food dye diaries

questions about caramel color

2011-04-27T08:43:00.004-04:00

I've had some recent questions about caramel color so I figured I'd gather some things I have found on that.

Caramel color is considered natural, but some experts are now saying that it may still have health risks. Here is the basic list of natural verses unnatural dyes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_coloring

Here is a recent article that describes some of these concerns about caramel color:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-f-jacobson/caramel-coloring-in-soda-_b_823639.html

My experience is, well, odd to say the least. You may have seen my earlier posts about anger and food dyes, tantrums and food dyes, or even childhood bipolar and food dyes. We've been a dye free family for almost 4 years now. We also do not generally allow our children to drink soda, so my recent experimentation is limited. We used to allow caffeine free soda such as root beer or the lemon lime ones on special occasions. Usually I noticed my younger two got increasingly hyperactive. I attributed this to the sodium benzoate so they just rarely get any soda at all. However, on at least three rare occasions that I allowed my oldest to have root beer, my usually easy going, cooperative and calm kid had a terrible time going to sleep. He kept thinking he was seeing or hearing things. He was all "edgy," hyped up, and upset without any real reason. After the third or fourth time, we attributed it to the root beer. No more root beer, no more problem. REALLY. We let it slip a few more times, (denial about the effects of food on behavior is normal) and finally decided together (my son and I agreed) root beer does weird things to his thinking. Avoid it and we're fine. I should also mention here that my daughter also has trouble staying asleep if she has any of the food dyes.

Now remember, I'm also a mental health professional. I'm well aware of what these symptoms can mean. It is highly unusual to have such symptoms just pop in and then go away. But then again, that's what happens with the other food dye reactions we've experienced, so I'm pretty confident that something in the root beer does that to my son. He's sooooo good about it now, I just have to brag about his responsible, mature response. When offered root beer at a party, he will just say it makes him crazy so he doesn't drink it. His friends know he has some weird food restrictions, they're used to it so they accept it and move on. We've not had the same response from any of the clear sodas. With more sleep overs and parties, he's allowed to have those and it's not a problem. I also like the new Sierra Mist Natural. Finally something more like what we had as kids. Strangely, my son's had cola a few times (Dad wimpped and coudn't say no) but it didn't seem to cause a problem.

While I'm on the topic, I may as well mention that we also try to avoid all the artificial sweeteners. I've seen a trend in my professional work with children. Well meaning families that consume a lot of Splenda (in attempt to be healthier and avoid sugar) seem to have more than their share of aggitated children. Just an observation on that one, no research to back it up, but I think the general rule applies. A little sugar is OK in moderation, fake stuff/chemical stuff gets you one way or another. So if your kids don't sleep well, once again, check the food and get rid of the fake stuff. You may be surprised at how great your children can be when they eat real, healthy food.

Naturally dyed eggs

2011-04-22T19:19:00.003-04:00

Happy Earth Day and Happy Easter! I'm celebrating hitting 25,000 hits on my blog today. Thanks for following!

My mom told me Rachel Ray did a show this week on dying eggs naturally with tea bags. I missed it, but I found this on her website (scroll down to the bottom for the natural colors).
http://www.rachaelray.com/article.php?article_id=141

Found some other links too.
http://comfybelly.com/2011/04/easter-recipe-ideas-2011-and-naturally-dyed-eggs/
http://www.herbsociety-stu.org/DyeingEggs.htm

I had already bought the Paas egg sleeves so we did that today. It was simple but fun and the eggs are pretty.

Ready for Easter, Part 2

2011-04-18T20:31:00.003-04:00

I went to Trader Joes and got most of my Easter candy there. They had peanut butter cups in milk and dark chocolate (but without the artificial stuff in the name brand) as well as Tummy Yummy Bunnies. I bought a few other kinds of chocolates and I think I'm all set with more than enough sugar to get through the holiday. In case you missed my earlier Easter post, I really like Surf Sweet Jelly beans. I usually get them at my health food store and I think they taste a little better than Trader Joes'.

I also made the trip because we had another birthday party. I picked up a package of mini chocolate cupcakes with butter cream icing to take with me. That's what my daughter ate while the other girls had pink frosted cake and fruit punch.

I bought an egg decorating kit (at another store) where you can melt the little sleeve around the egg. If I get my False Indigo to take off in the garden this year, maybe next year I'll have some interesting natural colors to play with. Decided I'm spending too much time getting my garden going to work on natural egg colors this year.

Happy Spring!

forget the frozen lemonade

2011-04-15T12:58:00.003-04:00

We tried that frozen lemonade from Tim Hortons I mentioned a few days ago and you may as well forget it! It tastes very artificial, like it's made from a powdered mix...NOT NATURAL AT ALL. So I called to see if I could find out the ingredients. They did not acknowledge any artificial flavors or colors, but it's loaded with high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, etc. Maybe now we're getting into a whole new category of foods that sound healthier, but really aren't. I'm trying to decide what to call them: imposters, pseudo-natural, sorta better, or "fake good" foods. I'm feeling very manipulated! The advertising is deceptive in a very subtle way. Technically, they didn't say anything false. They just lure you into thinking it's healthy and better, but really, it's not much better than everthing else out there. I think big companies are learning that people want natural ingredients so they advertise "no artificial flavors or colors", yet they still put lots of other junk in behind the scenes, hoping we won't notice. Well I noticed! When you stay on a a real food diet, you can taste the chemicals in the first bite. I hope you'll be on the lookout for this kind of sneaky tricks too. Feel free to comment if you too have had a "natural-NOT" experience. And if I sound grumpier than normal, I AM and I'm sure it has something to do with the bright pink and blue amoxicillin I'm taking for a sinus infection. I was too miserable to be my usual demading self and settled for the dyed prescription. Pray for my children that my patience holds out.

dye free candy

2011-04-13T20:35:00.004-04:00

I made another exciting discovery yesterday. Wonka has dye free candy: sour gummies and regular gummies. I was at Ohio University for a training and found it at the check out line in the cafeteria. My friend, another dye free advocate, was surprised we had never tried it. She said she sees it everywhere, especially gas stations. I guess I stopped looking at candy racks under the assumption there was nothing we could have. This was yet another pleasant surprise: regular candy, in a regular check out, at a regular candy price. I attached a link to their site so you can see what the packaging looks like. http://www.wonka.com/home.aspx/kazoozleandgummies However, only a few products are natural. Most of their other products still have dyes. If they could only get a dye free laffy taffy my son would be in heaven...maybe some day. When I looked more closely at the site, it appears Nestle owns Wonka. Nestle has been changing many of their products, going more natural. They even took the artificial flavor out of their chocolate chips. With that in mind, chocolate chips would be another idea for things to put in Easter eggs. So, Thanks Nestle! We'll be buying your natural products.

dye free treats

2011-04-09T19:28:00.004-04:00

Our discovery of dye free foods continues all the time. Today my son spotted an add from Tim Hortons promoting their new frozen lemonade free of artificial colors and flavors. We haven't tried it yet, but it's so exciting for my kids to move from everything seeming to be off limits, to having more and more choices. In case you have not read my other posts, most lemonade in restaurants has yellow dye. If it comes from the soda fountain, it usually has yellow #5 or 6. We stopped asking months ago. Only a few, like Chick-Fil-A, have natural lemonade. Even then you still need to be aware. Many of the Chick-Fil-A salad dressings have dyes in them so check first. We did have another good lemon discovery. Minute Maid has individual frozen lemonade cups that are dye free. We noticed their cherry lime ones are also dye free. In the past, I've taken these in a cooler to the ball park for team snack after baseball games. We also attended a birthday party today. I meant to make my own sweet something (cup cake, brownie, etc. to take but I ran out of time). I grabbed a Capri Sun and a few donut holes on my way out the door. We lucked out as it turned out the birthday girl requested chocolate chip cookies so there were no issues with frosting. They served red punch so my daughter had the drink I brought. Easy party with no "left out feeling." Yay!

Ready for Easter?

2011-04-02T22:29:00.006-04:00

Nothing used to stress me out like another colorful holiday where my kids would have to miss out on treats while their friends get to stock up on the sugar. This year seems easier than ever to stay dye free. In case you are worried about how to get through another holiday, here's a summary of current and past ideas for Easter. Make a trip to the health food store or shop online for Surf Sweets jelly beans. They are natural and taste great. I bought a few bags on my last trip. You can also find great natural candies at Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Unfortunately, these stores are not convenient to my home, so I rarely shop there. Check out a Kroger Marketplace. I have the good fortune of a new one close to home. Ours has a bulk food aisle with many surprises. We stopped there this weekend to get some bulk quinoa (my new favorite healthy breakfast). My 11 year old noticed the gummy bears were naturally colored. Lucky for us the ingredients were easily posted on bulk food containers. Then we realized we had many new dye free choices: jelly beans, gummy bears, fruit candy, and Sundrops (natural candy coated chocolate like M&M's) in regular and peanut. All these choices were available in bulk. Yay! Consumer pressure is working. Annies is also a good brand for organic gummy bunnies: cute for Easter and found in lots of stores including Kroger. Other Easter ideas: fill plastic eggs with non candy items. In the past we've used plastic soldiers, police, firemen, butterflies, and bugs. We've used dinosaurs, golf tees, foam golf balls, Sillly Bandz, etc. You could also use pennies. Eggs are just as fun without all the candy. I have used larger eggs to fit plastic toys better (I have a bunch that are about 3 inches long). A bag of little trinkets doesn't cost much more than candy and lasts a whole lot longer. Also, watch out for inexpensive chocolate. They may add red dye to make up for the lack of real cocoa or many brands have artificial flavor, which is still a petrochemical like the food dyes. You may also want to prep the grandparents or other family members. Simple reminders go a long way. Tell them to avoid chocolate bunnies that have the cute colored bows and eyes. Take your own candy to family functions if you need to. I was lucky that my mom stopped sending candy and substituted cash or gift cards to book stores. As my kids have gotten bigger, gift cards for books or itunes have been huge hits. We also tend to skip the regular colored eggs. We have used kits that have stickers or sleeves that shrink over the eggs. That way we still have the project of decorating eggs, without intense petrochemicals seeping through the shells. Feel free to post any other ideas you have, especially if you have colored eggs with natural colors.

FDA hearings on food dye: no action, but need more research

2011-04-02T14:25:00.011-04:00

Here are links to a few articles I found on the recent FDA hearings. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/health/policy/01fda.html?_r=1 http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/31/more-research-needed-on-food-dyes-fda-panel-says/ I have to admit I'm disappointed about the FDA's lack of response to food dyes, but can't say I'm all that surprised. Food manufacturers do not want to change to more expensive food ingredients. They don't want the cost and hassle of warning labels. The price of food is jumping enough without a change in ingredients. Thus, a huge percentage of the American public remains clueless to the potential affects of food dye on children's behavior. However, I'm also disappointed that the articles seem to focus on ADHD symptoms. Sure we've seen some outrageous hyperactive and impulsive behavioral responses to food dyes in my family. It was the main reason I started the whole ban. However, the reason I've kept my family dye free for over 3 1/2 years was the combination of behaviors: irritability, tantrums, aggression, sleep disturbance, negative thinking, etc. This is what I think research should address. I could live with a kid who was a little bouncy and hyperactive. It's the angry, yelling, defiant personality change that I decided was intolerable. I wish I could show families how much calmer and healthier all 3 of my kids have stayed consistently for the past 3 years off dyes, and how badly things break down in the rare instances that petrochemicals creep into the diet. So on that front, I agree with the FDA. RESEARCH IT MORE. But I certainly hope they do more than run a simple study only looking at hyperactivity. My experience has been that food dyes affect way more than that. I don't need research to know what my own in-house, 3 person case study has shown. Life is better when you eat real food. As we continue to use buying power, more and more natural options will be available.

Blue dye still makes her cry

2011-03-19T20:53:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. There wasn't much new to say. We've been really successful avoiding dyes in our food for quite a while. We've pretty much limited all the other petroleum based products too (artificial flavors, preservatives).

Then came St. Patrick's Day. The kindergarten teacher ran out of alternate snacks that I usually keep stocked for each classrom. So she sent me an email saying how bad she felt and did not want my daughter to miss out on the class treat. She thought since they were white cupcakes with white icing and only a little bit of green sprinkles that it would be OK. Let me tell you, it's been just "peachy".

There was the sobbing, sobbing, sobbing about everything the first night, then the "I don't want to sleep in my bed" routine in the middle of the night. She normally sleeps quite fine the whole past year when she's not on food dye. More "melt downs" followed today. It should run it's course by tomorrow.

I commented on the blue, even though the sprinkles were green, because I'm guessing it was yellow 5 or 6 along with blue 1 in the ingredients. We thought back to the day we banned blue, the last of the food colors to leave our diet. We had taken the kids to see Santa and let each of the three of them have a blue lollipop, since we had not seen blue to cause much trouble until then. We got home and all 3 kids started crying about nothing at the exact same time. Then they all continued to cry a lot randomly, on and off for the rest of the day with no apparent reason. It was enough for my husband to say, "enough...no more blue...ever."

It's kind of funny that we made it through the big red food holidays (Christmas and Valentines) with no trouble, as well as Halloween. Go figure it's the green one that gets us. Feel free to comment if blue makes your child cry too, or if your child ever has trouble sleeping after consuming food dyes. I like to let others know it's not just my family who experiences this strange phenomenom.

FDA to hold hearings

2010-12-01T20:45:00.002-05:00

Well it's about time. Follow this link to see the press release from Center for Science in the Public Interest indicating they are finally getting a response to their petition to the FDA on food dyes.

http://cspinet.org/new/201012011.html

Update of my favorite dye free foods: candy

2010-11-07T12:45:00.006-05:00

In case you are new to my blog I have to break it to you. It's not just the sugar that is making your child act "that way." It's the coloring. REALLY! Don't just take my word for it. Look at all the research articles I've found on the right hand column. Food coloring causes all kinds of behavior problems and even serious health problems in some people. Moms have written to me from all over the country describing hyperactivity, asthma, motor tics, hives and other issues that are probably diet related.

So you think you don't have time to read labels and go dye free? I didn't have time not to do that. I've learned the well being of my family depends on eating real foods, not chemicals. Sure my grocery trips are a little longer and I go to different stores to get some things, but I spend most of my days in peace with my children, a gift I will never give up. We will never go back to the way my kids were when they ate food dyes. My son yelled, screamed, tantrummed and literally spent several days each week hating me. Going natural has given back the kind, thoughtful, responsible, affectionate boy I had hoped he would be.

We have found many great tasting candies that are all natural, without dyes. Although most chocolates do not have food coloring listed, be aware that chocolate often contains artificial flavor or vanillin, which is also petroleum based, so it can have the same effect as the food dyes.

Here are some of our favorites:

TRADER JOES:

Fruit Jellies
Salt Water Taffy
Gummy Bears
Gummy Tummies Penguins
Gourmet Jelly Beans
many more in the store

SURF SWEETS: (I go to the health food store for these)

Sour Gummy worms
Gummy Bears
Gummy Swirls

YUMMY EARTH: (We buy from the health food store or on Amazon)

Lollipops --lots of great flavors I keep these in my purse
Gummy bears in individual packs

TARGET:

Darrell Lea Strawberry Liquorice (yes, you can still eat red licorice!!!)

AUNT ANNIES BRAND (find it at Kroger, Toys R us, health food stores, etc.

Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks (Individual packs)

With all these choices, it's easy to eat dye free and still have special treats. I keep these kinds of treats on hand for teachers so my kids have something that tastes good when there are parties at school.

