.

I wonder what happens as you get older that things just start getting eliminated for no particular reason?


53 posted on 10/03/2009 5:25:10 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

The real problem is those PEZ Heads!


54 posted on 10/03/2009 5:26:14 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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To: ValerieTexas

They’re lawyers, so they probably ate kittens and puppies.


55 posted on 10/03/2009 5:28:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Eating Candy in Childhood Linked to Adult Crime

How about pizza?

56 posted on 10/03/2009 5:34:26 PM PDT by SteamShovel (When hope trumps reality, there is no hope at all.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Bit this childhood candy eater is busy at home eating candy as an adult. Too lazy and too caught up in making sure the spray whipped cream covers the white chocolate cookie to find time to rob, steal, or cheat. Maybe steal one of my husbands Mike and Ike’s but otherwise . . ..


57 posted on 10/03/2009 5:39:53 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: BunnySlippers
Every morning when I wake up, this is what I think about:

And


58 posted on 10/03/2009 5:51:50 PM PDT by Lockbar (March toward the sound of the guns.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

LOL
Me too, but I’m still a little angry....


59 posted on 10/03/2009 5:58:04 PM PDT by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona.....)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

much better statistics if the hypothesis was “Milk in infancy leads to adult violence”.

Junk science at its finest!


60 posted on 10/03/2009 6:04:00 PM PDT by free thinker 03 (Wouldn't it be refreshing if politicians actually did what they said)
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