I have a renewed, deep distaste for the food processing industry.
I’ve been getting many, many comments from readers on previous posts about food dyes, and the more I learn, the more I get sick about what our country, big business, and the assenting families who purchase junk and don’t know any better are allowing to be packaged, sold and eaten as “food.”
It’s NOT FOOD.
I don’t even know who to be mad at. “The system?” I’m just mad.
Why are products made from petroleum, which is already a bit scarce (anyone notice gas is over $4 a gallon?), going into food?
There were some really interesting comments from folks who thought I was being too strict on this post, about our experiences trying to avoid artificial colors for the duration of Lent. They wanted me to loosen up and let grandparents spoil the grandkids a little, to not make food a stressful thing. I admit I probably get a little too stressed out about food, and it’s something I’m working on. However, there’s a time and a place to be vigilant.
They were quickly trounced on by other readers, who make excellent and poignantly true points, and I thank them:
If someone was going to abuse your child would you allow it just because they are “family” and want to “love” on them?
You have determined that food dye, gluten, dairy, corn, nuts, or whatever, is toxic to your child. Those items are causing your child harm.
WHY is it okay to allow Grandma, Auntie, or whomever to continue poisoning your child, even accidentally?
Mothers, poisoning your child isn’t love. Gently teach the grandparents and other family what they need to know. Offer to help Grandma research, ask her to find new recipes that she can prepare (after you review them first!) Give suggestions for changing the old family recipes to make it “safe”.
If she cannot or will not, your duty is to protect your child, even if that means limiting visits.
Teach your children that certain foods make them very sick. Teach them the willpower to say “no.” (Read the rest here)
And:
And a first-time commenter who had to speak:
If someone were to offer my child a brownie laced with pot, which is probably safer than neurotoxins, I would refuse it as it would alter their brain. An extreme example I know but very comparable.
Feingold Diet
Probably the foremost authority on food dyes and physical/emotional reactions is the Feingold Association, which has been dedicated to helping people succeed with elimination diets to food additives for over three decades.
I have just started poking into the information at the website, and I downloaded the free eBook, but here’s what I’m seeing so far that helps contribute to my undies being in a bunch right now:
- Sensitivities to one additive, like food dyes, often also means a person will be sensitive to other additives, like BHA, BHT, and TBHQ – and man, those are added to TONS of things! In fact, just last night, as I was opening one of my TEN bags of Diamond brand walnuts (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) to make crispy nuts out of them, I noticed that they add BHT to the nuts! Arg! I usually just buy Meijer brand or from Country Life Natural Foods, but they were on a really good sale. I never thought to check ingredients on walnuts – seriously?!?!? Now I wonder if Meijer walnuts have BHT too. I just emailed a contact there; I’ll let you know on Facebook if not on the blog!
- “There are well over 12,000 food additives in our food supply today, nearly 2/3 of them flavorings, but few have been tested for their effect on the nervous system or the immune system. Furthermore, many of those tested and found to have unfavorable effects are still in use. It is, therefore, not surprising that scientists working with the food industry have convinced the FDA to use the De Minimis principle (“a little bit can’t hurt”) so that new flavoring chemicals do not need to be tested for side effects before being accepted for use.”
- “Artificial color certified “FD&C” is permitted by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to be added to foods, drugs and cosmetics. “D&C” means the certified color may be used only in drugs and cosmetics. These colorings were originally manufactured from coal tar, but today they are made from petroleum.”
- “The FDA certification rules list the permissible amounts of contaminants and residues such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and certain carcinogens such
as benzidine. It is interesting to note that the D&C colors permitted only in cosmetics and in medications (and given to sick children) are often allowed to have twice the amount of lead contaminant as colorings
allowed in food. - “In commercially available FD&C Yellow #5 and #6, benzidine (which causes cancer) has been found in amounts up to 200 times the officially allowed level of only 1 part per billion.2 FD&C colorings continue to be
listed as “Generally Recognized As Safe” (GRAS) despite studies showing neurological effects, DNA damage, and elevated cholesterol.” - “In 2006, almost 19 million pounds of color additives were certified by FDA inspectors. The FDA receives a “user fee” from the manufacturer for each pound of food dye certified. Note, that means each pound approved, not each pound examined.”
