I read an interesting article, in the Seattle Times Sunday March 27th issue, about food dyes. It was a scary article showing that the use of artificial dyes by food makers is up by half since 1990. A British study found that children given food dyes showed increased hyperactivity. Food dyes are used to make our foods pretty. If foods look colorful, we will eat them more. Many foods contain up to 9 different food dyes. Even healthy sounding foods like fruit roll ups are full of food dyes. Europe requires that foods containing dyes have warning labels on them. American food makers like Kellogg and Mars replaced the dyes with some natural dyes to avoid the labels there. America does not require food manufacturers to put warning labels on products containing dyes.
There have been studies that link dyes to hyperactivity in children, and cancer. In 1990, the FDA banned a red dye in cosmetics because it was linked to cancer, but permitted its use in foods. Go figure that. Not safe on your face, but you can eat it! Food Industry officials say that the dyes are safe and British studies are inconclusive. The FDA and the Grocery Manufacturers Association say these dyes are safe! Many companies are developing natural dyes, which is a step in the right direction.
My advice to everyone will always be the same. Whenever possible eat real foods over processed ones to avoid these chemical dyes. If we avoid foods that contain many dyes we can force large food companies to change their ways and clean up their foods. Do we really need to eat neon orange Doritos?
Diets Don't Work, but there are simple things we can do that help us to eat healthy and lose weight. We can eliminate emotional eating, foil our food triggers, and end mindless eating for good. There are many helpful ideas and hope abounds.
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