🚀 go-pugleaf

> Not long ago, someone wrote in saying 'what in hell do twinkies have to
> 	do with suicide?'...
> Namely, the famous Twinkie Defense...
> 	...was a legal plea used in a California criminal case
> Well, the defense lawyer
> 	claimed that his client had eaten so many Twinkies and
> 	other junk foods with weird [spelt right] chemicals in them that
> 	he became clinically depressed and so on and so forth, mood
> 	alterations, blah blah blah...

As far-fetched as this seems, it is quite plausible.  The man almost
certainly had hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).  The symtoms are not
specific, but I have read reports of people diagnosed as manic depressives,
suicidal, antisocial, violent, etc. who were simply eating too much sugar.

Even though many people's blood sugar will drop a few hours after eating
huge amounts of sugar, most will suffer no ill effects.
"True" hypoglycemia, were a person's blood sugar level can drop to
dangerously low levels, is actually quite rare.

As one who was diagnosed as a true hypoglycemic, I can see
under an extreme case that someone might actually attempt suicide.  I can
remember being extremely depressed and paranoid for no apparent reason,
even though I never got to the point of attempting suicide.
The cure was simple:  eat a balanced diet.
-- 
John Waycott, Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ, (602) 438-3164
{seismo!terak, trwrb!flkvax, utzoo!mnetor, ihnp4, attunix}!mot!waycott
oakhill!mot!waycott@ut-sally.ARPA