A study has shown an almost 70% correlation between individuals who ate candy on a daily basis when they were children and who were later convicted of a violent crime by their mid-30′s. The research, led by Simon Moore of Cardiff University in the U.K., has many in the field of criminal and forensic psychology intrigued.

Moore first became aware of the relation between food consumption and criminal behavior when he noted that many misbehaving children had terrible diets. Looking over data from the British Cohorts Study, which continually collects data on over 17,000 individuals born in 1970, Moore uncovered a strong correlation between candy eating and violent acts. Feeling that it was too strange to be true, Moore accounted for other suspected variables, such as socioeconomic status and parenting style, but none of these produced the same effect.

Despite the strong correlation, it’s still too early to determine causation from this study. For instance, does candy produce a chemical or biological affect in people that can cause long-term aggressive behavior? Or is that children who receive candy regularly develop poor impulse control; in other words, they never learn how to delay gratification? Moore suspects the latter, although other research points to diet as a factor.

Researchers, are still prodding further into the fascinating link between junk food and violence. Parents and other caregivers should take the findings under serious consideration, as the correlation has merit despite disputed causation.