Why don't more families go dye free? Well, the main reason is they don't realize how much difference a few chemicals can make. Food dyes affect my kids for 3 full days. Most food companies don't want to have to use more expensive ingredients to make natural foods. Food dyes and other petroleum based chemicals are cheap. And the FDA doesn't want to get involved or to acknowledge research like the Lancet study (2007) linked at the right, which made Britain ban artificial colors from their food a couple years ago. So tell your friends and family members too. If you have not tried your children on a natural diet free of chemicals like food dyes and preservatives, you may have never known the joy of how pleasant your real child is. The only way to know your REAL child is to feed him/her READ FOOD.

So proud this week

2010-11-05T20:33:00.002-04:00

My 5 year old handed over a large, unopened pack of Skittles after the morning bus driver gave them out Monday. I praised her, gave her some Sour Gummy Worms from the "good stash" of stuff I let her eat, and let her have a few pieces of chocolate left from the Halloween goodies. That's about triple the usual amount of sugar I would normally allow, but it was a special occasion. I reward big for turning in what I don't want them to eat.

I forgot for the next 2 days and suddenly wondered what happened to the candy my older boys got. When I finally asked them if they got the same candy, they both had put it in their backpacks and forgot about it. I had 3 kids all produce large bags of Skittles without having eaten any or even trying to open them. Big hugs, big rewards, big praise. Skittles are added to the bag of candy getting sent to the troops. I just can't imagine that dye free eating is a priority when stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan so I figure they'll really enjoy them. I'll enjoy the peace of my kids not going ballistic all week.

Making a statement this Halloween

2010-10-31T20:45:00.001-04:00

Wonder why your kids have a hard time listening, behaving, or keeping basic self control? Does your child get hyper, defiant, or have lots of tantrums? It could really be the foods they eat. We made a statement this Halloween to try to get the word out. Read on below for more information about what is really in your food. It's kind of SCARY!

We went to Chipolte tonight for dinner to participate in the "dress to kill" contest inviting customers to "dress as your favorite scary processed food." Well you know we couldn't pass that one up. Here we are:

My kids as their favorite color not to eat.

My wonderful husband as a grumpy old man

...and me, food dyes make me feel like this

Here we are, ready to enjoy our meal.

Here is our whole family of scary food dyes.

You probably can't read the info on the signs, but it's all stuff I've been putting on this blog for the past couple of years. I was surprised by some of the tid bits I found when I was looking for good information to put on the signs. Such as: Red 3 is banned from cosmetics but you can still eat it. Oh, and on that idea, you can just image my delight when my 9 year old came home from the fall party with a HUGE green alien sucker on a glow in the dark stick. He was eating it in the car before I even saw it. I knew we were in trouble as soon as I smelled it. I think it had every color we dressed as on the ingredient list. UHG!!!!!! Somehow we survived the weekend anyway.

I found all the information for our costume signs at CSPI:

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf

Here's what our signs said:

Scary food dye
RED 40
Acts like a neurotoxin and excites the brain.
Causes hyperactivity, mood swings, irritability
It’s hidden in everything from vanilla ice cream, mayo, chocolate, brownies, cake, bread, yogurt….
It’s not just the really red foods like strawberry, blueberry, or fruit punch
They use this chemical to mask when they’re too cheap to use real fruit/berries or real food

RED 3
SHOWN TO CAUSE CANCER
Yet it’s still often in candy and sweet treats
It’s in fruit roll ups and Kid Cuisine
Found in lots of other food marketed to children
Banned from cosmetics, but we still eat it?

YELLOW 5
WANT SOME PETROLEUM IN YOUR FOOD?
(yes! Like feeding your kids a little gasoline)
Causes hyperactivity, mood swings, irritability
It’s in your pickles, ice cream, candy, mayo….

YELLOW 6
It’s in mac and cheese, dressing, sauces, popcorn, cakes, cookies, pickles, frosting, etc.
Some studies show chromosomal mutations
Can cause sudden severe allergic reactions

BLUE 1
HOW MUCH PETROLEUM DO YOU EAT?
Linked to tumors and neurotoxicity
Studies showed inhibition of nerve cell growth
It’s in your marshmallows, candy, sport drinks
Face it, bodies weren’t meant to eat bright blue

These signs were on our backs:

What’s so scary about Food dyes ?
Synthetic chemicals are in many common foods
Made from petroleum, usually produced in China
Many are known carcinogens, can cause highly allergic responses
Research shows they increase hyperactivity
Banned in Britain and other countries
Behavioral effects in children last 3 FULL DAYS

These signs were on our kids' backs

Why we don’t eat any food dyes:
THEY ACT LIKE NUEROTOXINS
We get more hyperactive, impatient, impulsive, argumentative, irritable, angry, defiant for 3 days
without dyes we stay more calm, happy, focused
research linked dyes to behavior problems, hives, cancer, asthma, motor tics, chromosomal mutations
we like the taste of real food better
people weren’t meant to eat petro-chemicals

Dye free after trick or treat

2010-10-30T20:16:00.002-04:00

Kids had a great time getting lots and lots of candy. We immediately took all the food coloring stuff and put it in a bag to donate to the troops overseas. For local folks, there's an organization that takes up collections at Town and County Shopping Center every Saturday until November 20. That seemed like the perfect way to give someone the candy who would like it. We're allowing some chocolate for the weekend, even though I think the artificial flavor and vanillin will be likely to get some reactions. I have plenty of other things to trade, but with all the candy left over, I really don't feel like there's any shortage and neither do my kids. They've learned not to get possessive about the things they can't eat and to enjoy what they can have.

What's interesting to me is, for the first time the candy does not hold much appeal to me. I've always been a terrible chocoholic, but now it seems like all those fresh fruits and veggies I've been eating really have diminished my cravings for sugar. Part of me is sad, but the other part says, wow look how my body is looking for the good stuff. I'm going to go snack on something with no sugar.

How to get kids to eat healthy

2010-10-25T19:51:00.003-04:00

I have to admit that I was pretty much programmed to feed my kids processed junk until I figured out how crazy it made all of us (me included.) It has taken some time to get used to cooking differently, but I really think we see huge benefits.

One of my favorite new ideas is simple, but life changing. I have to give credit to Dr. Sears. It was a DVD of his that I saw at a nutrition training that got me going. Dr. Sears recommends making a nibble tray or grazing tray of healthy, bite sized fruits and vegetables for small children. I found a couple divided Rubbermaid containers (about 12 by 12 in.) and bought 2. I keep cut up raw veggies in one, cut up fruit in another. When the kids get home from school, we pull that out first. When we walk in the door on my work days and I need some time to get dinner going, we pull those out and nibble on good stuff. When we want a snack, we all eat from our fresh stash of produce. Having it already cut and ready to eat is the key. It comes in handy when we need one more thing to fill out a meal. I just pass the box around and tell everyone, take 2-3 things from each one. In a pinch I grab what's in there for lunches. When we had pizza for dinner, I still got out the boxes and I'm sure we all had a few extra servings of fruits and veggies. It's been that easy. So buy some extra produce, get it cut up and accessible and see what happens. Real healthy food really does taste good.

I used to be reluctant to buy some produce as it seemed pricey. I've since re-thought this. I used to think 1.99 was expensive for a bag of raw sweet peas in the pods, yet I spend 3.99 for a bag of chips. Hmmm. I now buy a combination of which organics look good, which produce is in season, and what sounds appealing or different. We also focus on getting lots of different colors. I'm trying to buy different things too.

The great news is, my kids love it. They have fought for the last red and yellow pepper strips, enjoyed crunching pea pods and celery, and generally seem to enjoy the taste of vegetables more and more. It's the same with fruit. My 10 year decided that mango is really good. It's because now I actually cut the whole thing up instead of letting it rot in the bottom drawer of my fridge. We have loved the organic apples and oranges I found. (By the way, I prioritize organic on these foods as sometimes companies inject coloring into the skin to make it look better.) Yes, the bright orange orange looks better, but I have to tell you we loved the last bag of organics that had some yellowing and dents in the skin. They tasted wonderful.

I encourage everyone to check out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution if you haven't already. I also found a blog that talks about cooking real foods: http://outoftheboxfood.com/.

Our new challenge to eating dye free food: scouts

2010-10-19T18:52:00.002-04:00

All 3 of my kids jumped into scouts this fall and we've had a flurry of camp-outs, den meetings, and misc. activities. It seems each new gathering presents both opportunities and challenges. The challenge is the same since a started blogging a few years ago: what to eat, what to bring, how to plan food. The opportunity is huge to educate a lot more families about how they can help their own kids enjoy healthy eating with fewer problems in the mood, behavior, impulsivity department.

And with all of this comes the mishaps. It figures we were due for something to sneak in. It's been a very long time. I had almost forgotten how hard it was to be around my kids when they were "high on dye." This time it was all 3 at once (triple ouch). They had a great family scout camp-out with lots of fun activities. I thought I had played it really well since DH took the kids out in the tent and I got to stay home to "let the dog out" and go out to dinner with my girlfriend. I met up with my family the next day to go through the games and help with dinner. when I saw the fruit cocktail, I explained my kids wouldn't be eating it (Red cherries). I told several interested Moms our story about food dyes.

Later I noticed they were also serving canned peaches so I gave some to my kids. It was a few minutes later I realized the peaches had been dumped into the container that originally had the fruit cocktail and there were still red cherries floating around in all the syrup. Uhg! Who likes canned fruit anyway?

Well, that did it. We were fine that night, but the next 3 days I had a hyper hyper boy who couldn't stop drumming all day, a grumpy arguing kid who wanted to pick a fight, and a little miss with a huge attitude who started hitting and kicking and screaming all the time. Figures we had an extra day off school in the midst of that so I got to "enjoy" my children even more intensely for a dye exposed day. We survived, somehow, and I gave repeated thanks that this is not how my children usually are. Once again, it seemed to last 3 full days. Then it was like a magic switch was flipped. I had a compliant agreeable 10 year old who said "please" and "thank you" and "OK" again. My little drummer boy could sit still and focus on homework again. The screamer stopped fussing and peace returned to our household.

If you have not gone dye free yet, you have no idea what you might be missing: the joy of pleasant, well controlled children.

Scary food for Halloween

2010-10-17T13:37:00.003-04:00

Hey, I'm back after another long absence. I was glad to see all the new comments. Halloween is tricky for those of us who want to be dye free, yet we still want our kids to have fun. In the past we have given out non food trinkets, pretzels, or dye free candy. We have also let the kids go get lots of food dyed candy, brought it back and dumped it into our "give away" bowl and had them go back out. Last year I let them get loaded up on candy, kept what was dye free, and sent the rest to my husband's office. I have exchanged their candy for Yummy Earth Lollipops, Surf Sweets, or chocolate. Since I thought we all reacted to too much artificial flavors in the chocolate last year, we'll be keeping that to a minimum too.

This year I will be giving out Yummy Earth Lollipops, purchased in bulk on amazon. But we are also going to have some fun with our costumes. Chipolte restaurant is inviting people to come in dressed as a scary processed food ingredient. http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/fan-antics/boorito/boorito.aspx Well of course, I can't pass that up. Our family will be going as the scary family food dyes. I'll keep you posted on our costumes as they progress. So far we've assigned colors and have hoodies for each one of us. We're working on whether we will also do scary masks or face paint.

Back to School and Dye free Benadryl

2010-09-01T19:44:00.004-04:00

Hello,

Maybe now that my youngest started kindergarten I'll get back to posting more often. I spent last week sending emails to all the teachers to explain how my kids can't have food dyes and then I took a bag to each teacher of drinks and snacks that my kids can have instead of birthday treats with food dyes.

I also wondered if anyone else has had any recent luck finding dye free medicines. With the big Tylenol recall, it's much harder to find the basics. I usually stay stocked on dye free Motrin and Tylenol as well as Dye free Benadryl. I often buy the Meijer brand dye free Ibuprofen, which is not recalled and still available. I've been holding my breath hoping that my kids would not get poison ivy or bad bug bites needing the dye free Benadryl, since it's recalled. I was quite relieved that my friend told me today that CVS now has a dye free generic for Benadryl.

I also can't remember if I've posted on Gatorade and Powerade. A neurologist recommended my son drink sports drinks at the onset of migraines. It actually helps quite a bit and both come in a clear flavor if you look hard enough.

Thanks for all the recent comments to various posts. Sorry it took so long to get them to show up. I appreciate knowing my blog has helped other families.

Oh Happy Happy Day

2010-07-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

Nothing like one of my favorite dye free foods to bring me back to my blog after a long busy baseball season. Actually, baseball's still not done since my son made the district play off team, but the schedule is finally calmer this week.

However, the big celebration is all about Graeters' ice cream. If you're not from Ohio, and if you missed Oprah's endorsement several years ago, you may not have heard of it. Their black raspberry chip ice cream may very well be the best ice cream on earth. Even Oprah thought so. I gave it up about 4 years ago when we went dye free because of the red #40.

My awesome husband noticed tonight that the container in the take home case said "all natural." They actually took out the red #40!!!! I am so excited. We can eat black raspberry chip ice cream again. Life is good. I may need to go back tomorrow just to get some.

I have faith that consumer pressure will keep driving these changes, so keep asking for your favorites to be made dye free. It can work.

taking the good with the bad

2010-04-29T19:54:00.002-04:00

We had some highs and lows this week. My 4 year old went to a birthday party for a pre-school friend. A relative works at the preschool and knows about our food dye restrictions. The parent went to great effort to make treat bags with individually wrapped bags of cookies so they would be dye-free. They also got a cookie cake and requested that part be left un-frosted so my daughter could eat it.

That was all great... One of the best efforts that has been made on behalf of any of my children. There was only one problem. When they cut the cookie cake, they dragged the knife through the red frosting to get to the plain part for my daughter. Yeah....well, so much for all that effort. I may have spoken up if I was there, but I had to send my husband to the party since I was in a professional training all day. Needless to say, I saw a lot of behaviors pop out over the next 3 days that are not normally part of the routine. Hopefully we're winding back down now.

The other great news was my 10 year old had a classmate bringing in a birthday treat. The mom actually called me ahead to find out if a plain glazed donut would be OK. The rest of the class had donuts with sprinkles, but they kept a plain one separate.

So all in all we are even making progress with birthday parties, one family at a time. It's nice when thoughtful parents think about my kids and try to make sure they are not left out.

baseball season

2010-04-17T20:23:00.002-04:00

Welcome to my new followers! Sorry my posts are not nearly as frequent as they used to be. My boys are already deep in the practice part of baseball season and having my husband coaching means I've been super busy lately. The real fun starts in May when the games will be 5 days a week. We have the unfortunate spacing of ages that results in my boys always playing on opposite days. It's the only sport they play, so I'm willing to endure the craziness for a limited amount of time each year.

With baseball comes an array of food challenges. First, how do you have a healthy dinner consumed before 5:30 and get something for my husband who I end up meeting at the ball park? In years past I've made my own wraps: southwest chicken wraps, Greek chicken wraps, Thai wraps, you name it. We wrap it in flour tortillas or Asian rice wraps and take it to go. It saves a lot of money and ends up being quicker than fast food and sooo much better for us. On my two work days each week, I honestly don't even have time for the drive through. I need to bring dinner that can I keep in the small office 'fridge and eat at the ball park. We do lots of fruits and veggies as sides too.

But lets get real too. We are not complete health nuts and my kids sit there and watch other families eat lots of concession stand junk food and candy. With 3 kids, I end up at the park watching one play and entertaining the other 2. I've learned to stock up on my own candy ahead of time and always keep a tote bag ready in the car.

Most of the other kids drink Gatorade and other florescent colored sports drinks. Gatorade makes a clear one that I keep on hand on recommendation from a pediatric neurologist specializing in migraines. Yes, we have a very strong history of migraines and my boys have had more headaches the past year. So far a dose of dye free Ibuprofen and a drinking a whole bottle of clear Gatorade seems to help take care of it. I'll have to stock up on the clear Gatorade for games, but usually a Capri sun and a bottle of water is just as good and also dye free.