- (quotes from the “Bluebook” free download from the Feingold Association – you should really grab it, even if it’s just for the story on p. 9 about the amazing success one school found by serving actual healthy lunches to their students.)
Is your heart rate going through the roof? I hope so. Let’s get mad about this, parents, grandparents, and other human beings who eat food!!
The Stories
You know, when people ask me what I do for a living, I never know what to say. Blogger? Food writer? Entrepreneur? Today, I feel like calling myself a “collector of stories.” Here are just a few that can’t help but give you pause and make you think about food dyes in a sinister light:
From a friend in real life:
A good thing, is the last time she was in the hospital (she got encephalopathy from H1N1), the neurologist said the brain does heal! Her brain has healed from her last EEG. She has until she is 16. We are hoping it completely heals, and she will have no life long limiting condition.
and a response from another reader, very scary:
And yet another reader:
How did I know? Well, he always had the green poop issue, actually more like diarrhea. Then, one time, he had a massive quantity of blue frosting on a cupcake (the frosting was bigger than the cake part). That night (in a hotel, of course) he woke up vomiting with a high fever. Everything was blue!
Anyway, the next time he had a blue lollypop a few weeks later, he broke out in hives. After a few more episodes like this, I had nailed it. Eat blue food dye, get miserable hives. We avoided the blue.
His behavior when he has hives is horrible, and he’s a really good kid. I’m going to be much more mindful of colored foods and hope it makes a difference!
Being Totally Out of Touch: Leah’s Story
In Leah’s lifetime, there have been a few incidences where she’s completely lost it and we can’t get through to her. I have no idea if those times have anything to do with food, or just lack of sleep, but because they seem truly neurotic, to the point where we worry and wonder if we should tell a doctor, I thought of them when researching neurotoxins that I allow my kids to eat all the time.
Last year, we vacationed in Florida, and although we could have sent Leah, then just over 2-and-a-half, home for an early bedtime with my parents, we decided that she had been doing so well that we would let her stay late for the fireworks.
When that show was over at maybe 10:00 p.m., my husband was carrying her down the busy Disney street to the exit when she starting throwing a fit and telling him over and over (and over) to, “Stand up, Daddy! I want you to stand UP!”
Since he was and had been standing, this was clearly a bit scary to us. We tried everything to break her out of what was almost like a trance, like she wasn’t even quite with us, and finally going into a store to buy a souvenir (not to appease the fit but because we had already planned on it) did the trick.
Clearly, on that day, she was extremely overtired and VERY low on the sleep she needed for a number of days. Such is the nature of vacations and being out of your routine.
She also would have had plenty of artificial colors and food additives, since even though we truly made about 75% of our own food the entire week, we were still reliant upon restaurants and processed food quite a bit.
In the year since then, there have been a few (maybe 3-5?) night wakings that are a little too reminiscent of that incident for my comfort. I’m sure all kids have times in the middle of the night when they’re not fully awake and are very out of it, but it gives us pause when a person does seem fully awake and yet (a) completely not in control of themselves and (b) seeming to not know what is going on around them.
Could these be related to colors or additives? Believe me, I’ll be paying closer attention and documenting it from now on.
One More Trip to Grandma’s
After the terrible awful fits Leah threw in the early days of last week, after spending a night at Grandma and Grandpa’s and probably having a little cheat on the food dye elimination (which I documented here), I was bound and determined not to let her go there until Lent was over. This was not a punishment, but just so we could complete the project and not nullify all the hard work and sacrifice our kids had done.
They were invited over the very next Saturday because the grands were taking them to Disney on Ice, and after a conversation with my husband, we decided that it would be okay, but NO eating out, no food purchased at the show, and I would bring leftovers for dinner (recipe here) just so I knew for sure what they were eating.
I tactfully explained the “not nullifying all the hard work they’ve done” and how we just don’t know what’s in things when you can’t actually read the label, and asked Grandma if I could bring dinner. “If it’s too much trouble and a pain, we can just postpone the sleepover until after Lent,” I said. “I don’t want to make more work for you, but we have to be careful because there are only 3 weeks left.”
