Study: Prison Food Can Affect Inmates' Behavior

Randall Jeppesen ReportingBehind the closed doors of the prison walls there's a lot time spent on meals.

"Food is probably the biggest issue at the prison. The last major riot, which was like forty years ago, was over food."

Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford says they have dieticians that make sure inmates get nutritious meals.

"We have a number of different people, diabetics, Muslims, vegetarians. We have to prepare different meals for all the needs."

But can inmates get out of control from the foods they eat? University of Utah nutrition Professor Wayne Askew says eating sugar at first gives you a natural high, but if you eat too much, your body tries to get rid of sugar, dropping the blood sugar level, and that can really change your thought process.

"Irritability, anger, hostility, kind of a general black mood, so to speak."

Also, what if you cut out all the sugars you can, something dieters might do. It can be depressing, literally, because, Askew says, the brain needs time to adjust.

"The thinking gets a little foggy initially. There's that adaptive period that people who are dieting or losing weight or restricting they're food intake can go through. They will not feel very good for a while.

Now back in the state prison...

"We have not gone to the point of saying a lot of sugar in their meals causes them to be hyper."

The inmates even get snacks at times.

"Things like potato chips as well as occasionally twinkies or cupcakes, things like that that are put in sack lunches."

But what about the study that says fish can lower aggression levels?

"I think this is pretty exciting. On the other hand they could just have been feeling a lot better because they were getting some good quality fish instead of a soy burger."

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