My candy favorites to take to baseball:

Surf Sweets gummies, sour worms, swirls, etc. (from a local health food store)
Yummy Earth lollipops (ordered a 5 lb bag on Amazon)
Yummy Earth gummy bears (ind bags, also ordered on Amazon)
Darrel Leas Australian Licorice (dye free red licorice from Target or on Amazon)
Mentos chewy mints or fruit chews (some have dyes and some don't so check carefully)

On our away games, families take turns bringing snacks. I make it really clear at the beginning of the season that my boys have an allergy to dyes and can't eat things with them. I end up educating several new parents every season about the benefits of going dye free. Usually parents have been good about planning dye free snacks.

giving it a go with the garden

2010-03-21T19:50:00.004-04:00

Before I had children, and my own business, and a husband who coaches 2 baseball teams, and a dog to tear up the yard... I had a garden. Once my boys both started playing baseball every spring, I have really not been able to keep up with the garden and we've really let it go. So this year I am probably being ambitious in thinking we will do better, but we've got the seeds planted (indoors) already.

We're going to try the Square Foot Gardening method. I'm hoping for it to be a family project that we will all work on. But it is also a way to celebrate our own real organic foods grown the old fashioned way on our own dirt. I think it will be fun for the kids to be involved in growing their own food. They are already excited about the possibility of growing our own broccoli, spinach, peas, peppers, etc. Yes, my kids really eat those foods willingly. It's amazing what happens when you keep the junk out of your diet.

I was inspired by a local mom who has a blog called The 5 dollar dinner blog.
She has some awesome dinner ideas and uses lots of foods she grows in her garden. I enjoyed her posts last summer and thought I should give it a try. I also wanted to suggest her blog because when you start going dye free and finding you may need to pay a little more for candy or other things, it's nice to have a way to save money. She also mentions organizing her coupons in a binder. I thought it was a good idea so I tried it in January. I'm not sure how she does it since I haven't got her book yet, but I took plastic pages used to hold baseball cards and picked a page for each category. I organized the pages by the way I go through the store. I'm averaging more than $10.00 in extra coupon savings every week now. It's great so I can use some of that extra money to stock up on our favorites that don't usually go on sale like Yummy Earth Lollipops.

Happy Spring!

When they think you're crazy

2010-02-27T09:30:00.005-05:00

Taking my children off food dyes was a radical step. I'll admit it, if a parent had come in and told me about food dye reactions more than 5 years ago, I would have thought I was dealing with a nutcase. If I had not seen the difference in my own children, I would never believe how drastic the difference can be.

So what do you do when friends, teachers, relatives don't believe you? For the friends and parents of your children's friends, simply start by talking about your experience. I find myself getting in conversations at all kinds of places with other moms. Waiting rooms, birthday parties, school events, you name it. Tell other moms about how your children are better off food dyes. What do they do off dyes, and which behaviors pop out only when food dyes have been on the menu.

Every mom wants to know how to have her children behave better. Many are not willing to believe that food can make such a big difference. But each time you get another family to try it, we slowly win the battle of having better leverage on a consumer basis. The more people shopping for natural products, the cheaper the natural foods get, the more people that can buy them.

For teachers it's a little harder to convince, especially if they do not have children, or their children are grown up. Send them links to the research or to my blog. Encourage them to see that it really isn't just you. The 2007 Lancet study was a key factor in prompting Britain to ban colors in their foods. Many people are very surprised to learn that other countries ban the same ingredients we readily feed our American children. The only way to stop seeming crazy is to get this information out to more families.

Oh, the darn artificial flavors

2010-02-15T19:52:00.004-05:00

I thought my kids could handle small amounts of artificial flavor, but I now think I'm going to put the ban on that one too. Recent combinations of granola bars and root beer seemed to bring out the scary symptoms in my 10 year old. I realized it's in the hot chocolate too. Hmmm, with 3 storms in the past 10 days, we've been hitting the hot chocolate heavy too.

In case you have not read my other posts on the subject, artificial flavor and color both come from petroleum based chemicals manufactured in China. I haven't always noticed lots of problems with the flavors, but it's starting to look like my kids react the same as they do to food dyes.

SIGHHHHH. It really is easier to steer clear of all the petroleum based chemicals. At least the attitude, angry outbursts, and that "I can't get to sleep because I keep hearing noises and think something's coming to get me" stuff really does go away again in a few days. I just feel blessed that I know my true son and not just the scary petroleum overloaded kid who sneaks out every once in a while.

Guess I'll be experimenting with making my own hot chocolate from scratch since it's still snowing outside.

meals with friends

2010-02-08T20:02:00.003-05:00

I've pretty much got a handle on everything that gets eaten in this house, everything that goes on the skin, and even all the medicine, candy and gum that could be chewed, swallowed or otherwise ingested. I pack the lunches and take alternate snacks to school for parties. There's just one last area I haven't quite conquered: going to friend's houses. My 10 year old has become much more social this year, getting invited to friends houses almost weekly. He had better Friday night plans than me for almost the past month straight!

Parties haven't been much of a problem since he passes on birthday cakes. The kid honestly doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. The other day he ate dinner at a friend's house after finishing up their science project and came home to say he had macaroni and cheese. Uhg! I'm still not sure it had food dye in it, but I'm trying to figure out how to make sure he doesn't eat anything without being a total "pain in the butt" kind of mom. I'm usually pretty direct and just tell parents, "My son can't eat anything with food coloring, He gets a bad reaction." I specify the main ones: red 40, yellow 5 & 6, and blue 1, and leave it at that. They don't need to know the gory details of how he turns into a half crazed angry maniac on food dye. Sometimes I think they take it a little more seriously if they think it's more like the allergies where kids have immediate symptoms.

This past weekend, we arranged the play date last minute and I was trying to have a little bit of a life and go on a date with my hubby, so when the other mom offered to have my son stay for dinner, all I cared about was whether she could bring him home when the sitter was there. I forgot to even ask what they were having for dinner, so it was to be expected it would come down to some sort of food with dye. Guess you can't win them all.

Feel free to comment on ways you mange the food at friends' houses issue.

what color is your ADHD medicine

2010-02-02T19:00:00.012-05:00

Call me a hypocrite. As a child mental health professional, I've worked with hundreds of kids on meds. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to psychotropic medicaitons of all kinds. When it came down to my own child's hyperactivity, I just didn't think meds were the right course of action. Taking away the food dyes was probably a lot more difficult and time consuming, but really a better course for our whole family.

Lately, I've been researching side effects of stimulant medications prescribed for ADHD and had to share some of what I've been finding. What bothers me is that most of these medications state that they have not been tested for longer than 6 or 7 weeks. REALLY?! The multi million dollar drug industry can't afford to test their stimulants longer than that, or is that they can't get good long term results and therefore, won't publish those results? I'm guessing the latter. That would be consistent what I have seen.

I did come across an interesting 40 month study of the Daytrana patch. There was a 46% occurrence of anorexia with another 4% in the subjects who dropped out before completing the 40 months. So, there's a dye free patch that sends a stimulant straight into your skin, but you've got a 50/50 shot of your child ending up anorexic. How can they sell something with that kind of side effect?

Don't get me wrong, some kids are helped tremendously by their medications, but what I've seen more commonly is that many children look great for a few weeks up to a few months and then decline back from there. Many other children experience terrible, even life threatening side effects, with no real alleviation of their symptoms. If you have experienced this frustration, I strongly suggest you look at your eliminating additives (food coloring, artificial flavors and preservatives) from your child's foods first and then figure out if you still need any meds later.

Since this is already getting long, I'll go more into the side effects in another post. I wanted to share the main color ingredients. There are some color free options (in bold), but for the most part, these medications have many colors not allowed in food. OK, call me crazy, but if it's not safe for a food ingredient, usually because it's been shown to cause cancer or other health problems, they why in the world do drug companies put these ingredients in meds to be taken several times a day by children?! With how my own children react to one pink jelly bean containing artificial coloring, I now understand why so many children get so agitated and irritable on their meds. How much stronger of a dose is needed to counteract the effect of the food dyes? Hmmmm.

Well, here are medication colors I copied from rxlist.com. I did not copy all the other inactive ingredients to make the lists easier to read.

ADDERALL® 5 MG IS A WHITE TO OFF-WHITE TABLET, WHICH CONTAINS NO COLOR ADDITIVES.ADDERALL® 7.5 MG AND 10 MG CONTAIN FD & C BLUE #1. ADDERALL® 12.5 MG, 15 MG, 20 MG AND 30 MG CONTAIN FD & C YELLOW #6 AS A COLOR ADDITIVE.
Last updated on RxList: 6/26/2007

The inactive ingredients in ADDERALL XR® capsules include: The 5 mg, 10 mg, and 15 mg capsules also contain FD&C Blue #2. The 20 mg, 25 mg, and 30 mg capsules also contain red iron oxide and yellow iron oxide.

What are the ingredients in RITALIN®?
Active Ingredient: methylphenidate HCL
Inactive Ingredients: D&C Yellow No.10 (5-mg and 20-mg tablets), FD&C Green No.3 (10-mg tablets)

What are the ingredients in CONCERTA®?
Active Ingredient: methylphenidate HCl
Inactive Ingredients: synthetic iron oxides, titanium dioxide. (wonder what synthetic iron oxide is?)

What are the ingredients in FOCALIN®?
Active Ingredient: dexmethylphenidate hydrochloride
Inactive Ingredients: FD&C Blue No.1 #5516 aluminum lake (2.5 mg tablets), D&C Yellow Lake #10 (5 mg tablets); the 10 mg tablet contains no dye.

What are the ingredients in FOCALIN XR?
Active Ingredient: dexmethylphenidate hydrochloride
Inactive Ingredients include: , FD&C Blue #2 (5 mg and 15mg strengths), FDA/E172 yellow iron oxide (10 mg, 15 mg, and 30 mg strengths)

What are the ingredients in STRATTERA?
Active ingredient: atomoxetine hydrochloride.
Inactive ingredients: FD&C Blue No.2, synthetic yellow iron oxide, titanium dioxide, red iron oxide, and edible black ink.

What are the ingredients in Vyvanse?
Active Ingredient: lisdexamfetamine dimesylate
Inactive Ingredients: one or more of the following: D&C Red #28, D&C Yellow #10, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Green #3, and FD&C Red #40.

MOST OF THESE COLORS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE IN FOOD, BUT IT'S OK FOR A CHILD TO TAKE IT DAILY???!!!!!

Now I think I'll be looking up iron oxide, especially the synthetic iron oxide. Is it just me or is that code for more food dyes under a different name? If I find any information on that I will post it.

Food dyes and fast food

2010-01-23T17:07:00.003-05:00

We stopped at McDonalds while out shopping with the kids today. I don't think we had any accidental food dyes, but I did find some surprises while I was checking their ingredients.

You can download the ingredients from their website
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/ingredientslist.pdf

If you don't have time to read it all, or because you might be upset to see how many additives are in there, here are some highlights:

Their pickles are dye free ?!
Stay away from the shakes! The chocolate syrup has red 40, vanilla syrup has yellow 5 &6, and strawberry syrup is an obvious red 40, so all the shakes all dyes
That means the hot chocolate and many coffee drinks also have red 40
The fries have TBHQ--my kids definitely wind up on that one
Honey mustard sauce has yellow.

I guess we should just eat at home.

getting ready for a dye free Valentine's Day

2010-01-16T09:14:00.006-05:00

It just hit me that another "red holiday" is right around the corner. My friends and I have found lots of strategies that help so I thought I would share them ahead of time, in case you need to order stuff.

Here are some candy options I've come across:
http://www.naturalcandystore.com/category/natural-valentines-day
http://www.surfsweets.com/products.php

If you want to bake for Valentine's day, I have not ordered these, but the pictures looked so good, I'm really tempted
http://www.naturalcandystore.com/category/natural-baking-projects

There are also options on Amazon:
Yummy Earth
India Tree

Here is last year's post about what I made:
http://fooddyediaries.blogspot.com/2009/02/bring-on-red-were-all-set.html

One of our favorites continues to be Darrell Lea's Australian Licorice from Target--great tasting dye free red licorice. I couldn't find it on Target's web, but they actually have different colors (green and yellow) at amazon. I might order that with a friend some time since you need to get large quantities:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=darrell+lea+licorice

Happy party planning!

Eating out and food dyes

2010-01-13T16:32:00.002-05:00

We've had some surprises with eating out with dyes in foods you would not expect to have any colors. I thought I would share so you can avoid some of the same pitfalls.

Wendy's chili--red 40
pickles on every burger and sandwich everywhere--yellow 5 &6, blue 1
mustard, mayo and other sauces--yellow 5 and 6
vanilla ice cream (yellow 5 and 6 at Steak and Shake, but the vanilla yogurt was OK)
brown loaves of bread in steak houses and other restaurants--red 40
seasonings on fries, especially curly fries--red 40
popcorn--yellow 5 and 6
blueberry bagels or muffins --red 40

That's in addition to all the obviously red or yellow stuff out there like strawberry flavored things, fruit punch etc.

A good rule of thumb is ask the waiter whenever you order anything in question. We double check seasoned rices, salad dressings, rice, cranberry juice cocktail, etc.

how do food dyes affect your child?

2010-01-11T09:08:00.005-05:00

The new year seems to be a good time for a refresher on why I started this blog. In case you are new, food dyes can cause behavioral and emotional problems in children. This is so true that I am inviting other mom's to share their experiences in the comments section so readers can see it's not just me that sees this.

I am trying to get this simple truth out to more families. Doctors, teachers, mental health providers and other professionals may still be oblivious to this information, but there is research out there to back it up.

I also have my own trials and tribulations watching the reactions of my 3 children and their reaction to dyes. Read through my blog to see what I mean about this. My own children are so drastically different when they eat anything with food dyes, it is hard to describe. We see everything from anger, irritability, defiance, aggression, hyperactivity, frustration, yelling, hitting, spitting, etc. Most of these behaviors all come out in my 4 year old, but to some degree all three show something worse when they eat dyes, so we avoid them.

So, in short, if you want to see better behavior in your kids, better self control, and less moodiness, watch the foods and get rid of additives. It's worth the effort.

good news about natural foods

2010-01-06T08:12:00.006-05:00

Natural foods are getting more and more popular and more easily available. My husband confirmed this with a buyer for Kroger. They are consistently increasing their shelf space for naturals and organics such that prices are also coming down with higher demand.

I also made a nice discovery this week. I have tried to be more aware of artificial flavors as well as the colors. My own children seem to be able to tolerate low levels of artificial flavors a little at a time. I notice problems mostly if we eat lots of chocolate with vanillin (like after Halloween). If you watch the Feingold videos on youtube, Jane Hersey explains how the artificial colors and flavors are all made from the same petroleum products.

Here are the links again in case you missed them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uptp94xLchk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UGhFNwkPr4&feature=related

I have changed my buying habits over the past 6 months or so to avoid things like vanillin. I was surprised to see that Nestle Chocolate Chips have now gone natural and do not have the artificial flavor any more. I had stopped buying them for a while, so I'm happy to be able to get back to an old favorite. That makes me more confident that we can keep using our consumer power to get companies to make our food without all the chemicals. Yay!

Watch the hot cocoa!

2010-01-03T15:52:00.002-05:00

I just checked my hot chocolate ingredients, not sure why I had not looked previously. Thanks to a follower who sent me an email and mentioned it. Doesn't it just figure, yet another product where you would not think there would be food dye ingredients. My kids love the mini marshmallows, but low and behold...you guessed it...there's blue #1 in the marshmallows.