They welcomed the kids with open arms (and we even sent some naturally colored lollipops and gummies for the grandparents to spoil them with).
Imagine my disappointment when I wrote down the following:
- Monday: SO cranky and mini-fits all morning. Took 1.5 hour nap.
- Tuesday: cranky in a.m., runny nose and sneezing. No nap.
- Tuesday night: John cried and woke Leah up at 4 a.m., but she got out of bed about 5 times over the next hour.
- Wednesday: better behavior in a.m.; no nap; SO tired by 8 p.m. that she was complaining about how tired she was! (What 3yo admits to it?) She woke up at 11:00 p.m. “feeling sick” and again called to me at 11:40.
- She played with fluorescent playdough at 7 p.m. that night (at Grandma’s, while I watched). I knew that it had colors but hoped they wouldn’t impact her through the skin. I should know better – now after reading this comment, I’m wondering again.
After Tuesday’s night waking, I announced to the family: “The good news is that colors don’t seem to be the problem. However, going to Grandma’s does.”
Then I found out that the kids had turkey ham for lunch on Sunday, and because it had been frozen without its packaging, we don’t know if it had colors in it or not.
I’m kind of hoping it did.
The End Game
I let both kids have a jelly bean – before supper! – as we gathered at my in-laws’ for Easter dinner on Saturday. Leah was just excited to have a candy, period, because she always is and loves her sweets. Paul understood the full weight of the treat: “But they have artificial colors, don’t they, Mom?” he asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes, they do. Would you like one?”
He was geeked.
Results: No night waking or terrible, out of the ordinary fits Saturday or Sunday night and through Monday. The late night Saturday (bedtime after 9:30; our norm is 8/8:30) definitely affected Leah on Sunday/Monday, but nothing beyond usual 3yo girl tiredness.
Read all the posts from the “My Food is Not a Number!” series HERE.
The Easter Bunny brought only approved sweets and treats:
- Surf Sweets sent me some samples of their naturally colored, no HFCS gummies, jelly beans (new!), and sour bears to fill the kids’ eggs. I might have sampled some (don’t tell). They’re really good. You’d never know they were “healthier” candy.
- You can find Surf Sweets at a number of online retailers, including here at Amazon.
- Yummy Earth Organics suckers, available at our local health foods store (but pricey, of course).
- Larabars, which I usually make homemade, but since they were on sale for $1 each at Meijer a few weeks back, I couldn’t help but grab a few. When presented as treats, the kids are so excited to have them, and I love having a healthy, no-sugar snack available in the car.
- A few eggs were also full of chocolate chips.
- Garden clippers and seeds (from the dollar store). The Easter Bunny seemed to know that the kids are always trying to help trim old flowers, thus rendering Mom not able to work because they have her clippers. Now everyone has clippers! E.B. also picked out meaningful seeds for the kids, who were, no kidding, incredibly excited and wanted to run right out to the garden to plant!
- Their own tape (another thing E.B. noticed they were always taking from mom’s desk).
- And for Jonathan, some freeze-dried fruit , which he got to try and thinks is pretty interesting. (This is our only dry finger food so far, since we’re sticking to no grains until he’s one! More on how we’re feeding (and not feeding) the third Kimball babe.)
What I think is great about this is that neither kid even knows the difference between the Easter Bunny’s contributions this year and regular junky candy. I’m pretty sure they don’t even know they got “good” candy in their eggs.
Grandma and Grandpa supplied plenty of junk candy to tempt us all, but I’m fairly certain that on Easter itself, the colors weren’t consumed.
But on Monday night…
Both kids joyously embraced their bags of separated candy full of “artificials” as Leah calls them. Quite literally. There was honest-to-goodness jumping up and down, and I think I may have seen one of them hug the bag.
Leah chose a Now and Later as her first treat back to food coloring and Paul had a fun sized Skittles. He had an achy foot (“growing pains”) about an hour later, which he hasn’t struggled with for quite a while. Coincidence? Wouldn’t that be interesting?
