Could a soy diet be considered ‘cruel and unusual punishment’?

• Sleep Education
• Are soybeans your idea of punishment?

Food can be our connection to home. It can alter the course of a bad day. And it can certainly pacify a restless crowd on an airplane. In short, it’s not hard to connect your happiness to a small foil package of pretzels or the cookie you’ve got stashed in your desk drawer.

But what about someone who doesn’t have a say in what they’re eating? David Northrup, an inmate at the Lake Correctional Institute in Florida has filed a lawsuit alleging that the prison’s soy-based diet constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.” [h/t to the Daily Commercial] The institution has been serving foods that are half-poultry and half-soy for the past two years, which suggests we may have to redefine the word “tofurkey.”

Regardless of the merits of this particular lawsuit, it raises an interesting question. Is a lack of choice in what you’re eating potentially a form of punishment?