Taking One For The Team Against Toxic Food Dyes

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Taking One For The Team Against Toxic Food Dyes

Food For Thought

Sunday, September 18, 2011

by Jennifer Taylor, actress, mother and Healthy Child Healthy World Luminary Board member

Popsicles, cookies, candy, soda, chips. My kids love after game snacks. Those treats are almost the reason they play sports. It starts off as a nice congratulatory snack and usually ends in tears. For me! They are bouncing off the walls. Don’t yell at your sister. Do not hit your brother! Why are you both crying? Go to your rooms! Naturally, we all blame the sugar. But is it really the sugar? I’ve started paying attention to my kids behavior after they eat those “treats” and it’s opened up a whole new avenue of crazy for me.

A few weeks ago my normally sweet boy had a hellacious fit about an hour an a half after eating a bag of cookies as a snack from his basketball game. This is the list of colorings (in order) on the package of cookies he consumed.

Yellow #5 Lake, Red #40 Lake, Blue #1 Lake, Yellow #6 Lake, Blue #2 Lake, Yellow #5, Red #40, Blue#1, Yellow #6, Blue #2

What the heck is a lake you say? Why are some colors listed twice? Exactly my thoughts. Apparently, Yellow #5 which is a water soluble dye is not enough to color the damn cookies. They also needed to add Yellow #5 Lake, because lake dyes do not break down in water.

There is a huge controversy about the safety of these dyes. There are so many of them with really questionable ingredients and side effects, it is a little difficult to know where to start. So I’ll limit my target to the top two offenders on my radar: Yellow #5 and Red #40. They are both azo dyes and they are made from coal tar. A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives describes coal tar as a “thick liquid or semisolid tar obtained from bituminous coal, it contains many constituents including benzene, xylenes, naphthalene, pyridine, quinonlineoline, phenol, and cresol”(Winter, 2009, P. 166). What the heck are those? They cause cancer.

Yellow #5 is also called tartrazine and E-102 and it is banned in Norway. It’s side effects are thought to include urticaria, hyperactivity, and cause complications for asthmatics. There appears to be a link between allergy to aspirin and to tartrazine. For years, the Feingold Association has been helping parents of kids with behavioural and attention difficulties by helping them eliminate all colorings and preservatives. These additives are that potent.

What kid doesn’t like a brilliant red colored beverage after a game? Red #40 is a dye that is linked to aggressive, irrational behavior. A few days before my son’s meltdown, I got to witness his normally calm, sweet friend go into a rage about 30 minutes after swigging a can of crap with Red 40, Blue 1, caramel color, sodium benzoate on their list of ingredients. Oh yeah, there was also vitamin C added to this drink. I suppose it was a nice gesture from the manufacturer to add some vitamins , except that vitamin c and sodium benzoate when mixed together create benzene, a known carcinogen. Not exactly what I had in mind for hydration.

Still need more reasons to watch out for these dyes? There was a big study in England called the South Hampton Study that proved that these dyes cause behavioural changes. The FDA was actually considering putting a warning label on products with these chemicals (mostly processed snack foods kids eat) that it may adversely affect their behavior. But they didn’t find that there was enough evidence to justify it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need a team of scientists to definitively confirm that if my kids eat the crappy chemically concocted cookies, they are going to bounce off the walls, yell and cry, and fight with each other. And if they eat a better treat without all the chemicals they don’t. But it would be nice if everyone got a heads up.

Right now you are probably thinking, just like I did, that if the FDA approved these dyes they must be safe. Right? Wrong. The following link will show you the amounts of known carcinogens and poisons and the amounts that they consider acceptable to be in these dyes. Mercury, arsenic, lead. Are any amounts acceptable to you in your child’s chips and cookies? I wonder how many after game snacks and birthday parties it takes for the levels to become unacceptable?

And below shows you what manufactures have to do to prove that their dyes are safe. Basically, they get to do their own experiments and on the honor system they say, “Yes, I believe this is safe”and voila: approved. So much for checks and balances by someone without a vested interest.

(b) The safety for external color additives will normally be determined by tests for acute oral toxicity, primary irritation, sensitization, subacute dermal toxicity on intact and abraded skin, and carcinogenicity by skin application. The commissioner may waive any of such tests if data before him otherwise establish that such test is not required to determine safety for the use proposed.

(c) Upon written request describing the proposed use of a color additive and the proposed experiments to determine its safety, the Commissioner will advise a person who wishes to establish the safety of a color additive whether he
believes the experiments planned will yield data adequate for an evaluation of the safety of the additive…

(Read more here)

The amount of food products that contain these dyes are staggering. Make sure you check the labels because it’s not just the brightly colored treats. Pickles, pudding, ice cream and crackers, are some surprising places you’ll find Yellow#5.