Our solution: buy the mix without the marshmallows and get the Great Value brand small marshmallows from Walmart (they are dye free). Not quite the same as the little tiny marshmallows that come in the mixes, but good enough to still enjoy it without all the behaviors of adding food dyes to the diet.

darn those yellow donuts!

2009-12-21T14:42:00.003-05:00

This is the second time in the last month that yellow donuts have become an issue, both times at breakfast buffets. From the outside they looked like normal brownish sugar covered donuts (one with powdered sugar, the other with cinnamon sugar). Both times my 4 year old took a bite only to reveal a bright yellow inside. By then it's too late. Uhg! No more sugared donuts for us. I definitely see the irritability and impulse control problems that always accompany the dies. At least it will wear off before Christmas.

Food dyes and sensory issues

2009-12-17T19:41:00.005-05:00

I wanted to respond to a question posted on my last entry. Do children who respond to food dyes also have sensory issues? In my family, I have one child with sensory issues who responds pretty strongly to food dyes with VERY SEVERE impulsivity and hyperactivity. My other two children do not have sensory issues, but they respond almost more severely to the dyes with irritability, tantrums, and pretty intense negative behaviors. These behaviors always last about 3 full days after eating the food dye.

My friend has a child who only seems to have sensory issues when she has food dyes. She becomes sensitive to clothing and temperature, etc. It makes getting ready for school on time almost impossible. The same friend and I have shared observations that we each have a child who could meet diagnostic criteria for Bipolar Disorder when they are on food dyes. What is reassuring, but also alarming to me, is that both children are normally well behaved, even tempered children. We are both trained child mental health professionals, so we find that very interesting that our children actually start to mimic symptoms of many clinical disorders by merely consuming petrochemicals in food. So my answer would be, yes children with sensory issues may very well be more sensitive to the neurological effects of the food dyes. But my strong hunch is that many many children are sensitive to food dyes and could be calmer and more stable with basic dietary changes. If only more parents knew this!!!!

If you are new to this blog and reading this, you read right when I said petrochemicals. Artificial colors and flavors are really made from petroleum and often manufactured in China. Need I say more? Why should anyone eat that? Get the word out so we all have more choices and options to eat real foods without chemicals. The trends are changing so hopefully it will be easier and less expensive too. I thought finding organic candy canes at Kroger was a great indicator of good choices to come.

dye free candy canes

2009-12-10T19:26:00.004-05:00

I could hardly believe it. I went to Kroger to pick up a few basics and saw in the produce section a huge display of holiday items. It was the typical stuff you use for baking. Then I realized there were boxes upon boxes of Organic Candy Canes! That means no dyes! They are the same kind I went to the health food store to get last week. I checked out their web site http://www.purefun.ca. They even have dye free COTTON CANDY. Do you know how long it's been since my kids have eaten cotton candy?!

My 4 year old probably does not remember eating candy canes since we banned red #40 from the house 3 years ago. I haven't had a candy cane in years. I have to say, it was nice to enjoy a normal holiday treat without the mood problems (mine or my kids'). Maybe the "dye free" choice is finally catching on. It's about time it got a little easier. Feel free to comment on your own dye free discoveries this holiday season.

food dye from the funeral

2009-12-08T19:17:00.004-05:00

Well, that about says it all... sort of. I have not posted much because of my parents' health problems, among other difficulties. I'm sorry to say my dad passed away about a week ago. As if that were not all hard enough, my son's birthday was the day of the funeral. Then we went to a lunch afterward only to have banana peppers in both the sandwiches and the pasta salad. In case you have not seen my previous posts about banana peppers, they soak them in yellow dye. I've seen some of our worst reactions come from banana peppers. Too bad, because I really like them. Normally, I would just send all the "contaminated" food back, but when 3 kids had already waited an hour at the restaurant (until 2 pm) for lunch, I didn't care any more and we all ate it. Well you can imagine how that turned out.

Now I messed up again and got green gum instead of the white gum for St. Nick's day. My 4 year old has been back to the spitting, yelling, defiance, you name it. Uhhg. Hopefully only 1 more day of that until the effects wear off. You would not think a little stick of Trident would make a difference, but it does for my kids. I try to stick to Freedent, or other white gums, but I have been distracted and less careful lately.

On a more positive note, I found dye free candy canes at the health food store. Well, actually, my friend asked if they would order them back in November and they called her Saturday to say they were in. My friend had ordered some online, so I ran over and got her box. Good thing I went right away, it looked like the last box. If I get my act together I'll dig the box back out an post the brand name.

Here's hoping everyone else is more successful in their pursuit of dye free foods this holiday season. We did avoid problems on Thanksgiving. Still sad that Crescent rolls have red and yellow in them, but we somehow survived without them.

Ready for Halloween

2009-10-29T20:31:00.004-04:00

Whew, I wasn't sure I would even get to post this before Halloween. I've still been busy with sick parents, sick kids, and school problems. It's been a tough fall so Halloween kind of snuck up on me this year.

A fellow food dye fanatic/friend sent me this link about Necco wafers going dye free. I stocked up on Yummy Earth Lollipops, Darell Lea's licorice (from Target) and some chocolate. I use my selections to replace what my kids bring home from parties.

Here is what I sent in to the preschool party today:

I used a white cake and frosting mix and then decorated with spider rings from Walmart. My daughter loved that some of the rings were purple. For those who have not read my previous holiday posts, I often use white cakes and frosting to make cupcakes for school parties. Be sure to read the ingredients. Many white cake and frosting have dyes.

Then I decorate with colorful things that don't contain dyes. Some cupcake paper wrappers come with matching toothpicks to stick in each cupcake. Otherwise I've used foil wrapped chocolates. Basically I try to add color, without adding petroleum based color like red #40. This year I did not sign up for very many parties (didn't get to the list quick enough at parent night) so I just brought in a cupcake for my son's party and he passed on the rest of the stuff the other parents brought.

My oldest has been quite happy that I stocked the teacher with candy for him. He would rather have a few Surf Sweets sour worms than a cupcake anyway. I just asked what he wanted to eat on party days and he picked a few bags of candy. It works out easily because the candy keeps a little longer than cookies or cakes. The only down side: one day he had a sub and she didn't believe him that he could get candy instead of a birthday treat. Win some, loose some.

I'm also still trying to find which dentist pays kids for their Halloween candy. I think we'll pay him a visit.

pet peeves about food dyes

2009-10-19T18:47:00.003-04:00

My children often drink water in restaurants because the lemonade and punch have dyes, the soft drinks have sugar and sodium benzoate, and one is even allergic to milk. I hate it when the only water option is the self serve soft drink dispenser where you have to push the tab on the same spout as the fruit punch. I always let the water run to try to wash it out. Today I went back and asked for a lid for the cup of water. They did not have a lid so they gave me a white Styrofoam cup instead. Once I transferred the water from a clear cup into the white cup, it was easy to see that it was still pink. SIGH. How frustrating when you can't even get water without the red#40. Next time I'll spend the extra dollar and buy a bottle of water. So much for the environment. I dumped the cup an told my daughter I'd give her a better drink when we got home. Bottom line: watch out for where your water comes from in restaurants.

dye free cough syrup

2009-10-14T11:04:00.003-04:00

Since flu season hit so early here, I've found myself with 3 coughing children this week. I don't like to give a lot of medicine, but when they are hacking away so bad that nobody can sleep, it seemed something was needed.

I actually had 2 kinds of cough syrup on hand after I threw away the purple stuff. One was a clear Triaminic. The other was NatraBio children's cough syrup from the health food store. Both have helped. My children tolerated the taste of both, even though the homeopathic one smelled pretty strong. I have been unable to find more the of the clear Triaminic now that we ran out, but I've only checked Kroger so far. The good news is, you do have choices besides the rainbow colored ones. Even if your kids are healthy, keep an eye out for the dye free Motrin and cough products now so you already have them when you need them. You'll be glad you did.

dye free antibiotics

2009-10-10T09:01:00.002-04:00

I can't believe we're in cold and flu season already. We've had a major flu outbreak at school this week, so when my son spiked a fever, I was thinking there was a huge chance it was H1N1. It turns out 2 of my children have strep throat instead. The doc warned that almost every child she has seen from our school has tested positive for flu, so we will probably still get it. Can't wait!

In the mean time, the nurse handed me 2 prescriptions for Amoxicilin chewable tablets. I reminded her my kids can't have food dyes. She said she could check with the pharmacy, but they were visibly swamped and I guessed that would take another hour. I called the pharmacy myself, from the doctor's office. The pharmacist originally thought they only had pink tablets, but sounded surprised to find some white ones. Problem solved, for once without dyes and without the run-around. My son says they taste good/minty. It was nice to get a cheep generic prescription rather than the expensive compounds we've had in recent months for other things.

Hi, I'm back

2009-09-30T19:50:00.003-04:00

September ended up being a very stressful month. I thought we were starting off a really great school year, but soon found a long list of problems with one particular school staff member. I've been so busy, I feel like I blinked my eyes and the month is over. Oh, yeah, we've also had one kid in a cast and many other interesting adventures.

On the food dye front, one of the funniest, and at the same time most pathetic incidents was when an intervention person at my school told me she gives the kids the red and white mints to help them concentrate. Oh, yeah, that will do it, I thought.

Another person gave my son a Dum Dum at school on a Friday and we dealt with that for a whole weekend. That was a "fun" weekend, to say the very least. Hopefully others are being more successful in their journey to remain "dye free." Hopefully life will settle down a little and I'll get back to posting more often.

it's starting early

2009-08-30T19:33:00.004-04:00

Can't believe I've already got a child with a sore throat and fever! We haven't even had a full week since school started. At least the Urgent Care doctor took me seriously and wrote the script for Augmentin (the while antibiotic) rather than the pink stuff. I told him my child reacts badly to food coloring and could I please have a medicine that did not contain artificial colors. I told him I have learned that many times medicines have colors in them already banned in food. He seemed surprised by that. I briefly explained that my children all show severe changes in reaction to food dyes and that it is very detrimental to them. He believed me and said we could get Augmentin instead of Amoxicilin.

In case you haven't read my early entries, that's how my whole journey with food dyes began. A dark colored antibiotic made my child look crazy hyper. That was 3 years ago. What a journey it has been.

What are the effects of food dyes?

2009-08-26T13:05:00.006-04:00

Many people wonder what food dyes really do. How can they be detrimental if they are allowed to be in so many children's foods? Well, I'd like to lay it out there from 2 perspectives: 1. the research 2. my experience as a Mom.

Research has been showing food dyes to cause hyperactivity and irritability in "normal" kids, not just ADHD kids. Our FDA does not want to acknowledge the recent research, but it was enough for Britain to ban dyes from their foods. Hmmm, total denial, verses total action to protect children. Seeing any trends with out FDA? Check links to the side for articles about the recent studies.

Here are a few new ones I found:

Do food dyes affect kids' behavior? --LA Times

The truth about food dyes -Couric and Co CBS

Chemical food additive exposure during pregnancy

This last one is disturbing. In case you didn't read it all the way through, here's the conclusion:

Regarding the observations of hyperactivity after exposure to food dyes, there was enough evidence for the researchers to conclude,
"Our results provide additional support for the belief that administration of food colorings may exert significant effects in the developing organism. Thus, it is apparent that food dyes affect activity levels during the first month of postnatal life."
Dr. Bennett A. ShaywitzPediatric Neurology, Yale University School of MedicineNeurobehavioral Toxicology, Vol. 1:41-47

I wish I knew why this stuff has not been better studied and publicised, but it seems that it is still not common knowledge to many families. My hope is that my blog will help with that. I just wish there was a better way to shout to our country, "Wake up and look at your children! This is not how children are supposed to be. People were not made to eat petroleum by-products!"

As a mom I have seen even more dramatic effects. I have 2 children who become irritable, defiant and difficult to be around. The screaming, shouting, fighting, it all goes off the charts. It's not continual. It's more like it spikes without warning over the course of 3 days. One even spits, hits, sticks the tongue out a lot, but only within 3 days of food dyes. The behavior does not otherwise occur. I also see hyperactivity mixed in with the angry stuff on the same two. It's like the brakes short circuit and they jump, bounce and dash about much more than normal.

That leaves my other child, the "hyperactive times 100 when on food dyes" child. I don't see as much of the angry responses out of that one, but more of the crazy, "devil may care" attitude that revs from sun up to sun down with no break. It's like he's on drugs! And then I sat there thinking he needed to be one. Thank God I figured out the food dye connection and never had to go down that path. He didn't need Ritalin or any other drug. He needed healthy food. Again, the behavior stays under control unless there is an exposure to food dye. I've tried it out hundreds of times over 3 years. When the food dyes are not consumed, I have calm, considerate, polite children who do their chores and homework without incident, practice their musical instruments, and maintain a reasonable level of peace. It's honestly just that simple.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

2009-08-23T14:09:00.001-04:00

I decided to organize my links a little better, so that part of my blog will be undergoing changes over the next few days as time permits.

informing teachers about food dyes

2009-08-23T13:43:00.005-04:00

As my children get ready to go back to school this week, I am composing a letter to the teachers. I like to introduce our family and tell a little about my child's interests, but I will also be making my preference to keep my children "dye free" known in writing. I am hopeful that having the preference known in writing will help prevent problems. I also found it helpful last year to voice the concern out loud to other parents at the "meet the teacher" night and request that it be treated as a food allergy. We had many parents who did remember about the need to be "dye free" when they chose birthday treats for their own child's party. Some went to great lengths to make sure my son had a dye free snack.

My letter to the teacher will go something like this:

Dear teacher,

I wanted to let you know that my child is not able to eat anything with the following artificial food coloring ingredients: red #40, yellow #5, yellow #6 and blue #1. These petroleum based chemicals have been found to negatively affect children by provoking emotional and behavioral responses. The response to these chemicals can last up to 3 full days. These food colorings are banned in Brittan and other countries, since research has proven their ill effects on children. As I want my child to be at his best for school work, I hope you will assist me in making sure that my child does not consume any artificially colored products in class. I will be happy to provide alternate treats so that my son can enjoy treats with the class. If you could please let me know of any special parties or activities in advance, I will be happy to send in appropriate substitutions for my child. I have collected a great deal of information and research on this topic on my blog: fooddyediaries.blogspot.com. You could also say: I have found a blog that explains more information and research about food dyes.

Lets hope for safe eating and a successful dye free school year!

dye free lollipops at Amazon

2009-08-19T19:26:00.002-04:00

My friend found Yummy Earth on sale at Amazon. They have really good dye free candy. The Amazon link actually has a video where you can watch how they make them. The kids enjoyed hearing them talk about how they don't use red #40 and all that yucky stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HDK0D2/ref=s9_top_bw_tr01?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7-1&pf_rd_r=1FM3S25V0V7A2X4TFNNB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=482672651&pf_rd_i=51537011

Feingold on youtube

2009-08-13T20:40:00.005-04:00

Why is your child irritable, angry, hyper or upset? This is really worth checking out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uptp94xLchk
Feingold has short video clips on youtube about food dyes and reasons to avoid them. This is a nice clip to pass along to teachers or family members who do not understand about keeping children off food dyes. Pass this along to anyone who is interested!

surprising dye free cereal

2009-08-10T20:19:00.006-04:00

While shopping at Kroger today we noticed a large display at the end of an aisle of a new line of natural cereals from Mom's Naturals. They actually have an all natural substitute for Lucky Charms, only without the junk. No kidding. I always loved them as a kid, so of course we bought them and tried them already. Picking the crunchy little marshmallows is still just as fun, only now without all the side effects of the dyes. Here's a link to the company where you can even get coupons: http://www.momsbestnaturals.com/all-natural-products/mallow-oats.php

I've heard that the demand for natural foods has finally increased such that companies are able to produce foods in larger quantities pushing the price down. Kroger is now offering more and more natural foods because the lower prices also make it more likely the average Kroger shopper will buy them. Isn't that a nice change.

imagine paint poured over a cookie

2009-08-06T20:03:00.004-04:00

That's what the snack at daycare looked like today. I should have taken a picture. They apparently mixed food coloring (the entire bottle from the looks of it) with sweetened condensed milk and poured it over a pan of bar cookies. I planned ahead and expected myself to forget to pack the cookies this morning so I packed up my own plain old chocolate chip cookies ahead of time and already had them in a bag in the car (Luckily it's been cool here). That way when I walked into the daycare kitchen this morning and saw today's cookies, all I had to do was go back to the car to get safe cookies for my kids. I wonder how many kids are going to be cranked up all weekend? At least it won't be mine.