Our Conclusions
For us, I really don’t think the colors are making a difference, but it was an interesting experiment. We definitely haven’t proven that artificial colors cause any behavioral problems in our family. The night waking I mentioned in my last post continued to happen a few times near the end of the next week, when Leah would have been completely off food colorings for two weeks (although she didn’t stay up for an hour this time, thank goodness).
Many questions have been raised in my head about these colors, and I know they’re nasty, but I’m not going to avoid them whole hog right now.
I even just used the regular egg colors that I had in my stash, although I considered trying the natural egg dyes with chlorophyll, turmeric, and beet powder. It just wasn’t meant to be when it came time to dye eggs, and I was totally comfortable with the compromise. Plus, I saved the nasty colored water to re-test the Berkey filters like this next time we clean it. I know that natural colors aren’t all that hard, but since we only used 1/3 of a box of junk colors, it cost only about $0.3o to color a dozen. The natural way, including 2 cups of blueberries and red cabbage, would have cost over $3. Plus, I had an audience of family visiting to color eggs with the kids and wanted to focus on joy and fun, not trying something new. It’s just not something I’m doing while I still have egg dye kits in the house.
There are so many other issues possible in Leah’s behavior post-grandparents’ visits: TV, general excitement, lack of sleep, different SAD food in general…or just that she’s a feisty, stubborn, 3-year-old girl with immature emotions, who, like many preschoolers do after school, lets loose once she gets home because she’s used up all her effort trying to be so “good” at Grandma’s house.
What Will We do Now?
Moving forward, I’m going to work to avoid artificial colors more than I did before, which was zero. I’m not going to get worked up about them, but I’ll choose the non-colored option when there is one and be continuously taking mental notes on behavior, night wakings, and food coloring.
I cannot emphasize enough, however, because Kitchen Stewardship® is devoted to finding the balance, with budget as one of the four pillars, that buying pricey candy without artificial colors is dead last on my priorities. I would only do it if my kids actually demonstrated a problem with colors, and then only for special occasions. Like I always say about sweeteners like sucanat or coconut sugar, better to skip the candy altogether than stretch a budget to buy sweets that are only marginally better than the conventional and certainly not actually healthy.
In the end, I’m really glad we did the experiment, if nothing else because these posts inspired at least a few of you to try it in your own home – and some discovered a new child you didn’t know you had, one who had been hiding under the influence of chemicals affecting their brains. I’m so honored to have been a part of your stories, and thank you for sharing them in the comments here at KS and by email.
Why Get Rid of Food Dyes? The Cliff’s Notes
Thanks to Jen’s guest post on artificial colors, I’ve learned a lot.
- They’re a neurotoxin. That’s just what it sounds like. Whether you feel it or not, they’re affecting your BRAINS.
- They’re made of petroleum.
- Petroleum increases cancer risk. (source)
- They have allowable levels of lead, mercury, and arsenic.
- They cause clear reactions in some children and adults. (I know, I know…so does peanut butter, but only if you’re allergic to it. Still, that these numbers are rising, both on peanuts and artificial dyes, directs us to ask: “What are we doing wrong with these foods?”)
- Many countries in Europe mandate a warning label about kids’ behavior, and you know what? American food companies simply changed their formulas to use safer additives so as not to scare their customers, but they continue to use the scary, toxic stuff here in the U.S.!
- Since most kids don’t show a reaction, even though some clearly do, the FDA decided not to mandate specific labels on foods containing dyes. Now that just makes me mad! (source)
- The bottom line? THEY’RE NOT FOOD. Food dyes have zero nutritional value and only add aesthetic appeal to our food.
We live in a culture literally marred by fake foods colored with fake coloring. I visited Paul’s first grade classroom this week to listen to kids read out loud, and an interesting incident underscores my point:
Leah pulled out a dried strawberry fruit leather that I made homemade. As she was enjoying it – that’s a “treat” in our family – one of the girls asked, “Whoa, what’s THAT?” with a bit of disdain in her voice.
I said, “It’s a dried strawberry fruit roll…from strawberries we picked last summer.”
“Ewwwwwww!” was the immediate reaction. “Old, dried up fruit? Yuck!”
