Popsicles, cookies, candy, soda, chips. My kids love after game snacks. Those treats are almost the reason they play sports. It starts off as a nice congratulatory snack and usually ends in tears. For me! They are bouncing off the walls. Don’t yell at your sister. Do not hit your brother! Why are you both crying? Go to your rooms! Naturally, we all blame the sugar. But is it really the sugar? I’ve started paying attention to my kids behavior after they eat those “treats” and it’s opened up a whole new avenue of crazy for me.
A few weeks ago my normally sweet boy had a hellacious fit about an hour an a half after eating a bag of cookies as a snack from his basketball game. This is the list of colorings (in order) on the package of cookies he consumed.
Yellow #5 Lake, Red #40 Lake, Blue #1 Lake, Yellow #6 Lake, Blue #2 Lake, Yellow #5, Red #40, Blue#1, Yellow #6, Blue #2
What the hell is a lake you say? Why are some colors listed twice? Exactly my thoughts. Apparently, Yellow #5 which is a water soluble dye is not enough to color the damn cookies. They also needed to add Yellow #5 Lake, because lake dyes do not break down in water.
There is a huge controversy about the safety of these dyes. There are so many of them with really questionable ingredients and side effects, it is a little difficult to know where to start. So I’ll limit my target to the top two offenders on my radar: Yellow #5 and Red #40. They are both azo dyes and they are made from coal tar. A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives describes coal tar as a “thick liquid or semisolid tar obtained from bituminous coal, it contains many constituents including benzene, xylenes, naphthalene, pyridine, quinonlineoline, phenol, and cresol”(Winter, 2009, P. 166). What the heck are those? They cause cancer.
Yellow #5 is also called tartrazine and E-102 and it is banned in Norway.
It’s side affects are thought to include urticaria, hyperactivity, and cause complications
for asthmatics. There appears to be a link between allergy to aspirin and to
tartrazine. For years, the Feingold Association has been helping parents of
kids with behavioural and attention difficulties by helping them eliminate all colorings and
preservatives. These additives are that potent.
What kid doesn’t like a brilliant red colored beverage after a game? Red# 40 is a dye that is linked to aggressive, irrational behavior. A few days before my son’s meltdown, I got to witness his normally calm, sweet friend go into a rage about 30 minutes after swigging a can of crap with Red 40, Blue 1, caramel color, sodium benzoate on their list of ingredients. Oh yeah, there was also vitamin C added to this drink. I suppose it was a nice gesture from the manufacturer to add some vitamins , except that vitamin c and sodium
benzoate when mixed together create benzene, a known carcinogen. Not exactly what I had in mind for hydration.
Still need more reasons to watch out for these dyes? There was a big study in England called the South Hampton Study that proved that these dyes cause behavioural changes. The FDA was actually considering putting a warning label on products with these chemicals (mostly processed snack foods kids eat) that it may adversely affect their behavior. But they didn’t find that there was enough evidence to justify it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need a team of scientists to definitively confirm that if my kids eat the crappy chemically concocted cookies, they are going to bounce off the walls, yell and cry, and fight with each other. And if they eat a better treat without all the chemicals
they don’t. But it would be nice if everyone got a heads up.
Right now you are probably thinking, just like I did, that if the FDA approved these dyes they must be safe. Right? Wrong. The following link will show you the amounts of known carcinogens and poisons and the amounts that they consider acceptable to be in these dyes. Mercury, arsenic, lead. Are any amounts acceptable to you in your child’s chips and cookies? I wonder how many after game snacks and birthday parties it takes for the levels to become unacceptable ?
And below shows you what manufactures have to do to prove that their dyes are safe. Basically, they get to do their own experiments and on the honor system they say, “Yes, I believe this is safe”and voila: approved. So much for checks and balances by someone without a vested interest.
(b) The safety for external color additives will normally be determined by tests for acute oral toxicity, primary irritation, sensitization, subacute dermal toxicity on intact and abraded skin, and carcinogenicity by skin application. The commissioner may waive any of such tests if data before him otherwise establish that such test is not required to determine safety for the use proposed.
(c) Upon written request describing the proposed use of a color additive and the proposed experiments to determine its safety, the Commissioner will advise a person who wishes to establish the safety of a color additive whether he
believes the experiments planned will yield data adequate for an evaluation of the safety of the additive…
(Read more here)
The amount of food products that contain these dyes are staggering. Make sure you check the labels because it’s not just the brightly colored treats. Pickles, pudding, ice cream and crackers, are some surprising places you’ll find Yellow#5.
On the bright side, I just received a notice from the Los Angeles Unified School District about their food services division. They banned sulfites, artificial red dye #40, and yellow dye #5. Good for them! What a step in the right direction. I also saved the flyer to show my son. With the ever growing list of things I am checking for on labels, it was nice to be able to have my craziness validated by something he can relate to: even his school doesn’t want it.
Most of the time, trying to do the right thing makes me feel like the bad guy. I’m a crappy snack mom because I won’t dole out the brightly colored drinks, chips, and cookies. My wholesome chocolate chip granola bars, sea salt chips, and non-colored lemonade are a bit of a letdown compared to other snack mom treats.
So instead of enthusiastic thanks and smiles, I get the grudgingly murmured thanks and grimaces. But along with that, I get the satisfaction that I have helped their growing minds and bodies and perhaps their parents sanity… for at least one evening. This bad guy will take one for the team every time when it comes to food dyes.
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