I also think it's time to search for new info on how many countries have actually banned food dyes and their reasons for doing so. Of course I'll post whatever I find on that, but I'm thinking I need to print it out and hand it to the director of my daycare/summercamp/preschool just for good measure.

So today's lesson about avoiding dyes at day care. Always look ahead at the menu and always have a safe snack.

what are the odds of this?

2009-08-05T21:41:00.003-04:00

We rarely eat any restaurant food anymore. It's just easier not to. However, tonight Alex had a cello recital and we wanted to celebrate how well he played, so we stopped at McDonald's. We were originally only going to get fries, but Ben wanted a chocolate shake and that sounded good so we both got one. I was driving home drinking my shake when I suddenly found myself chewing on a piece of strawberry. Just as I was starting to grumble, Ben says, "Mom I think my shake tastes like strawberry."

You know what that means. McDonalds only has strawberries with red #40 in them. Of course they make dye free strawberry sauce for Britan. If you have not read my whole blog then you may not know that food dyes are banned in Britain and other countries. Those countries acknowledge the research that indicates negative health effects on children from consuming food dyes. I'm still wondering how our own FDA gets away with ignoring the same research and allowing neurotoxins in our food.

In the mean time, I'm trying an experiment. I told Ben I'll pay him 5 dollars if he shows no sign of irritability, defiance or the other negative results of food dyes for the next 3 days. I'm curious if he's old enough to summon the effort to over-ride it. We'll see how I do too. My guess is that Friday and Saturday will the "hot days." So the contest is on to see who can keep their cool longer, me or my son.

How is this legal?

2009-08-04T19:10:00.005-04:00

I was cleaning through m medicine cabinet last week when my boys had poison ivy. I came across a package of Benadryl tablets that look hot pink and contain. D & C red #27. I found that interesting as I know only red #40 and Red #33 are approved for food. Tuns out this one's in lipstick and lip gloss despite it being known as a neurotoxin. Check out the link I found about that: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ingredient.php?ingred06=701794&nothanks=1

Now obviously I threw it all out before anyone in my family could accidentally take it, but how many people take that on a regular basis? Hmmmm.

Celebrating 5000 with another food dye mishap

2009-07-30T19:57:00.004-04:00

That's right, yesterday marked the 5000th hit on my blog.

We have learned to be very very careful about what we feed our children. But somehow those nerotoxins still seem to sneak in. This week it was salad dressing at golf camp. How ironic that my 2 boys were among the few that chose to eat the beautiful healthy salad since there were always chips, cookies, brownies, etc. OH MY GOSH! It was not until I even typed this that I stopped to consider the brownies. Those can often have red #40 too.

I noticed Ben getting progressively more negative and grumpy at home all week. I kept asking him what he ate. I suspected they had the lemonade at camp. Both boys insisted they only drank water. Then it dawned on me when I asked a food server to check the ingredients on the potato wedges that looked a little too orange. Sure enough, there was dye in them, so we avoided those. That's when I looked at the Italian dressing they were having all week. Nice red bits, deep yellow base, pretty sure we had the culprit. Luckily this camp encouraged parents to come eat with the kids every day so I could be the overprotective "no you can't eat that" watch dog of a mom. Well, that part's more due to the milk/soy/wheat allergy than the food dyes.

But, trying to keep it all in perspective, my boys loved golf camp and may be developing a lifelong interest they can share with their dad. They developed skills, made friends, behaved well, avoided injury, and ended the week with a new bargain set of clubs so they don't have to share anymore. The camp also included new golf shoes and a Tiger Woods hat for everyone. So while I would prefer to not have the grump and the energizer bunny running around my house for the next 2 days, all things considered we are still doing pretty well. I'll try to count my blessings. On second thought, there must not have been red#40 in the brownies. I ate them 3 days in a row (Ben kept getting too full to enjoy good chocolate so someone had to do it). If there really was red#40 in them, I'd be way too irritable to write about counting blessings. So that's another blessing.

Why is my child so angry?

2009-07-28T20:35:00.004-04:00

My obvious answer to that question is FOOD DYE, FOOD DYE, FOOD DYE.

Sorry to be redundant to my regular followers, but I'm hoping that a few more parents looking for answers will stumble across my page if I address anger problems. For those who haven't heard, I probably sound completely crazy. How could my food make me or my child angry? Well, don't take my word for it. Food dyes are banned in Britain. That's right. You can't buy food there with artificial colors like red#40 or yellow #5. That happened as a result of a study that came out in 2008. Check my links to research at the right hand side of this page. I'm not making it up.

Still not convinced, then just try it for yourself. Start paying attention to what your child ate for the 2-3 days prior to an outburst. Was there red or yellow food coloring in it? Hmmm, I know it seems way too simple to be a real issue. Better yet, take your child off all food dyes for a few weeks. Summer is the best time to try this since you don't have school lunches and snacks to worry about. Then after you are sure you have cleaned out the dyes for a good week or two, indulge in some nice red #40 colored something. See what happens for the next 3 days after that. It could be the most enlightening experiment you ever do in your family. Or you could live with tempers flaring, outbursts all over and relationships frustrated and failing.

Now I'm not to say there are not legitimate mental health problems that cause anger. If your child has a trauma or abuse history or your family is going through lots of stress then you may need more intervention than diet. I'm really talking to all those families whose children have a pretty good life but still seem angry or grumpy all the time and no one knows why. Those are the ones who could benefit from being dye free. But on the other hand, if perfectly normal healthy children in intact stable families show dramatic behavior changes just by taking away a few ingredients, isn't it more important for children facing other stressors to have the same benefit?

I hated the way my son and I were always at odds. He acted like he hated my guts. I was sending him to his room a lot and he would yell, scream, cry, threaten, etc. Rewards and punishment didn't seem to change it. It wasn't until several months after I weaned my family off food dyes that I realized how much better my son was. He doesn't get angry or explosive any more. He stays calm and accepts the ups and downs without loosing it. I never would have believed it if I had not lived it with my own 3 children.

I didn't even start my quest to avoid food dye due to anger or irritability. I started because the dyes made my other son wildly hyperactive. The calming of the storm in my other 2 children was a completely unexpected but very real blessing. It was almost miraculous when I think back to how crazy things were. I just wish more people knew about this. Others, feel free to comment on your own stories.

dye free foods, a few steps at a time

2009-07-27T14:12:00.003-04:00

While the word of mouth approach continues to be very slow, I can see some things starting to happen. I spoke to a parent at swim lessons, who wanted to go dye-free. My neighbor posted about dyes on facebook. A Kindergarten teacher contacted me as she is setting up an allergy safe kindergarten snack menu and wanted dye-free ideas. I think people are slowly learning that this is something we should pay attention to.

We are also finding new surprises to satisfy old cravings. We tried Kettle Brand New York Cheddar Cheese chips. We've been waiting for them to go on sale as they are a little pricey, but really tasty. While we have missed the flavor of all those orange cheesy chips, we have certainly not missed the behavior that used to come with them.

sometimes the 3rd day is the worst

2009-07-25T19:58:00.002-04:00

I think we managed 4 days at my in-laws' farm and 3 days at my parents without any mishaps with dyes. That's a feat considering the large M&M dispenser full of peanut M&Ms always within reach at my in-laws'. In a momentary loss of reason I ordered a lime soda ( blue #1 and yellow #5) for myself when my Dad took me out for Mexican food. I seemed fine until the third day but today I feel short tempered and need to hold my tongue to not say or yell what I really want to say. I also intercepted my Dad before he offered a shortbread cookie to Lindsey with yellow #5 in it. I don't think the grandpas will ever really understand about food dyes.

now she tells me

2009-07-17T20:23:00.002-04:00

I think my 4 year old actually ate the cookie bar I ranted about yesterday. The hitting out of nowhere, spitting, yelling and spite, it's all there too. Now she says she ate some colored cookie at school. Maybe she's making it up, since 4 year olds do like their drama. But, Ben says he got the whole bag of chocolate cookies I left for the 2 of them to share. Might be a long weekend.

creative cookie bars!

2009-07-16T20:28:00.002-04:00

There is just no convincing some people that food dyes are a problem. Offer the research, it's ignored. Explain that other countries have banned them, so what. Giver personal testimony of how it affects my own children and every family I know, it still lands on deaf ears. How many Americans still think that if it's in everything and we've eaten it for years, it must be OK? Sometimes I honestly wonder, what's the point?

To what do I owe this new wave of pessimism? Today's summer camp menu included creative cookie bars, which I was told were chocolate chip cookies covered with condensed milk with red and green food coloring UUUUUUUHG! Now, it's not really that bad. It's not like my kids ate them or anything like that. I shouldn't complain too much. I looked ahead on the menu. Heaven help me on the morning I don't have my act together and forget to look at the menu, but I looked at the menu before leaving the house and was prepared and left my own cookies for my little darlings to eat for snack. I just get so annoyed that the same people who have helped me check every menu ingredient for the past 2 years still keep finding "creative" ways to add extra unnecessary food coloring into the menu. Clearly I've been written off as an extreme nut case who knows nothing. Maybe that's why everyone smiles when they say hello.

Win some, loose some, I guess I'll call this one a draw. They all work well enough to make sure my kids don't eat any dyes. But unfortunately, this day care's one battle for dye free foods that will apparently never extend beyond my own children.

Update of my favorite dye-free foods

2009-07-12T20:39:00.010-04:00

My original favorite dye free foods post has been the most visited on my site. I decided to update it as I've found more favorites. We shop a little at the health food store due to food allergies (son needs to avoid wheat, dairy, soy, oats, lemon). Otherwise, we do the majority of our shopping at Kroger. (Helps to have my husband's employee discount so I opt for Kroger and Private Selection products whenever possible.)

Drinks: We do mostly water or milk. Chocolate milk has been a special indulgence only for restaurants. It is usually dye free. I've cut down on juice and Capri Sun since finding that 2 of mine get pretty wired on apple and grape products. However, 100% juice and Capri Sun are usually dye free. Watch out for individually bottled juice drinks. My husband once bought a juice blend that said 100% juice but it had yellow #5 added. We like Simply Lemonade, which is organic, They also have a pink lemonade colored with raspberry juice. Once in a while we get Vitamin Water or the Naturally Preferred H2O drinks for times when I know my kids will be around other kids with lots of Gatorade (baseball). We mostly survived baseball season with our own water bottles that I filled and took with us to each game. I found an old insulated diaper bag that kept them cool and saved us lots of money on concession drinks. Sprite and rootbeer are usually OK, although someone just commented on a post today that A&W rootbeer had dye in it.

We skip all lemonade and punch at restaurants, it always has artificial dye.

Breakfast foods: we make our own pancakes and freeze extras for quick meals on school days. Tip: Most Eggo brand waffles have yellow dye. Most Kroger brand waffles are dye free.
Yogurt: Regular Yoplait is usually dye free. Most of the Yoplait Light have dyes. We skip all the Gogurts, Yogos, etc. (more sugar and dyes added than good stuff) We recently found that Dannimals Crush Cups are dye free. So are the Dannimal smoothies, but fairly high on the sugar.
Cereal: We stay with plain cereals or organic. If you kids want sweet and colorful cereal Kroger brand Cocoa Crispies are dye free. We also like Barbara's Wild Puffis and several Puffin brand cereals (there's even a peanut butter one). Our Kroger has all the organic cereals in a separate aisle. We also like Kashi products.

What to eat for lunch: Macaroni and cheese: Kraft has a white cheddar and so does Kroger. We get the Kroger one and the sauce needs a little more mixing than the regular stuff, but my kids like it better than the yellow stuff. We no longer eat any kind of Lunchables. My kids did OK ditching the colored candy but the preservatives still seemed to set them off. We like Hormel lunch meat as it is all natural. I actually have 2 kids who love tuna. We have PB, but for some reason my kids don't like the jelly. (saves the problem of possible dyes there.)

Foods at Daycare/Preschool: this continues to be an area of struggle and frustration. I had the menu down and provided substitutes for all necessary items. Then they changed the menu for summer. My food allergy son takes his own lunch and is not allowed to eat anything that I did not personally pack for him. For my other two in the summer camp, I check each food ingredient and request to see the packaging on everything. I often spend an extra 5-10 minutes checking this at drop-off time in the morning. I supply extras for them to keep on hand of cookies, sprinkles, candy, popsicles, etc. The biggest factor in our success is my kids constantly asking, "Does that have any dyes in it? I can't have that."

Snacks: Stick with plain pretzels, chips and tortilla chips. If you want more flavor, try the Kettle Brand chips which are all natural. At our Kroger they are in a different section with the natural and organic products. Regular Fritos are fine too. Anything "hot" or BBQ flavored red usually has red #40. Most cheesy chips or cheese curls have yellow dye, but Cheetos has a natural one that is dye free. Microwave popcorn is another source of hidden dye (yellow #5) but Orville Reddenbocker and Kroger both have natural brands that are fine. We also like plain rice cakes and Sweet Pea Crisps for crunchy snacking.

Fruit snacks: Motts/Brachs has a dye free fruit chew (my kids still seems to bounce more after eating them, probably due to the apple juice). We really like FruitABu brand fruit snacks (health food section of Kroger) They have lots of organic fruit leather individually wrapped type snacks. You can also buy organic cereal bars that are dye free.

Candy: My kids love Yummy Earth candies and lollipops. They taste great, but I've only found them at the health food store. I keep them in my purse so any time someone offers us regular candy like DumDums, I decline and hand the kids my organic stuff. I also gave a bag to each teacher so my kids have safe candy at school. We also like Surf Sweets candy. I have other posts about their products. ToysRUs is supposed to carry surf Sweets, but the one by my house does not have it so I get it at the health food store. Basically, we check out the natural food section at Kroger and load up there before shopping in the regular part of the store.

Ice cream and frozen deserts: We check all ice creams for dyes. Many are fine, but we skip the obvious ones like strawberry and black raspberry. Many vanilla ice creams, frosting,etc have yellow and/or red dye. WHY? I can't figure it out, but they do. We found out the hard way that Steak and Shake ice cream has dye, but the yogurt doesn't. I am also wary of "artificial color". I think if they can't tell me where the color comes from, I'm not eager to risk it.
I make a lot of popsicles and smoothies when our fruit gets ripe by putting it in the blender and mixing in some rice milk and natural sweetener. Strawberry, banana, blueberry was a huge hit. We avoid all sprinkles at ice cream shops. Even the chocolate ones have red #40. At home, the Mr. Sprinkles in the clown bottle are dye free. Those are from Kroger too. Watch out for carmel sauces and some chocolate sauces. I have not found any strawberry flavored sauce or product that does not have red #40. I would also want to see the ingredients of the chocolate soft serve dip for cones before letting my kids eat that. I would guess it would have red #40.