My words, “No, it’s just like fruit roll-up…” died on my lips as I looked at the brownish red food in my daughter’s hand. She can’t understand a strawberry that’s not perfectly red, I thought.
Thanks goodness my own kids still appreciate the taste of summer when they experience it (and don’t mind how it looks).
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What are you? You are an inspiration and life changer.
Thanks for this post. I don’t have kids yet, and I’ve been wondering how to handle those family situations. This has been great help.
When my son was small nobody “got it” my hubby and dad were having my son lick a marshmallow at christmas because it was so funny he was a few months old. When he was small nana and grandpa wanted to bring him candy as treats and got PO’ed when I said no and played the I have to bring a treat~ I said bring an orange! They balked and squaked how could a fruit be a treat but they got over it and DID start to bring an orange. Now I have 3 my son is now 4.5 has a dairy allergy to cow milk and possibly a slight gluten reaction my 3yr old daughter has a soy and slight gluten reaction not sure if 14month old son has any issues seems to be OK(but we are gluten free at home and not trying to intentionally feed it when we are out) the kids would be notoriously bad after even a few hours with my parents and not even look us in they eyes and were often dehydrated too. within the last month the Oregonian posted an article about Celiac (and her favourite health website had posted the poison of soy) had several dozen gluten reactive symptoms(my mom has most) and tho I have mentioned a few times gluten reactions as severe as mine are usually genetic and she should think about it, well the news paper was more convincing she is now gluten soy and dairy(cow) free and is planning extra vigilance when the kids visit next time. By personal experience she can feel the difference and only now does she “get it” and is learning just how hard it really is to avoid. We went to a local Saturday market and she was explaining a dog wash station to my kids and offhandedly mentioned how she learned from watching me w/them to explain in detail various goings on and it had never occured to her before. ALLOW THE YOUNGER TO TEACH THE OLDER many of my mom’s generation are hard harted as the elders were to be respected at all costs and as a result no discussions were given and as a result they would never listen to us and with food issues they didn’t understand at all they tried halfheartedly but what could a little thing actually hurt. Good luck to all who travel this path!
look at it this way, would you knowingly give alcohol or drugs to an addict, enabling their illness? NO! So why are you enabling your children, grandparents or dysfunctional societal norms? Why enable a toxic situation? Put an end to it and stand up for your beliefs. No one said it would be easybut it’s your responsibility as an informed parent.
This is a very hard issue. I feel like the only two choices are offend the in-laws and have them think I’m weird or go along with it and let my kids eat the junk. It’s very hard. The comment was made this weekend that it’s “so sad” that my daughter hadn’t tasted an oreo. It’s hard to not feel supported when you feel like you’re doing what’s best for your kids.
A while ago we toured a local candy factory and I decided to just let my kids have the few samples that they gave them and not make a big deal of it. After a few samples, my 18 month old daughter wanted more and I said “no.” She then threw the most monumental tantrum, it was like she was “checked out” and screamed the entire 30 minute drive home. It was kind of scary because I felt like I couldn’t get through to her. I thought it was the sugar but now I wonder about the food dyes in the candy. She also had a couple night terrors around the same time (also very scary) but I wasn’t paying attention to what she had been eating the day before, so food colors are a possibility there too.
I see a lot of progress with other young moms wanting to feed their kids healthy food and the availability of better options. It’s hard because my kids would be fine with fruit, dark chocolate, homemade frozen yogurt or my homemade date truffles for treats, but when they have the choice to have skittles instead, the healthy treats look pretty lame 🙂 If only everyone ate well, it would be so easy!
look up alternative things like black bean carob brownies and some of Katies sweets and hand samples of each with the recipies as they won’t try anything as gross a a bean brownie knowingly so visit and say try these and see what you think! They will most likely enjoy and hand a recipie card say you can serve these if you like! my chocoholic neighbor was converted as she has MS and other issues and is “supposed” to be chocolate and dairy free but buys hershey bars now she is so shocked and glad I shared with her!
Lindsey,
I am so with you. Your last paragraph, I’ve often thought in my head. It WOULD be so much easier if we weren’t constantly swimming against the stream!
