Have you heard? Fruit Loops has more fiber and Red Dye #40

One fall day, after picking up my daughter from school, I began talking with a lovely woman, who I have become friendly with about diet.  Not the "I'm trying to lose 10lbs" kind of diet, but the "what foods do you feed your kid" kind of diet. Now I am not the parent that won't let my kid indulge in a candy treat from time to time, but what she said opened my eyes.  Gia had just began Pre-K, and I had my concerns as my kid is, well, to put it nicely . . . busy.  I wondered if she would be able to tolerate a full day of school, barely 4 and not try to swing from the lighting fixtures.  In my quest for sanity maintenance, I happened to voice my trepidations, and my friend remarked that I should try to avoid food dyes.  Particularly, red dye #40. Huh?  What the hell is that?  Well it turns out that red dyes and a host of other food coloring dyes have been shown to exacerbate hyperactivity, and symptoms in children with existing behavioral disorders, such as ADD, and ADHD.  My daughter by nature is active, and as a result every second of her waking moment is chalk filled with activities in which to channel her liveliness.  Still, I got to thinking that I should at the very least start to pay attention to my friends very wise sage advice, and try to if not eliminate, limit her intake of food dyes which of course is in everything.  The first thing to go was the Trix yogurt that her father would buy for her.  She like many kids loved all the pretty colors, and got into picking out which color palate of said yogurt she will bring for snack.  So I began by calling it radioactive yogurt, and encouraged the more, while not as colorful, healthy organic choice. 

Having taught CCD for several years now, I have encountered a number of children that were diagnosed ADD and/or ADHD.  Even in my comparatively brief encounter with these children, having had a glimpse into that very challenging world, I now wonder, how many of their parents were even aware of this little detail regarding this seemingly innocuous food coloring. And just how much of a difference would it have made in terms of this insidious disorder?  Granted, some children may exhibit more or less of a reaction, if any at all to ingesting these tasty neon colored treats, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to think, that neon colored foods and drinks can't be good.  So in light of that, I figured, why not spread the word?  There is even a Blog devoted to it.