Cake mix and frosting. Pillsbury and Dunkin Heinz have boxed white cakes and frostings that don't have dyes. Watch the chocolate ones for red #40. At least half of them have it. It's a pain, but read the labels. If you are going to a bakery, ask about their ingredients. Assume that most yellow cakes are dyed. Also beware of just scraping the frosting and sprinkles off cake at parties. If the knife drags through red frosting all across the cake, then the red 40 will be pulled all through as well. My kids have reacted to as little as one pink jelly bean.

Restaurant food: Beware! You would not believe how much extra stuff is in restaurant food. I thought I was eating healthy getting grilled chicken on a salad. When I have checked the ingredients, there is often a whole paragraph of extra stuff added to the chicken, including dyes. McDonalds adds dye to at least one of the grilled chicken marinades. Also beware that vanilla ice cream, loaves of brown bread, pickles, banana peppers and salad dressings are all common sources of food dyes. We simply don't eat out as often anymore (that milk/soy/wheat allergy makes it pretty tough). When we do eat out, we ask a lot of questions and really annoy the waitstaff, but it's a whole lot better to take that extra step than have 3 days of bad behavior.

So what do we eat? We still eat hamburgers and hot dogs. We make out own fries or bake frozen ones. We grill meat and seafood and have lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Left over green beans, broccoli or snap pea pods become a side dish for lunch. I plan ahead and pack lunches and snacks in cooler packs when I know I will be on the go so that we are not at the mercy of fast food. My kids love to have breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, fruit). We make our own spaghetti and pizza, or we still do frozen pizzas too. We avoid boxed meals such as Hamburger Helper or Rice-a-Ronis as many of those have dyes. I also really like the 5 dollar dinner blog: http://www.5dollardinners.com/. She lives in the same area and has great ideas on how to cook cheap. She also has dairy free recipes.

If all this sounds restrictive, it is at first. It is stressful and time consuming to read lables and worry about food ingredients. But what you can gain is priceless. I have reclaimed my relationship with my children. We have largely eliminated tantrums and defiance, whining and aggression, hyperactivity and wild impulsive stuff that drove me crazy and robbed me of all my energy. What we have gained is true peace and happiness in our family. That is why I am committed to getting the word out. Every family deserves a chance at that kind of joy. Every Mom deserves to have her children be at their best, not their aggitated irriable, embarrassing worst. Every child deserves to eat foods that do not cause them to break down into a mess of behavior and emotion. Every family needs to know that simple changes in diet can do as much good as medication without all the side effects.

Managed a birthday party without contamination

2009-07-11T21:32:00.003-04:00

We had a 4 year old party to go to at the Magic Castle complete with rainbow colored princess cake. I thought for sure Lindsey would want a piece of cake and I would be hoping and praying I could scrape enough of the hot pink icing off to avoid problems. It ended up not being an issue. She didn't want any cake and helped me eat another piece of pizza instead. Nice when it's that easy.

We also avoided dyes at my husband's company picnic. I honestly think all the huge spread of food was dye free, except maybe the cheese crackers. That left us with fruit, veggies, chips, pretzels, salsa and chips, hot dogs, chicken, beans, pasta salad, etc etc. Two easies in one weekend. How about that.

Maybe that makes up for the temptation with the donuts I got this morning from Tim Hortons. I was getting them for a support group I run at the office so I didn't ask for dye-free (in a hurry). They put in this fabulous looking blueberry one with purple blueberry jelly and crumbles all over it. It smelled so good, but I had to remind myself I'd be a huge grump the rest of the weekend and convinced someone else to eat it.

back in action

2009-07-08T15:17:00.003-04:00

I am finally back at the computer. It's been a busy summer so far, so I've barely had time to do much on the computer. I'm enjoying lots of fun time with my 3 children at various parks and wet activities, but hopefully I'll be back to posting more regularly now. We still have lots of ups and downs with food dyes, menu changes at summer program, etc.

I found a very informative site on food sensitivity called fed up with food additives. You can check it out here http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/ There was so much info I went on overload. I stumbled across it while looking for info on phenols. Another site I found with info on phenols http://www.danasview.net/phenol.htm. I'm still sorting out what happens to my children to make them more crazy with the salicylate foods like apples, grapes etc.. My doctor suggested a "no phenol" supplement product. We are trying a product called Houston Nutraceuticals No-Fenol Chewable from New Beginnings Nutritionals. Not sure how it works, but I'll keep you posted. I just tried it today.

Effects of food dyes again!

2009-06-16T20:52:00.004-04:00

BIG SIGH..... here we go again. Guess who's having the most reaction to dyes this week--me. I get on my kids about this stuff so often you'd think I would learn my lesson. It was the last baseball game of the season (thank goodness!!!) and the coach brought cupcakes for everyone. You know, the dark blue frosting with a zillion little sprinkles all over them. So it was obvious Alex was going to pass on them due to too many forbidden ingredients (dyes, wheat, soy, milk, etc.). so while my son wondered off to throw a ball and distract himself like the good little boy he is, I was passing out cupcakes to the rest of the team. I had icing all over my fingers when I was done and, being at the baseball park where they don't happen to have an extra sink or napkins, I licked it off. I've been grumpy and yelling a lot more easily ever since. I have felt a whole lot less patient the past 2 days. It should be worn off tonight.

food dyes at the dentist

2009-06-15T13:12:00.003-04:00

We started off our first day of summer vacation with 4 dentist appointments. It went fairly well and they have now flagged all of our charts with allergy stickers regarding the artificial coloring. I requested that they flag it as an allergy.

The paste they normally use to polish teeth is dark red. I'm assuming it's loaded with red #40. They had a substitute that looked a little like grey sand, but it wasn't gritty, so that's what we all got. The hygenist said there is a white flouride available, but they still use the pink or green stuff. I may write ahead and request the white fouride as an option next time. I guess it costs a lot more so they don't keep it on hand. On the way home Ben said they gave him pink flouride, so we'll wait and see if there's any fallout from that. Oh, let's hope not.

last day of school

2009-06-12T07:33:00.004-04:00

We made it to the end. It's the final day of the 6:50 trip to the bus stop until August. I had at least 7 times the past week when I needed to send in substitutes for everything from ice cream sundae toppings to popsicles for the end of year parties. I actually had to make myself a chart to remember which child needed which snack on the right day.

I also made cupcakes for Lindsey's preschool birthday party. I tried red raspberry juice in white frosting. It tasted great! I did them late at night(after baseball) but I forgot to take a picture. I needed to keep them chilled because my husband bought whipped icing and it kind of flopped and got runny when mixed with the juice. All in all, I think the raspberry was much better tasting than the beet juice, but both had nice color. We got a good "bubble gum" pink each time. I'm thinking about buying a lot of raspberries now while they are in season and freezing them. Then I can make the same color any time.

pretty pink cake

2009-06-08T09:26:00.020-04:00

My little girl loves pink so I've been trying to figure out how to make her a pink butterfly birthday cake to go with the candles I found. I tried adding beet juice to white frosting. Then I decorated with lots of white frosting and more of that Surf Sweets candy I got for free. I used gummy worms for the butterfly body and jelly beans and gummy swirls to make the flowers. My daughter was thrilled with the outcome. Eating pink food is a big deal since we have to pass on so many pink and red items. I really don't think you could take taste the beet juice at all, but the thick white frosting on top may have helped with that. I also stopped adding the beet juice when I felt like I could smell it. The candy was so tempting I even caught my mother-in-law picking a few pieces off the cake.

Here is how it turned out:

Free Candy from Surf Sweets

2009-06-02T19:43:00.004-04:00

I've mentioned Surf Sweets candy several times on my blog. I received an email from that company last week inviting me to request some free samples. We already really liked the Gummy Swirls and Jelly Beans that I have bought in the past. I originally found them at the health food store, but they are also available at Toys R Us.

Here is a little bit about what the company had to say, "We're doing our best to give our customers a healthier alternative to mainstream candy. We have six different varieties of gummy candies and jelly beans, made from all-natural ingredients: - 100% Vitamin C per serving- NO synthetic flavors and artificial colors - NO trans fats- NO GMOs - NO corn syrup - NO gluten.

We got the candy in a nice size box and all I can say is, "Wow!" I can't believe they sent me all this for free. What's better is that it is all dye free and tastes great!!!! We really enjoyed the Super Sour Gummy Worms. It's been hard for my kids to be at all the baseball games when their friends are able to buy sour candies (with lots of artificial colors) at the concession stand. I've brought other kinds of candies, but it will be nice to have all the options from Surf Sweets.

Happy Happy Day! Thanks again Surf Sweets. It's great to see a company that cares about putting the right ingredients in treats for our children. I encourage all my followers to try their candy. You'll be hooked. It's going to be hard to save them for the kids and to not eat them all myself.

dye free meds getting easier to track down

2009-05-28T20:53:00.002-04:00

Well I'm getting closer to a happier ending on this one. I found a local pharmacy (Medicine Shop in Beavercreek) that will compound the medication and I can pick it up. That alone should save me a bundle in shipping costs. My order had not been processed so I was able to cancel with the other compounding pharmacy.

So if you find yourself needing to find dye free prescription medication here are a few tips:

1. Ask your doctor ahead of time to prescribe a dye free medication. That step could save a lot of hassle right there. I thought I had that one covered, but it seems big pharmaceuticals change their additives.
2. If your regular pharmacy does not have a dye free option, you can search online for a compounding pharmacy in your area. You can also ask your doctor for suggestions on compounding pharmacies.
3. If you can't find a local compounding pharmacy, you can contact Lee Silsby Compounding pharmacy in Cleavland, OH.
4. Or you can decide to suffer whatever ill effects dyes have on your child and get the medication with red #40. If it was only a 10 day antibiotic on non-school days, I might have gone with this option. Then again, how much is it worth to have a sane, stable, well controlled child? I decided it was worth the extra 70 dollars to not have a crazy wild child for 30 days.

quest for dye free meds

2009-05-26T21:15:00.003-04:00

It should have been simple. My son's doctor wants him to switch to a different antifungal medication. A generic prescription should be either 4 or 10 dollars at my pharmacy. There's only one problem. Every dose of the medication has red# 40 in it, name brand as well as generic. The doctor had thought it was a white tablet when she prescribed it.

The suspension liquid is dye free, but it has lots of sugar, which my son is supposed to avoid in order to fight his intestinal yeast overgrowth. So two doses of sugary syrup every day doesn't seem like a good plan. The liquid also has sodium benzoate, which always seems to wire him too.

So, after a failed trip to the pharmacy, the one where I thought I'd be able to drop of the prescription for white pills and be on my way in 15 minutes, three calls to other pharmacies, I'm going to pay big again for a specially compounded medication. I found out that Medicine Shop compounds medication, but the pharmacist didn't call back so I went ahead and faxed the prescription to Lee Silsby again. At least I'll save about $25-30 by getting a 2 month supply all at once. That's only after I pay out 200 for what should have only cost 20. If this keeps up I may need to post ads on my blog.

Someday, there will be a better way. I just wish that "someday" was a little closer to now. This battle gets old. I need to start writing to politicians again.

update on allergies and other stuff

2009-05-23T20:31:00.004-04:00

It's been a nice weekend so far. What a relief to have a a few days off from baseball, swim lessons, etc. We spent the entire day together as a family. Yard work, slip-n-slide, some quiet time, and a surprise party for our neighbor, made for an all around good day.

We passed on the cake at the birthday party. It had a beautiful golf course on it with red frosting piped around all the edges. I could see how the bits of red had streaked down through the cake when it rubbed off the knife. Simply scooping the frosting off would not have prevented 3 days of melt downs, so we came home and had some cake that I had at home. I've learned from too many mistakes in the past where minimal amounts of dye lasted on and on and on.

As for the allergy issue, I'll give a brief summary since I had a few questions about it. My son has always had problems with milk. We switched him to soy at age 2. He tested negative for allergies at that point. What we didn't realize is that the chronic ear infections and corresponding long term antibiotics left damage in his intestines in the form of a chronic yeast infection. We speculate this is why he is so much more sensitive to various foods than my other two children.

About a year ago I started searching for information online to figure out what was going on. The regular pediatrician sent us for another food allergy blood test in which everything came back negative. But he still had chronic rashes, bowel problems, memory problems, etc. Pediatrician suggested an elimination diet and referral to allergist. Allergists I contacted only did the same test as the one already done, or prick him a zillion times.

I decided to try an elimination diet and looked for more naturally focused MD to oversee his care. Last summer we took him off wheat, milk and soy waiting a week or two in between each food that we eliminated. I had seen a lot about "leaky gut" and intestinal permeability. Ithought that might be my son's problem. He was much better going into fall, but still reactive to some things, and getting milder rashes. We gradually stopped being vigilant about soy, but kept him off milk and wheat. We tried going back on wheat over Halloween and Christmas. Both times his academic work suffered, behavior got worse, rashes and bowel problems returned. What we missed was that the crackers, bread, and sweets that had wheat all had soy ingredients too.

I finally found a more homeopathic doctor who works with Great Plains Laboratory on biomedical testing. We did the full deal: stool, urine, hair sample, blood work, and organic acid tests as well as an Igg food allergy panel which tests for about 90 foods rather than a dozen on the standard Ige panel. We now have a more complete picture of what foods he can't have (milk, soy, watermelon). We are also treating him for yeast infection in the intestines which means no sugar or sugar-like products for a long time (months to years). Lots of basic foods are completely off the menu (ketchup, prepared spaghetti sauce, etc.) because of sugar.

Cooking without sugar, milk, wheat and soy has been rough, but we've mostly adjusted. I can use Xylitol and Stevia as sweeteners. I make tomato sauces from scratch. I also make my own popsicles and other treats. I use a lot of rice based products. I found one cookie sweetened with fruit juice at the health food store. We're starting some new supplements next week, so we'll see how it goes. We may be able to try adding wheat back in as some point. It is exhausting and stressful at times (as if avoiding just the food dyes isn't hard enough by itself!) but we are hoping to someday see the light in a healthier child.

Whenever I start to get bummed out about all the food hassles, I remind myself that I almost lost my son 2 years ago to a near drowning, and that the good fortune of still having him here to hug every day is worth any amount of food headaches that pop up. I guess it's all about gratitude. Focusing on what I do have is a whole lot better than thinking about what we can't eat.

same old story

2009-05-20T21:18:00.004-04:00

I'm wondering if the food dyes have slipped in for various reasons. Hmm, maybe it was the 5 times my 3 year old woke me up last night (a child who normally sleeps through the night every night) or the spitting, hitting, kicking and constant whining all day. All the classic signs are there, including a conversation about having chocolate cake at preschool. I'm temped to go back through old posts and check how many of the "3 year old high on dye" posts were the day after being at preschool. Praying for patience again!

Sometimes I wish I could go back to food just being food and not having to know every ingredient of everything we eat. I also finally have conclusive food allergy results back on my son. It appears that milk and soy are major problems, but not so much the wheat as we had expected. Unfortunately, watermelon and lemons are also moderate on the allergy scale, so there go a few more fun foods. So I'm in the process of re-evaluating everything on the menu. So besides my family taking up a second residence in the dug-out at the Little League field, I'm spending a lot of time just figuring out how to cook without any form of soy. I'll probably be back to posting more regularly when I come up for air in mid-June.

Jelly Beans

2009-05-11T13:48:00.004-04:00

I've been so busy, I haven't had time to rant and rave about this one. My son came home from school a week ago and sobbed on and off for a couple of hours. Several things were going on that he was upset about, but his reaction seemed unusually severe (very much like a food dye reaction). He swore he had not eaten anything. I'm finding it a little too coincidental that he has reacted twice to handling dyed foods at school (Easter eggs and now jelly beans). That was part of what he was crying about. The class did a jelly bean activity. He was supposed to sort, count and taste jelly beans and then write about it. I was not informed they were doing this, or I would have sent dye free jelly beans for him. Jelly Belly and Surf Sweet both make dye free jelly beans.