When my 6yo son didn’t recognize HandiSnacks last summer at Bible school, I literally threw my hands up and rejoiced! It was a badge of pride for me that he’d never had them before. He also asked his grandparents once, “Whoa, where did you get that cool bag for your popcorn?” He had never seen microwave popcorn before. (Yessss!!!) I consider it “sad” that other kids haven’t tasted homemade yogurt, can’t appreciate dark chocolate, and don’t know the cows their milk comes from. Ha!
{hugs}
Katie
Once again, I have to point out this state of affairs is not simply personal, but it is a matter of public policy.
I consider it selfish to only protect your own children, and not become politically active to protect our ~society~. It strikes me as an odd omission that nobody cared about “grandma” in this story, who continues to eat the food additives that are pushed on her.
If you’re REALLY concerned about this issue for any one other than yourselve, DON’T vote for Republicans. They do everything they can to allow food producers to poison our food.
A vote for Republicans is a vote for poison. To focus only on your own family is not enough.
I do care about what the grandparents are consuming, but realize I can’t make that choice for them.
As far as legislating the removal of food additives, it would be nice. However I would prefer the UK’s system of warning labels and people making an informed choice.
I still want to live in America, land of the free. Since the government has done such a great job of protecting us from this mess I don’t trust them to get it right either.
Jumping in here again for us grand parents. As a result of learning to feed the kids clean I lost 25lbs and grandpa lost over 35! So by teaching the us about the kids you are also caring for our health. We want to be here for many years to see these little ones grow up. It was amazing when we could see our own bodys begin to change and respond to the same diet changes our grand kids were eating daily so we started to do the same. In a smiple week visit I lost 4lbs and felt great…I knew we also had to change our diet. Our whole family now eats as “whole and clean” as possible. I am not saying I have never messed up and fed the kids something I should not have or that we only eat clean foods but we do 90% of the time and will keep working on 10%. Mom’s Please..please.. please sit down with the grandparents you think do not understand…make a few meals for them and have them taste what real food taste like. It was so HARD to come off sugar (you don’t even want to talk about coffe) and anyone who has done it as an adult will understand why even a few licks of a candy will do so much harm to our grand kids the headaches are like nothing else with just a bit of sugar for us I cannot even begin to think of what it must feel like in thier little bodys and they have no way to explain it. Keep talking to them and educate them just like you do the teachers and friends parents etc. It good pratice for later….kids will always be going to partys and sleep overs….and you will have to also make sure those parents understand. Have those grand parents ask thier own doctors and you may be amazed at how much support you get :).
Carol,
Super hugs coming through the computer to you! Your grandparents support on these posts has give me so much HOPE! 🙂 Katie
Hugs back to you! And to all the parents trying to do what’s best for thier kids. I just want all of you to know that as grand parents I know first hand its hard to understand at first. As your parents we really did not know how much harm all those great new foods that were coming out daily were for you. I wish I had as I would never had feed my kids so many things that I thought was food…who knew in 1980’s that Fruit Loops where bad for kids..none of us knew canned juice was close to kool-aid not juice…it said juice! It’s hard the first year you try and fill Easter eggs with no candy…but then you find such fun things to fill them with that the kids never miss candy! Ask the grandparents to try filling those eggs with treasure hunt messages nothing is as funny or as much fun as kids “hunting” by clues only a 6 or 8 or 3 yr old would understand… ours always end with a new movie that we watch after Easter dinner! We need your help to understand so don’t give up on us!! Never forget we love love love you and those amazing grandkids you have given us. I am so greatful that God has blessed us with 10 grandkids, none are the same but all of them have parents who took the time to teach us how to help them and for that I am so very thankful! Life without seeing them often would be harmful to all of us….keep praying and keep talking to those grand parents..they will hear you!
John,
I think I have to agree with Nora, that we just can’t make the decisions for the grandparents. Believe me, I tried to help my in-laws eat better, even made food for them and put it in their freezer after my MIL’s double bypass…and I found some of it still there when we moved in with them last summer for a few months. 🙁 I do what I can without pressuring.
