§ Mr. ShersbyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has concerning any relationship between vitamin or mineral deficiency in the diet of children and inattentiveness or delinquent behaviour; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. CurrieA number of theories have been put forward linking diet or vitamin and mineral supplementation with children's behaviour. I am advised that the results so far published of studies designed to validate such theories appear to have been vitiated by inadequate research. The Department's medical advisers are studying the report published in theLancet on 23 January relating to vitamin and mineral supplementation among Welsh schoolchildren which was the subject, together with a study in the United States of America, of a recent television programme. The Welsh study did not address inattentiveness or delinquency. Apparently the United States study was concerned with delinquency, but no details have yet been published.