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Introduction
In 1979, Dan White was tried for the assassinations of San Francisco city district Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. His lawyers argued that he had diminished capacity and was unable to premeditate his crime. Part of the evidence for his depressed and altered state of mind was that he had recently changed from a health-conscious diet to junk food and Coca-Cola. Although Twinkies, a popular packaged snack cake filled with cream, were mentioned only in passing during the trial, the legal argument became known as the 'Twinkie Defense'. The defence was successful: White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter rather than homicide. 1
Although White's lawyers never claimed that sugar led to his violent acts, studies since then have explored this possibility. High consumption of soft drinks, for example, has been found to correlate positively with poor mental health among Norwegian adolescents, 2 and with increased individualism and decreased collectivism, social desirability and ability to understand emotions in a sample of American college students (S Konrath, Research Center for Group Dynamics, University of Michigan, 2011). A recent meta-analysis examined several purported pathways linking diet and anti-social behaviour. 3 One possible explanation for an association between high sugar intake and aggressive behaviour is that that consumption of sugary beverages is a response to abnormally low blood glucose levels, a physiological state that has been linked with irritable and violent behaviour. 3 4 Another possibility is that soft drinks replace healthier whole foods in the diet, and that a deficiency of micro-nutrients can lead to violent behaviour. Several studies have found that supplementation of micro-nutrients can significantly decrease aggression, but this research remains in its initial stages. 3
In this paper, we investigate the association of carbonated non-diet soft drink consumption and violence in a sample of Boston adolescents. We focus on whether non-diet soft drinks are linked with weapon carrying, and violence perpetration against siblings, dates and peers.
Methods
The Boston Youth Survey (BYS) is a biennial paper-and-pencil survey of 9th-12th grade students in Boston public schools. Religious schools, private schools and other schools that are outside the Boston Public School system are not included. In 2008, all 31 eligible high schools were invited to participate; ineligible schools included those that served adults (eg,...