Colors and more colors

Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1. If you guessed paint by numbers instructions try again! Colors of the rainbow? Wrong again! Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1 are food colorings commonly found in foods we eat. Yellow 6 and Yellow 5 are both somewhat controversial food colorings encompassed in a debate as to their potentially harmful effects to children, particularly in relation to behavior modification and ADHD in children.


One particular offender is the very popular meal that usually serves as breakfast and will do in a pinch for dinner as well ~ at least in our household. Cereal! But beware food coloring is not limited to cereal only! It is in pretty much every food you eat unless you shop at specialty stores such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or shop the health food section of your grocery store. Which more and more popular chain grocery stores are incorporating into their stores.

A recent study posted in the respected British medical journal The Lancet by England’s University of Southampton concluded that there was a correlation between particular combinations of food colors and preservatives in drinks. Due to the results of this study, the British Food Standards Agency to issue an immediate advisory to all parents warning them of the dangers of food coloring in foods.

In April of 2008, the British Guardian newspaper reported that the British Food Standards Agency was pushing further to have several colors removed from production including the colorings sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), tatrazine (E102) and ponceau 4R (E124). These can all be found in processed food products here in the US and often found under different names such as: sunset yellow (E110), cyan yellow, color (E110), yellow 6, color (110)

In the Sept 6, 2007 issue of Time Magazine (Time.com), Time Magazine took note of this study and in turn wrote an article on this very subject stating:

“In terms of a question that’s been raging for years, it’s the best study to date — an extremely good study,” says Dr. Philip Shaw, a research psychiatrist in the Child Psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health.

and further said:

"The Lancet study is the first to nail down a link between artificial ingredients and hyperactivity, though the connection has long been suspected and was the basis for the Feingold Diet, which eliminates all artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives and was popularized in the 1970s as a treatment for ADHD. "

The Center for Science in the Public Interest last summer petitioned the FDA to ban use of the dyes, as well as sodium benzoate, a common preservative that critics also suspect of contributing to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. The group is asking the FDA to ban the following eight food dyes: Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3, and Yellow 6. These ingredients, primarily derived from petroleum and coal tars, are used in everything from candies to cereals, soft drinks, and snack foods. I personally also ban from out diet anything made with Vanillin - not Vanilla. Notice the difference in spelling. Vanillin is the waste product from paper factories! It is then reformulated to taste like Vanilla! and it is cheaper than Vanilla so it is used in many food products. ADHD children are also affected (behaviorally) to Vanillin. ( The Truth about ADHD and Food Flavorings )

As a mom of a child with ADHD, I eliminated food dyes completely from my sons diet. My house is now a die free, preservative free and hormone fee household. What does this mean? It means that my child does not eat any foods that contain food coloring, preservatives or meat, dairy, fish or poultry that has been treated or feed growth hormones. We also eat organic fruits and vegetables when it make a difference. For example a bananas skin is peeled. To buy organic bananas really do not make much of a difference as you peel the skin where the pesticides lie. Was it difficult? A first. Did I see a change in his behavior? Absolutely!