On the political front, I don’t like to get political on this blog, but sometimes it’s warranted. I don’t know diddly squat about Dem/Rep records on food policy, but I do know Reps are more likely to be pro-choice. I can’t protect children from food additives by advocating for pubic policy change if we’re killing the children before they’re allowed to be born. It comes down to that issue with me, which is sad – I wish it didn’t have to be that way.
I also try to advocate for school lunch change, etc., so I am not blind to the need for global change for all our children. It’s just easiest and most important to start at home…where I’m in control (for now). 🙂 Katie
I bought popsicle molds last year and make my own. Get the kids involved in making them. My mom wouldn’t allow us to have store-bought when I was little and she wasn’t a stay-at-home mom in the 60’s.
Relying on a particular brand is NOT a good idea as brands change their ingredients all the time. I rather mindlessly bought salad dressing from Simply Boulder because I assumed this bottle would be the same as last time. I got a gut ache so went searching and found they switched from usng cider vinegar to white (which is made from. GMO corn) and I react to corn products
After reading this I went to the store to find popsicles without food dye. I managed to find one box! Ridiculous that there are not more options, but I wanted to share with you that the Kroger brand of strawberry fruit popsicles is colored with beet juice. I’ve found my winner for the summer. (First two ingredients were water and strawberries, but I didn’t check the list for banned artificial sweeteners.)
You can make your own popsicles with organic fruit juice.
I could write an entire book on the politics of why scientific studies and anecdotal evidence is berated, marginalized BUT just understand this, QUESTION AUTHORITY! In every aspect of life, at every turn QUESTION AUTHORITY because generally conventional authority is nothing more that a system of greed to oppress and control
Night terrors, sleep, disorders, panic attacks, anxiety disorders are commonly reported by people with Celiac/Gluten Spectrum Disorders. These ARE physical signs and symptoms just like any other of an adverse reaction. There’s no willpower or conscious choice in the matter. Not that everything a young child does is due to some toxic reaction but this is how integral our physiology is tied to what we ingest, breathe, touch, see, hear. Many studies have been done in other countries (mostly Scandanavia) on the effects of gluten-free diet on Bipolar, Schizophrenia, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Autism, ADHD. Of course there’s always the caveat the study wasn’t this or that and needs to be reproduced on a much bigger scale ( code for “maintain status quo money making machine”instead of actually helping people). BUT you’ve ALL read, seen someone and probably hundreds of anecdotal cases of people helped by various diets like Feingold, GAPS, Paleo, etc. Anecdotal evidence not being deemed unacceptable “scientific eviden is a fairly rece
The problem I have with getting people outside our home to understand why we don’t eat fake stuff is that my son’s reactions are all behavioral. It irks me quite a bit, as I know they’d all go out of their way to avoid a substance if he had a physical reaction. I’m seen as over protective and mean, but what others also don’t seem to understand is that “little bit” of dye stays with him for days! The behavioral patterns that get entrenched are hard to overcome, but we are doubly commited to “clearing” him (and us) of artificial anything. How to tactfully tell this to grandparents?
Kelly,
Read the comments from Carol, an awesome grandma, above on this thread. Sometimes you just have to sit down, adult to adult, and lay out the facts. Ask (beg) them to support you in doing the best thing for your child, because – here’s the part where you lay it on THICK – you know they love these kids and want the very best for them, too, and they certainly don’t want their grandchild to be the neighborhood bully/hyper kid/whatever your child’s reaction is…
Good luck!
🙂 katie
Thank you so much for this article! Right after I read it the kids walked in the door from a relatives house with junk junk junk food. I turned over the box to read the ingredients and I just could NOT justify them having even a little bit. It was chock full of hydrogenated oil, corn syrup and food dyes. I put in at the top of the pantry but I could tell they were upset. After dinner I had the idea to melt some dark chocolate with a little coconut oil and let them dip strawberries in it and they had a ball with it. They told me it was better than the junky stuff. We were all happy!
We have been using the Feingold diet for many years. One of surprising things that I have learned is that all pickles,pickle relish, etc… have yellow food dye. I read somewhere that some companies soak their carrots in dye. I do not know that if this is true. Also sometimes the children react to perservatives. for instance you can buy organic milk but some steal have the perservatives.