He was upset that he had to make up which flavor he liked and that he had to watch the other 2 boys on his team consume 144 jelly beans, since he couldn't have any. Now am I just a mean mom that I would not consider letting my child have 50-75 jelly beans in one sitting? And even if I did want my child to eat that way, should my school promote that as an academic task? I like teachers who make education fun and interactive. But isn't there a way to do it without sugar and food dyes? Now I think this is a good teacher, who does a nice job most of the time, but when I have sent my request in writing and made several reminders about my son needing to be "dye free" I just wish I didn't have to continually start over. It's always one step forward, two steps back.

TGIF

2009-05-08T13:16:00.003-04:00

I probably will not be posting as much during Little League season as my boys have games Mon-Thurs and again on Saturday. Since they alternate days and my husband is coaching 2 teams, we are really living on the go right now. I kind of wonder sometimes if it is worth all the insanity and portable dinners, but then Ben pitched 3 strike outs in a row in one inning and Alex got his first 3 hits all in one game and we can't help but celebrate.

The down sides of Little League: concession stand full of red candy, just about every kid on the team has a brightly color sport drink, and my kids sit back and watch all the other kids have their food coloring fiesta for 2 1/2 hours every night. I have stocked up on safe gum, candy, treats, and other drinks, but sometimes it gets to be a pain. At least I think we have finally seen the last of the effects of that dixie cup of Crystal Light the other night.

I'm not sure how I would survive if my son were that irritable, whiny, demanding and over-reactive on a regular basis. It makes me all the more thankful I've been able to see his REAL personality without the food dyes for the past 2 years. The contrast is so "Jekkyl and Hyde" it is hard to describe. Imagine watching your calm, loving, affectionate, smart, considerate, polite, responsible boy turn into a sobbing, cranky mess over little things like, "I can't find a ruler to do my math homework." So, here's hoping for a better dye free weekend.

Happy Mother's day to all the moms who follow.

Crystal Light at Little League

2009-05-05T12:58:00.001-04:00

The coach's wife was thoughful to bring a big jug of Crystal Light for the kids to drink. My kid who usually knows better was thirsty. Need I say more? Morning hysterics to beat all morning hysterics. Sigh. At least they won.

What does "color added" mean?

2009-05-01T13:31:00.006-04:00

I was asked this question by a reader who follows my blog and I thought it would be a good discussion topic. I found a link to the FDA requirements for added colors. My understanding of the topic is that food manufacturers have to list the numbered dyes (red#40, yellow #5, yellow #6, etc) What bothers me is that it sounds like we are trusting the honesty of the food companies to disclose the numbered dyes. I have called various food companies to ask what "color added" means. I often find that those answering the phones do not understand what I am asking, do not know how to pronounce the names of the ingredients I am asking about, and have generally not been helpful. I have been assured that it is not a numbered dye. I have often been told that the person on the phone cannot access further information about origins of the added color. Hmmmm. I guess my take is that if they can't tell me what the real ingredients are, I'm not feeding it to my family.

The Feingold folks also mention this as a concern. In their Feingold Program Details they and suggest avoiding anything listed as "color added" as well as artificially colored or other such terms. Further surch of the Feingold site brought up answers to this question from a 1987 newsletter. Doesn't anyone else wonder why they never tell you this at the pediatrician or when you start reading all the baby toddler books about what is best for you child?

After googling I found another link about color added to Alaskan salmon.

If you really want all the nitty gritty denials from the FDA on color additives you can check the link. But they also deny any risk of color additives exists. So don't read what's there if you aware of any of the recent research because you'll only end up more frustrated. They seem to think thousands of parents just don't know their kids and suggest that removing of additives or going on elimination diets should not be a standard approach for treating ADHD. Hmmm. Do you think anyone paid them off to say that?

Letter to the Food Service Director

2009-04-29T20:49:00.003-04:00

I wrote last week about sending an email to the food service director for my school district. I got on the district web site and looked up her email. If you are interested in sending something similar, here is what I sent:

I am writing as a parent who is very concerned about nutrition and how foods affect children's behavior. I would like to request that (school district) consider reducing or eliminating artificial food coloring and preservatives from the school lunch menu. I realize this is a large undertaking, but I feel the benefits, both financial and health related, could far outweigh the difficulties. I have been gathering research, parent testimonies and sharing my own experiences on my blog: fooddyediaries.blogspot.com. Please check it out for further information about the effects of food dyes on behavior.

I have also included a link to a slide show about the benefits of healthier school lunches that I received from the Feingold Association click here to access it: http://www.school-lunch.org/. I would like to encourage you to consider the information on both links as I feel it could hugely benefit children in the entire district. I would welcome a chance to talk to you more about this. Please feel free to call me. Thank you for your time.

You are welcome to cut and paste the text and send it to any school you want. You may want to undue the italics. The links may not copy over (I had to re-do them to get this on the blog). I think it is wise to make it as easy as possible to click right on the information and get folks there easily. Feel free to comment if you send it on to someone else.

Does a little petroleum help test scores?

2009-04-29T18:26:00.006-04:00

My kids' school seems to think so. Our school has been doing achievement testing this week. So my son came home a little down that he was the only one who didn't get a mint during the tests. You know, the nice RED and white ones. Seriously, they gave each kid red #40 on purpose to help them on their tests.

Now I know there is research out there about oral stimulation, such as gum, to help with focus, concentration, and test scores. I found a link about it here. But come on folks, red 40?! We still have sooooo far to go with this thing.

On the bright side, my son did not take a mint, as he knows how it would affect him. The hyperactivity or irritability has often shown itself within 20-30 minutes of consumption in my children. So, while I'm disappointed with my school's lack of knowledge on the matter, I'm so very proud of how often my son is able to do what is right for himself, even when the whole rest of the class does something different. He does so well, even under peer pressure. That's pretty good for 9 years old!

busy week so far

2009-04-29T07:46:00.004-04:00

I've barely had time to get on the computer the last few days. Baseball season is always crazy for us. As I commented on another post, I also think we had some "dye exposure" issues. My son was an irritable mess all weekend. It times out back to the "take your son to work" day. The chocolate Tootisie Roll pop is my likely culprit. The label doesn't indicate any colors, but since it comes from a factory with lots of other colored stuff, it probably gets in there. I should have known better. It was sad to watch. It started with a very hyper day. Then all the frustration, the "I can't do this" and "everything's going wrong" feelings really persisted for the next 2 days. But as usual, he's much better now. Thank God! It's achievement test week at school.

As for other updates, I heard back from the food service director for my school district. She thanked me for not yelling at her or making outrageous demands. She explained that ordering foods without dyes is pretty feasible, but needs to be handled by each individual school. She planned on talking to the food managers for each school and was going to pass along my email with links to the information. She said they can definitely try to pay closer attention to the dyes. I was not the first person to make her aware of the issue. She said that getting rid of the preservatives was a much harder issue to address and not likely to happen soon.

So, all in all, I was pleased with what I feel is a good start. At this stage I want to get the information to key people and hope that they begin to make informed decisions. I requested that they pay attention to some specific foods such as yogurts, cookies, etc. and try to have dye-free options whenever possible. I explained that my children don't buy many school lunches because I don't want them to have the preservatives or dyes. I also explained that I don't think decorated holiday treats are good for children and could they just stick to the basics like plain old chocolate chip cookies. I tried to emphasize that I don't think this is just a problem for my kids. It may affect all kids to some degree. I should have added that Maryland recently had legislation to ban dyes in all school lunch food. She said that it should be possible to buy more dye free foods. So, I guess I'll wait and see.

If anyone wants to forward the same information to their food service director, feel free to contact me. I'll send you a copy of the email I sent.

Colored candy bliss, or nightmare

2009-04-24T13:50:00.005-04:00

As we wind down the week with beautiful weather, I am absolutely grateful for thinking ahead. My son was set to go to "take you son to work day. " I encouraged my husband to ask what snacks they were going to have for the kids. You would not believe the colored sugar bliss that awaited! There was a whole bag of candy for each child. There was so much Red 40 and the like I had to take a picture of it all. On the left were the ones without dye, then the obviously dye laden lot on the right

Luckily, since we got the bag a day ahead and knew the other kids would have candy galore, I was able to make a quick trip to Trader Joes and get lots of safe choices for my son. We replaced the "bad stuff" with with natural candies. He had Trader Joes' Gummy Tummies, rolled candy and organic lollipops. The funny part was, he didn't even eat half of the candy I sent. Most of it came back home. He's never been one to overdo it on the sweets. I was just so glad he didn't have the disappointment of emptying out a whole bag, only to end up with one or two allowable things.

Quick response!

2009-04-22T13:37:00.004-04:00

Wow! I heard back from the food service director. She is in meetings this week, but indicated she would like to talk to me next week. It is so nice to have someone even remotely interested! There are about 7700 students in our district. Changing even 1 school at a time could affect hundreds of kids. I hope we can really get some positive changes going. All kids deserve a healthy lunch without additives like food dyes and preservatives.

Protect and nourish the earth

2009-04-22T09:25:00.009-04:00

Happy Earth Day

I've been trying to decide what to do today to celebrate Earth Day. I was looking for something food related, so I finally took the leap and sent an email to the director of food services for my school district. I requested that they consider reducing or eliminating artificial colors and preservatives in school lunches. I sent a link to a slide show about school lunches. Check it out if you want. It's from the Feingold Association.

I feel really strongly that we need to work harder to reduce petro-chemicals not only in food but in general. I think there are lots of things the little people in families all over the globe can do. I thought it was a good day to post this video about the effects of plastic bags. We made the change to re-usable canvas bags several months ago. We use them just about every time we go to get groceries. They actually work so much better than plastic: easier to carry, fit more stuff, and they don't roll around or spill in the car as easy.

So celebrate the earth today.

I can only imagine..

2009-04-20T07:11:00.005-04:00

...what my life would be like if I had not figured out the connection between food and behavior. We used to have tantrums over nothing, defiance over the basics, and all out war over the biggies like homework and chores. My children used to have wound up, hyperactive, crazy days where their ears were blocked to the sound of my voice and their engines burned at full tilt from dawn til after dusk. I used to naturally try to raise the sound of my voice to be heard over all the buzzing chaos and wound up frustrated and hoarse without any better results than if I had sat on the couch doing nothing. My oldest often hated my guts and had no qualms about telling me to my face.

Then, I started taking away the food dyes, and it got better. Now I have completely removed food dyes and I also keep 2 of my kids off apples and grapes. The salicylates (chemically similar to aspirin) seem to wire them. Now, we have an unbelievably different picture. Life is smooth. My oldest is polite, helpful, cooperative and affectionate. I can't remember the last tantrum. He appreciates little things and thanks me for them. He will hug me spontaneously and say "thanks of buying the granola bars I like" or something similarly sweet.

So in choosing the title of this post, I was absolutely thinking of the song by Casting Crowns. Freedom from food dyes is a gift from God, a kind of redemption, for my family. We live in light and peace now. No, we're not perfect, but things are soooo much better. And I really do think food dyes are a direct work of evil trying to erode families everywhere. What you do with the information is up to you. Dismiss me as crazy if you need to. I know it probably sounds too good and simple to be true. If you are skeptical, click on my links to the right. Check out the research or the other parent testimonies. Sometimes the truth is simple. If you have not tried avoiding food dyes, then you can't even imagine how much better things can be.

don't keep it secret-- a challenge to moms

2009-04-15T14:18:00.004-04:00

I was inspired today by another mom whose story is surprisingly similar to mine. Another amazing turnaround happened just by taking the food dyes out of the diet. We agree that we need to work harder get the word out. She sent me a link to another article about food dyes: The truth about food dyes from CBS. I like this one because of all the comments at the bottom from other moms. Be sure to go all the way down and read those.

Because of this, I want to challenge other families to get the word out. Don't just tell your friends, have a talk at your school PTA meeting. Start a group at your church. Talk about making changes to the school lunches. Do something to let bigger numbers of people know about the importance of food dyes and how bad they can be for children. We can't keep this a secret. We need to become warriors, fighting for the well being of all the children in our country.

We can do this. We can make a difference, but we need to make the information better known. We need to put pressure on food companies by using our wallets to buy only natural foods and convincing enough others to do the same that it starts to make a difference. If you haven't tried taking the food dyes out of your diet, you have no idea of the child you might be missing out on knowing. Doesn't every child deserve to have their real, un-chemically altered brain working on a regular basis?

More petroleum in food?

2009-04-15T13:58:00.003-04:00

My friend and fellow food dye avoider called me to say she noticed Heinz advertising on their vinegar that they are the only one guaranteed not to contain petroleum. WHAT!? Now it's in the vinegar too?! I did a quick Internet search and found this article about vinegar and petroleum. Once again, it pays to know what you are eating. Something else to ponder, I guess.

By the way, I think the vanillin (another petrochemical) in the easter chocolate has been affecting me this week. Maybe that's why my daughter is a little on edge too.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T19:55:00.003-04:00

We seemed to avoid food dyes this Easter. I was really happy when they gave out brightly colored shoe strings at church, rather than candy. The kids had fun looking for eggs inside. We ended up putting puzzle pieces in most of the boys' eggs. We added some erasers, jacks, and "squishy bugs" and they enjoyed it quite a bit. We had limited amounts of chocolate eggs and jelly beans (Sweet treats brand). All in all it was a good day. I've been wanting a better picture of my kids and they manged to stay dressed up just long enough to oblige me after church.

food dyes and bugs

2009-04-10T12:41:00.004-04:00

I've had some recent emails and comments about dyes made from bugs. I don't think my kids have a problem with the bug dyes. These are different than the numbered dyes that I avoid. I avoid the chemical dyes commonly called red #40, yellow #5, yellow #6 and blue #1. My understanding is that the numbered dyes are manufactured from petroleum. They are synthetic chemicals that do not commonly occur in nature. Thus, our bodies are not well equipped to digest them. I've seen repeated references to artificial colorings being neurotoxins that excite the brain (not in a good way). While they are very prevalent in food marketed to children, research shows more and more that they cause increased behavior problems.

The bug dyes, on the other hand, are made from ground up bug parts, which is considered a natural product. They are referred to as carmine, or chochineal. They come from the chochineal beetle. Here is link to an article about the differences in bug dyes and artificial dyes that explains it better. Allergies to carmine are not as common, but I've seen many discussions of more life threatening problems to carmine such as anaphalatic shock.

I guess the bottom line is still the same, know what you are eating and know how it makes you react.

Food dyes and Easter

2009-04-10T12:13:00.006-04:00

I have not looked into dye free Easter candy much this year as one of my children is on a pretty strict "sugar free" diet. We are going to do more stickers, tatoos and small trinkets for Easter baskets and eggs. The last few years I've filled eggs with things like plastic soldiers, plastic butterflies, etc. If you want jelly beans, Jelly Belly and Surf Sweet brands both have some dye free jelly beans. We'll stick mostly to chocolate. Watch out for the inexpensive foil wrapped chocolates as they sometimes contain red #40 if they don't contain much of the real chocolate. You are pretty safe if you stick to known brands like Hershey, Dove, etc.

I think I'm skipping the coloring of eggs, unless I can find some kind of kit with stickers and decorations rather than dyes. I'm thinking my boys' contact with eggs at school has them both reacting somewhat today. I've been wondering if skin contact is a problem, now I may have my answer. I think my kids react to skin contact with artificial colors as well as eating it. I've been getting the dyes out of lotions, tooth paste, shampoos, etc.

