busy week so far

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

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!

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

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..

...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

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?

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.