Curiously, I started doing some digging. Did you know they don't even allow it in Europe anymore?
Anecdotal evidence (meaning lots of moms) find that by eliminating the dye, behavior dramatically improves. It is thought that some children have a sensitivity to the dye, which can trigger hyperactivity, outbursts, tantrums, dizziness, upset stomach, difficulty in attention span, etc. Some are saying kids are being misdiagnosed with ADHD who may simply be overly sensitive to Red Dye 40.
Upon doing some reading, I thought "well, we'll just stop eating anything with red 40 in it". Do me a favor and look through your pantry sometime. SOOOO much stuff has red 40 in it. In two minutes I found the items in the picture below. Two minutes! What makes me angry are the medications, flinstone vitamins, the pedialyte... heck even pudding? Geesh. And Koda spent pretty much a whole year refusing to eat anything but cereal bars. Any guesses about just what those contain? Red Dye 40? In the verbage of that wise one Sarah Palin... "You betchya!"
Koda is 3, meaning we deal with A LOT of tantrums. I try not to assume that it is food, or this, or that. However, if there is even a chance that it could affect him, on something that isn't even NEEDED in his diet, why on earth would I choose to give it to him? Did you know yellow 5 is derived from coal tar?? Come on! What are these food companies thinking?
I think Travis might be a little slower to join me on my latest granola/tree hugging/natural-wannabe crusade to eliminate this dye from the kids diets, but we are at the very least much more conscious and hopefully moving towards a red dye free lifestyle.
For more information (keep in mind this is all pretty anecdotal right now, but I will take the word of a boat load of mommies anyday over our underfunded, understaffed, and perhaps corrupt FDA !) check out these links:
Probably the best article I found was in Medical News today about a watchdog group asking the FDA to ban Red 40 and other artificial dyes. It gives some good history and a good general overview of the concerns.
This is a VERY general overview
This post talks about one mom's journey in figuring out that red dye 40 was the culprit for her son. Very dedicated!
Dr. Spock's site is a little more neutral on the subject.
A decent piece from the LA Times that talks a little more about Eurpose banning the dyes.
2 comments:
Here's another anecdote for you - I discovered years ago a link between ingesting Red Dye 40 and my getting a severe migraine (yes some migraines are worse than others). I avoid it like the plague. It's wonderful that you'll work to keep it out of your family's diet!
As the mother of a 12 yo with ADHD I've heard lots about Red 40 - it is nearly impossible to steer completely clear of which makes me so angry. Interestingly, I had a long convo last week at parent-teacher conferences with one teacher whose mother removed it from her families diet (this was 30years ago) and within weeks they saw a dramatic improvement in her brother who was ADD. I need to get more serious about keeping it out of my house!!
Post a Comment