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The Dangers of Artificial Food Coloring and Sneaky Places They Hide

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While eating a diet filled with a rainbow of colors is standard advice for healthy eating, it’s certain that doctors and dieticians never had the technicolor array of artificially colored foods and drinks out there in mind when they issued their advice! Far from the desirable colors provided by fruits and vegetables, artificial food colors infuse our foods with chemicals to mimic what Mother
Nature does on her own.

It’s estimated that today’s foods contain five times more artificial food dyes than they did 60 years ago. With this alarming influx of food dyes in so many products, it’s key that we learn more about food dyes before making food choices.

The Culprits: Food manufacturing companies use synthetic dyes made with chemical compounds like benzidine and 4-aminobiphenyl to give food and drinks and their bright hues. Colors with numbers listed beside them, like blue 1 and green 3, on labels lets you know the food or drink contains synthetic dyes. Dyes can also be hidden with aliases such as ‘indigo’ or ‘carmine.’ Though many food dyes exist, yellow 5, yellow 6, and red 40 are among the most commonly used artificial food colorings.

The Location: Everything from crackers to flavored milk and everything in between may contain food dyes. Children’s foods are commonly laced with food dyes, but plenty of products aimed at adults contain synthetic food dyes as well.

The Problems: Artificial food colors are associated with a host of problems including allergies, attention problems, hyperactivity, GI problems, and carcinogenic risks. In a well-known 2007 conducted by the United Kingdom’s Food Standard Agency, children who were fed foods with synthetic food dyes exhibited significantly more hyperactivity symptoms than children who received the placebo.

The Advice: While the link between food dyes and problems in not indisputably proven (and is disputed by food manufacturing companies), there is enough evidence to raise concerns. Additionally, no benefits to consuming food dyes exist. Further, food dyes are most often paired with a host of other undesirable ingredients like sugar, refined grains, and preservatives you want to avoid. Error on the side of caution and skip foods with artificial dyes in favor of real, whole, unprocessed foods.

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Author: Coach Kim

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