We're also on day 3 of the shrieks and screams after Lindsey came home from preschool telling me she ate a blueberry muffin. The staff clarified that it was put on her plate but quickly replaced by her organic blueberry cereal bar that I provide. Well, if she even nibbled at the fake blueberries or if it rubbed off on her plate onto her food, then it doesn't really matter. She might as well have eaten the whole thing. She's reacting like she did. It's so sad to see my sweet, affectionate child turn into a little maniac for a few days. It should run it's course tonight.

I've also had a few more requests for my list of dye free foods this week. I am still willing to send that out if anyone is interested. When I have tried to post it, the table doesn't copy over and it gets all messed up. So, I just email it to anyone who asks. I want as many people as possible to know about food dyes and be able to avoid them. It still stuns me that this is not common knowledge to most people.

I think many doctors do families a huge dis-service by prescribing medication to children with behavior problems and not ever telling the parents that they may be able to fix the problem just by making some simple dietary changes. The problem is that it is sooooo hard to be consistent in avoiding dyes that many mom's I've talked to are reluctant to even try it. I wish other moms could see for even a few days how much smoother life goes when kids don't have dyes in their systems

Signs of progress today

2009-04-05T20:13:00.002-04:00

I found some pleasant surprises today. We read the labels at the grocery store and found out that Dannimals smoothies and crush cups of yogurt are actually dye free. I had not checked Dannon yogurts for a while as the last time I looked they had red #40. Now they are colored with fruit and vegetable juices. My kids were so excited. I also found a dye free Suave kids shampoo. I've been slowly trying to get rid of dyes and for once it seemed like the task was easier than usual, right off the shelves at Kroger rather than the health food store. Maybe companies are finally starting to realize that many of us want to be dye-free. Let's hope the trend continues.

How do you convince people that food dyes are a problem?

2009-04-04T20:41:00.002-04:00

I found myself in an interesting conflict the past couple of days. I attended a professional training conference for Play Therapists. (when I'm not blogging about my housewife days, I'm actually treating traumatized children at my private practice a couple days a week.) The conference was really excellent and I learned quite a bit. There was a tremendous focus on brain research that indicates that the use of multiple senses helps heal trauma.

There were lots of great examples of how to do this. However, it was frustrating that the suggested foods were almost all with dyes (M&Ms, colored and flavored marshmallows, gum drops, etc.) Then there were the conference snacks which also contained food dyes. I found myself repeatedly tempted to eat things I know could make me react. I didn't give in, but I wanted to. I was also pondering how to use the activities with my clients. I have set a new rule for my therapy sessions that I do not give out anything containing food dyes. I decided that if it's bad for my own "sort of normal" kids, it can't be good at all for children who have abuse histories and behavior problems.

Luckily, my friend is a "dye free mom" and fellow play therapist who attened the conference with me. We brainstormed and really ended up with good substitutes: mentos candy (only some flavors are dye free), Brachs fruit chews, Sundrops (dye free M&M like candy), chocolate candy. But I couldn't help feeling like there is so much further to go with getting the word out.

So, tell people about the research. Talk to them about what you see. Send them a link to this blog or other links on food dyes. Please keep spreading the word so that other families can feel the difference of being dye free.

return of the calm orderly family I know and love

2009-04-04T20:35:00.002-04:00

I can barely describe the difference I saw in a 24 hour period with my son. He was wild and impulsive all day Wednesday. It was wearing me down quite a bit. I was easily frustrated and irritalbe too (my reaction to dyes). Then by Thursday afternoon it was like the cord got unplugged and all the wild stuff just went away. Life was normal again. I've seen this so many times. We eat food dyes, everyone goes a little crazy for 3 days. Then we are all normal again. I'm breating a huge sigh of relief that my oldest didn't have as much of a reaction. Maybe there is hope that one can outgrow it a little.

2 out of 3 hyped again

2009-04-01T20:23:00.004-04:00

Well, we tried to get away to an indoor water park for a few days since the kids are on spring break. That's why I haven't posted in several days. It was really nice to get away, but I'm pretty sure we've had another "food dye mishap." It's been harder to narrow this one down since we were eating out for several days. My best guess is that the spicy curly fries from the hotel restaurant may have been the culprit. I'm not sure if it could have been the orange batter or the seasoning, or both. I should have been suspect of orange fries anyway.

All the same behaviors have returned in 2 of my kids. The hyperactivity, the impulsivity, the yelling, it's all there full force. It's amazing the complete difference in their demeanor. I hope for my husband's sake it wears off by Friday. He gets to stay home with the kids while I go to an all day training.

I'm tempted to go back through all my posts and count up how many times we accidentally get food dyes in restaurant food. It seems to be a trend now.

I wish

2009-03-25T12:15:00.006-04:00

I wish more people understood the negative effects of food dyes on children. I wish my kids were not the only kids in their classes who are not allowed to have food coloring. I wish food companies would stop putting chemicals in everything. And I really wish I could make a meal for my son that didn't need to be free of wheat, dairy, and sugar. Sigh, it's only temporary.

OK, that said, I can move on to the good cooperation from teachers. The 3rd grade teacher sent an email asking for Trix and a few other things for a math project. I emailed her and offered to send in an organic equivalent, Barbara's Wild Puffs that are dye free but still colorful and good tasting. They even come in fruit shapes. My son spotted them at Kroger a few months ago and read the ingredients to check for the forbidden stuff. I sent a whole box in to the teacher so this time around everyone eats the same thing.

I also got an email from the 1st grade teacher. Their class is doing a fun map activity decorating sugar cookies with blue frosting and green M&Ms to make little edible earths. Poor Alex, being on the "no sugar, kill the yeast" diet is going to get a rice cake with blue berries and Snap Pea crisps. The Snapeas sound strange, but are surprisingly salty, crunchy and tasty like a potato chip. Then he'll get a few Xylitol candies to round it off. Not quite the same, but it's about the best I can come up with.

why do I care about food dyes?

2009-03-22T22:09:00.004-04:00

It seemed like a good time for a summary of why I started this blog. My son went on a red antibiotic for 10 days and seemed to go crazy. He was impulsive and uncontrolled in such a dramatic way, I wanted to figure out why. That was 2 years ago. There wasn't very much online about food dyes back then. Nobody seemed to know what I was talking about and people looked at me like I was nuts. I started to pay attention to my son's reaction to food coloring. First I got rid of red#40, then yellow #5 and #6, then Blue #1. It was gradual at first. But I realized more and more that his behavior spiked when he ate things with dyes. I also realized that the problems always lasted 3 whole days.

Since then, more research has come out and more people are understanding how significantly dyes can affect children. I saw one estimate that 1/3 of all cases of ADHD could be eliminated by taking away dyes. When I started realizing the implications for other families, I started this blog to make the path easier for other families wanting to learn about dyes, and hopefully putting more consumer pressure out there for food companies to get the chemicals out of our food.

It was only after I stopped buying any products with food dyes that I realized how much calmer things were with my other 2 children as well. Looking back, I think taking my oldest son off food dyes is the single best thing I ever did for our relationship. I used to feel like I was at war with him. I was afraid for his future and dreading the teen years. He argued and tantrummed on and off. He complained more, defied more, yelled more. I yelled more too.

Now we all seem to have more stable moods. I'm calmer and happier too off the food dyes. I see life more negatively when I've eaten the chemical dyes. But don't take my word on it. Try it yourself and see. Stay off dyes for a whole week, then try something with dye, just one thing, go ahead and make it nice and red if you want. See what happens. Pay attention for a whole 3 days after eating food dye. Try it a few times. It's hard to believe at first. But when you see the same thing over and over again, eventually you start to see. Feel free to comment here on what you see.

What a week

2009-03-20T20:05:00.003-04:00

We received the dye free medicine but I have not had a chance to call and check on our prescription plan. At least I finally know how to get medicine compounded without the nasty colors. I can't imagine if my kids need medicine and I couldn't tell if it was the real ingredients or the dye that was making them react. Thank goodness I didn't have to worry about it this time around.

Here is my response to questions that came up about how I ended up on the "sugar free" path to eliminating yeast with my son. He has always had digestive issues. He has a history of lots of ear infections and triple courses of antibiotics several times before he was 2. We have been told he is lactose intolerant rather than allergic to milk. His bowel movements were always inconsistent, either too loose or too hard. He had rashes for several months last year until I took him off wheat and dairy completely. Being off wheat and dairy has helped a lot. The rashes have gone away and the all the "poop" problems got better. But I still suspected food allergies or something else seemed to be at play. My gut instinct has been that things are not quite right.

I finally found a specialist who does a lot of extra testing through Great Plains Laboratory. I've suspected either "leaky gut" or yeast in the intestines for a while, but didn't think my regular pediatrician would address that. She referred me to an allergist, but when I called the allergist they told me they don't do that kind of testing. So most of the test results aren't back yet, but initial results look like it is yeast in the intestines (possibly from as far back as when he was 1 and getting all the antibiotics).

So this week we managed no sugar, and virtually no carbs except rice milk and a a few bowls of organic brown rice cereal. It was tough, but we survived. I'm still researching online about yeast/candida diets and how to best kill off the yeast. Most sources say I need to keep him off corn, potatoes and peanuts. Every meal seems like a new challenge. But we did it. With that said, I'm exhausted and ready for the weekend.

dye free meds are coming

2009-03-18T09:03:00.004-04:00

I heard back from the compounding pharmacy and they are shipping me the medicine. Here is a link in case you need to try to get dye free meds: Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy. The lady I spoke to was very helpful and checked with the pharmacist several times to answer all my questions. She said it is not common for people to request dye free, but maybe we just need to get the word out that this is possible. WE DO HAVE A CHOICE!
They had 3 options. I could get capsules, grape dye-free liquid, or plain liquid sweetened with Stevia. So, there is a choice, you just have to be really really persistent. My pharmacy and regular pediatrician never told me about this place, they may not know about it. And, oh yes, of course, we are going to pay a lot for it too. The first prescription cost $50.00 for the month supply of red #40 pills. (My son is great at swallowing pills.) The liquid or the capsules both cost $75.00. I'm doubtful our prescription plan will cover the cost of the 2nd prescription, but I'm going to try to make some headway on that later today. Otherwise, how can I know that a medicine is doing it's job when I have to sort out the mess that red #40 turns my son into?!

We should be able to get dye free medicine

2009-03-16T12:21:00.003-04:00

My doctor's office was very helpful about our medicine needing to be dye-free. I called and explained that the prescription we had filled contained red #40. I explained that my son is highly reactive to dyes and that he can't take a medicaiton that contains them. The nurse indicated that they routinely work with a special compounder who could ship the medicine from Cleavland. I made sure to specify that it needs to be free of all artificial dyes so that they wouldn't avoid the red #40 only to put in some yellow or blue dye instead. Hopefully it will all work out.

Frustrated and overwhelmed about dyes in medicine

2009-03-14T16:46:00.004-04:00

I've seen this moment coming, but now that it's here, I still feel caught off guard. I learned early this week that my son has high levels of ammonia in his blood, probably from a long standing yeast infection in his intestines. The quick search shows that this can be really really bad (could cause liver damage or brain damage). I somehow managed to settle down about all of that and focused on getting the rest of the testing done and treating the yeast. It could be the yeast and leaky gut issues that make him more susceptible to the food dyes.

In addition to being dye free, gluten free and dairy free, my son now needs to be completely sugar free. He also probably needs to be off fruit, potatoes, corn and peanuts as they could all contribute to yeast growth. I stocked up on things he can eat (meats and veggies) and decided to experiment with new things like squash, pumpkin seeds. I felt like I got over the initial stress of "OMG! what is he going to eat?" and was handling it all OK until my husband got back with the prescription for Nystatin (anti fungal to treat the yeast). IT HAS GUESS WHAT ---RED 40!!!

My husband called the pharmacy and they checked it out. It seems to be the only way it is made by all three manufacturers. We may have one option to have it specially compounded in a liquid suspension, but I can't check into that until the doctor's office is back open Monday. I seem to recall the liquid being bright yellow when my daughter took it for thrush as an infant. So I might get a great choice of red pills or yellow liquid. I am SOOOO MAD about the lack of choice in this. I need to get my thoughts together and write to some politicians.

maybe it was the Doritos

2009-03-13T09:49:00.004-04:00

Well, the ingredients said there wasn't any red dye, but after Lindsey and I finished off that bag of Doritos Wednesday, we both have the tell tale signs of dye induced grumpiness. It seems like the same effect we get from dye free candies that are still manufactured in factories with lots of red #40. Traces sometimes still get in.

Lindsey's back to frequent screaming and some spitting. It is such a contrast to the sweet child who usually walks up to me, hugs me and says, "You're mine Mommy and I love you soooo much." Hopefully tomorrow should be the last day.

some fun finds

2009-03-09T14:55:00.003-04:00

We had a great weekend enjoying the warm sunshine. We were happy to see that one of our favorite ice cream places, Young's Dairy, is now promoting many all natural flavors that are free of artificial flavors and dyes. The poor teens serving the ice cream probably hated us for making them check to see if Lindsey's cookie dough ice cream had yellow #5 or #6 in it. It sure looked yellow, but Ed found a carton in their freezer case that listed ingredients and it was fine. So here is my new suggestion for being informed but not making a pain of yourself: check the the ingredients in the "take home" freezer products at ice cream places. Then you are not at the mercy of someone else to read the ingredients label.

We also found that Doritos actually has a "spicy sweet chili" flavor that is also dye free. Sure they are not exactly good for you, but it was nice to have some spicy red junk food without all the side effects of the red 40.

rough week

2009-03-05T19:33:00.007-05:00

I have not been posting much because my week has been spinning out of control. My refrigerator stopped working so we had to go buy a new one without any warning. Threw out most of my food because the fridge went from being less cold than usual to not cold at all in 24 hours. We've had a mild stomach thing passing through.

And I could swear my 3 year old is high on dye again. Lots of spitting, kicking and overall disagreeable behavior much of the time. It's been going on all week, but it just dawned on me that I let her have a few bites of Greek salad last night after I had removed the banana peppers. In case you don't know, banana peppers and most pickles are soaked in yellow dye. Clausen makes pickles that are dye free (the refridgerated ones). I posted about banana peppers before. You would think I would learn my lesson, but, well, we all have our moments of stupidity. Maybe if I share mine with other readers, you can chose a wiser path.

dye free eating gets easier

2009-02-27T19:40:00.004-05:00

I found something really cool. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy IATP has a Brain food selector that shows you which foods have artificial dyes. You can type in a restaurant and type of food (or all their food) and check for a specific artificial coloring. You can also type in a brand like Kraft. When I used it I found out Wendy's Chili has Red #40. What a bummer. That was my healthier substitute for the fried stuff. Check it out.

what can be done about food dyes?

2009-02-27T08:36:00.007-05:00

There are lots of things the average person can do to help with this problem

Eliminate dyes from your family's diet. Use your consumer power to buy only dye free products. Don't bring dyed food into the house.

Tell your friends/family/neighbors to try going dye free. Let families know they can do something to help their own children and that it really makes a difference.

Contact food companies. Make a formal request to take food dyes out of their products. Call or email to do this. Consider calling or emailing Kraft, General Mills, Nestle, etc.

Contact grocery chains such as Kroger, Meijer, Walmart, or whatever store you frequent. Let them know you would like to see naturally colored products and suggest your favorite items.

Contact restaurant chains like McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King etc. and ask for natural drink choices for kids, pickles that are free of yellow dye, etc.

Sign the Petition to ban food dyes

Contact your state and federal representatives and tell them you would like to see legislation to remove food dyes from food.

Report you child's response to dyes at CSPI's site.

Request your school to provide dye free foods in the school lunches.

Talk to people about food dyes. Explain why you avoid dyes. Let them you know they can do the same.
Teach your children to avoid foods that contain food dyes. Make it a rule that colored foods are off limits unless proven safe, rather than assuming they are OK.