Friday, August 29, 2008

What's up with food dye?

I figured there was something about red food dye 2 years ago when my son took a red antibiotic for 2 weeks. He was a wild and crazy 5 year old for the entire 2 weeks. It was awful. He changed into this crazed maniac that I was embarassed to be with. So I started watching and realized over several months that it was happening every time he had Red #40. I took out the Red #40 and realized it also happened with yellow #5 and #6.

That was 2 years ago. Now I have removed all artificial food coloring from the diet of all three of my children. If you've ever tried to do that, you know it's not easy. If you haven't tried it, you should start today. You may have no idea how many of the annoying things your kids do could be related to the food coloring in their diet.

I'll write more about my kids in other posts. If you don't believe me, check out the link I've provided to Center for Science in the Public Interest . There is recent research that verifies this problem is not just for ADHD kids but the general population.

Britain has removed food coloring from their foods. Why haven't we done that here in the USA? I hope this blog will help more people ask that question and start demanding answers.

6 comments:

just passin thru said...

My son has probably always freeked out after eating food dyes, but it was never as clear as when he ate a bowl of fruity pebbles this week. I took him to his Doctor and was looked as about as crazy and I looked at Jacob when he was dancing, jumping, crawling and flopping around that day.

Jayme said...

I AM FLABBERGASTED! I AM OUTRAGED!
HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD ABOUT THIS BEFORE? I will be going thru all my foods tomorrow while most of my kids are in school! And I am going to be more aware while shopping. WOW - I just can't believe it! US best place to be - I keep pondring that yet I keep hearing that we are so behind with so much stuff when it comes to our kids - this is ridiculous! Please tell me how I can find out about all of the resturants, and off name brands and such. I have a 7 year old Foster son who was diagnosed with ADHD, his moms solution was a Slim Jim - For protein she said - he'll calm down after he has some protein, WELL - All it took was overall healthier eating and LOTS of excercise, and no more hour upon hour of TV & computer! HOWEVER - I was talking with his teacher and I have always noticed my self that he has really great SMART, POWERFUL, GREAT, SHINING KID DAYS, and then low temper tantrum filled horrible days! I am going to definately test this out and I hope it works - even if his mother won't follow it after they go back with her - At least I can give him and his sister the knowledge now and maybe they can help themselves later on! I could write here for hours, but I'll stop now. Thanks for putting this out here, and I'd love more info - and any links to petition sites etc that I could help out with this cause. Thanks, Jayme

food dye diaries said...

I have updated my links on the right to include the petition site. You may also want to check out the "Find food dyes link".

kvlm said...

thank you for your blog. i have been researching diet intervention for my non-diagnosed developmentally delayed son for well over a year and this is the first time i've seen this evidence so clearly.

www.atypicalmother.blogspot.com

katie said...

My three year old son developed a blinking tic last spring. I was so distraught about it, and did some research to find answers (doc said there was nothing I could do). I learned that food dyes can bring on a tic in some kids. I immediately eliminated them from his diet and also switched his vitamin (that had dyes) to one with magnesium. The tic disappeared. This week he's had fruit snacks, M&Ms, artificially colored icing on a cupcake and Kool-Aid. Not intentional on my part - and my husband gave him the Kool-aid. The tic is back! It's crazy that this stuff is still used in foods! It's time for me to pay attention to his diet again. It was good for me to see that food dyes really do cause a problem.

Anonymous said...

After birthday parties my daughter would act so crazy. Turns out the alarmingly bright colored frosting was chock full of dyes. Now we are forced to bring our own cupcakes to birthdays because we always suspect that the cake and ice-cream will be full of dyes. Thanks for your informative blog. Eliminating dyes from my family's diet has made parenting so much easier. We still have our occasional dye-related slip-ups --immediately followed by temper tantrum - but that is now a rarity.