On the bright side, I just received a notice from the Los Angeles Unified School District about their food services division. They banned sulfites, artificial red dye #40, and yellow dye #5. Good for them! What a step in the right direction. I also saved the flyer to show my son. With the ever growing list of things I am checking for on labels, it was nice to be able to have my craziness validated by something he can relate to: even his school doesn’t want it.

Most of the time, trying to do the right thing makes me feel like the bad guy. I’m a crappy snack mom because I won’t dole out the brightly colored drinks, chips, and cookies. My wholesome chocolate chip granola bars, sea salt chips, and non-colored lemonade are a bit of a letdown compared to other snack mom treats.

So instead of enthusiastic thanks and smiles, I get the grudgingly murmured thanks and grimaces. But along with that, I get the satisfaction that I have helped their growing minds and bodies and perhaps their parents sanity… for at least one evening. This bad guy will take one for the team every time when it comes to food dyes.

This originally appeared on Jennifer’s new blog, Crazy Food Chick.

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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World.

Posted by Amy on 09/27/2011 at 06:40 AM

Thank you for this article. I also wanted to mention another interesting fact. I took my 2 year old daughter to a pediatric urologist at the regional children’s hospital due to chronic constipation issues. The doctor provided a list of foods and beverages to avoid, which included all artificially colored foods and beverages. I did not investigate further as to why this was to be avoided for constipation, as I did not notice it until we left. Regardless, it is another reason to avoid these dyes. Thank you for the information.

Posted by Alicia Bayer on 09/25/2011 at 11:03 AM

Thanks for being one of the sane moms who makes it easier on those of us who also limit our kids’ exposure to toxic crap. :)

Posted by MamaK on 09/25/2011 at 04:52 AM

Thanks for this article. I am going to be forwarding it on to some family members. We keep our kids away from food dyes but it does make you feel like the “food police” all the time.

Posted by Gloria on 09/24/2011 at 05:01 PM

What’s almost as amazing as the FDA’s blatent failure to protect is that many major corporations provide a seperate products to foreign counties who ban many of these dyes and chemicals with NATURAL coloring and flavors!

Yep, our own country’s major corporations are sending the “good stuff” overseas and selling us the crap.

Posted by Justi Lange on 09/24/2011 at 08:09 AM

Loved reading this article-

I have been fighting this same uphill battle for over 5 years. Once my son was diagnosed with asthma, and even his Dr. stated he needed to be eating all organic foods, I knew I had to educate myself. Even though others may not be appreciative, I can feel good about being part of the solution as a consumer who refuses to compound the problem by continuing to purchased toxic food.

It is amazing to me that the FDA (designed to protect consumers) has contributed to this problem by even allowing these toxins in our food. At the same time, I am continually amazed to the extent of our ignorance as consumers and those who refuse to acknowledge the reality of our over intoxification through personal care products, cleaning agents, air fresheners, and the food we consume.

Posted by Samantha on 09/23/2011 at 06:17 PM

This morning I found my daughter has been secretly keeping pink food coloring she squirted into a cup in her closet, behind my wedding dress no less. She informed me that she wakes up at night to taste it. (She’s 4!) To me, this illustrates the fine line we have to walk as parents - limiting unhealthy foods, like dyes, without turning our kids into red dye #40 seeking missiles! Clearly, I haven’t figured this out yet. Incidentally, she did throw a fit this morning…

www.chemicalfree.tv

Posted by Gloria on 09/23/2011 at 05:44 PM

I’ve always believed the dyes (along with the artificial flavors, preservatives, etc.) have been the bigger culprit than sugar (which I also avoid for the more obvious reasons) when it comes to children’s behavior issues as well as health issues.
I’m glad you wrote this and hope that as awareness increases, necessary action will be taken.

Also, I tried to buy some natural food colors and 3 primary vegetable based colors cost nearly $20!!!!! I can do without thank you : )

Posted by Alicia Tunby on 09/23/2011 at 04:50 PM

Thank you so much for tackling this subject! I recently found the chemical dye Res 40 in my daughter’s Flintstone vitamins and I was horrified! Upon looking at other children’s vitamins I found Aspartame and Red 40! This is just unacceptable to me! I finally went to a natural health food store in my area and bought my daughter the Garden of Life whole food vitamin. It may be a little more in price but can we really put a price on our child’s health?

Posted by Katie @ Healthnut Foodie on 09/23/2011 at 02:22 PM

What a fabulous, straight forward, and full of facts article! Running off to share this on Facebook right now!

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