No doubt you’re familiar with many health perils of consuming processed junk food, but you may not know about this one. In the 1970s, there was a criminal trial for a man named Dan White who assassinated the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone. White’s defense attorney argued that his consumption of junk food, in particular Twinkies, led to his disordered, violent behavior. The argument, known as the “Twinkie Defense,” was relatively successful, and the defense was able to convince the jury to reduce White’s conviction from first-degree murder to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
As a result of this case, researchers began exploring the idea that junk food can contribute to disordered, even violent behavior. Is there a real connection, and if so, what is the biological basis of the Twinkie Defense, and why should we care?
Let’s set the stage with a very brief anatomy and physiology lesson. The two brain structures to understand here are the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Think of your prefrontal cortex as the “adult in the room,” or the part of the brain that’s responsible for rational, reasonable decision-making and problem-solving. Your brain’s amygdala, on the other hand, is like the “child in the room” that’s all about emotions, fear, and aggression.
In a normal, healthy brain there’s a system of checks and balances that these brain structures exert on each other. They both provide input for decision-making. However, when one goes “offline” we’re left with a preponderance of input from only one side of the equation. Back to the Twinkies. A recent study found that the insults to your brain that cause inflammation and thus take the prefrontal cortex (the adult) offline are stress, sleep deprivation, junk food, processed sugar, and environmental toxins. Just a side note: this may help explain why you tend to make poor food choices (and poor decisions in general) when you’re highly stressed and tired. Your “adult” has left the scene and delegated decisions to your “child.” Same thing with sugar, junk food, and environmental toxins. It’s a vicious cycle where these insults compromise your decision-making ability, and therefore you make the poor choice to continue on the path instead of making a course correction.
Could this at least partially explain, like the Twinkie Defense claims, why there is so much negative, violent behavior in society, or even worldwide? If our brains are on fire with inflammation from these insults, the rational adult segments of our brains are compromised, and the less rational, more primitive, more emotionally reactive areas become the decision makers.
Fascinating, huh? Here we have yet another reason why inflammatory processed junk food and sugar should have no place in your diet. And another reason why the EESystem’s capacity to create a balanced environment that your body can then use to reduce inflammation and release toxins is so vital.
Reference Source: https://youtu.be/qwTmIAmDJjo?si=NrM9_h3O_KmslefD
