How Artificial Food Coloring Can Destroy Your Health & Where These Food Dyes Might Be Hiding
Why is Red 40 still allowed in foods?
Did you know that artificial food dyes are made from petroleum / crude oil? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved food dyes “to make foods look pretty.” Over the past 50 years synthetic dyes being used in foods have increased by 500% which is interesting when you see that at the same time, behavioral problems in children, such as aggression, attention deficit disorder (ADD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has also increased. (PubMed) Yes there will always be so many factors and exceptions but if we know food coloring can be contributing to this they why is it still allowed in our food?
The Standard American Diet includes high amounts of sugar, processed foods, refined carbohydrates, sugary sodas, refined fats and heavily processed meats (think fast foods not grass fed burgers). When the most consumed vegetable in America is actually a potato (probably French fries) then we have a real problem. In the United States, there is approximately 120 million pounds of food coloring that is consumed every year (Healing Foods - Michael Murray N.D., page 41).
Yes, we know that there’s a real lack of education when it comes to food and nutrition. One of the most absurd things I heard was a clip of two sisters talking about “sodies” (soda pops) and that their mom told them that when they ate real sugar that if they drank a Diet Coke after it would cancel the other sugars out. Oh I hope and pray that was just something for reality TV and not what they actually believed.
When doctors aren’t even trained in nutrition but are supposed to help and fix and cure our ailments, wounds and sickness and guide us to health but they don’t understand how important the food we eat correlates with our health then that’s super problematic.
But where are these hidden food dyes? What can you use as an alternative to artificial food dyes?
70% of the Standard American Diet (SAD) is processed foods… and there’s a good percentage of that which has food coloring. It’s not just cereals and candy, you can find it in condiments, chocolate, fruit juice, drinks, frozen yogurt and more. You can find food coloring in pickles, chips, fast foods, salad dressing, yogurt, drinks and even hot dogs and farm raised salmon, too.
Many companies wont use natural food coloring, made from plants, because it’s more expensive and you can’t always achieve specific colors and/or brighter colors. Just a good ol’ example of PROFITS OVER PEOPLE. I recently heard a company talk about their decision to use Red food coloring in their product with the reason being that they couldn’t get their product “red enough.” They didn’t want to use beet powder because not only was it not red enough but it would also promote orthorexia — being too obsessed with avoiding specific foods or ingredients in the belief that they are harmful. I would call that being “INTENTIONAL with the foods you choose consume and not a bad thing. Anyway, there is no health benefit or nutritional benefit or good reason artificial food colorings should be in our foods. The problem is that people don’t just have it once or twice a year… they have it once or twice a day (or more).
In the USA, Red 40 is the most commonly used artificial food coloring and when you say “oh it’s just a little bit” but you are consuming that “little bit” in many things throughout your day and week and year, that “little bit” really adds up to be much more than a tiny dose. At the moment, the U.S. doesn’t actually ban any artificial food dyes which is a shame.
It’s always funny to think that some people won’t touch avocado or spinach because it’s GREEN, but they will gladly eat green candy that has artificial colors.
How do we fix this? Educate yourself, educate others and STOP BUYING IT! Stop giving them your money. I don’t care if the FDA approves it… that doesn’t mean a thing to me. Remember you have to VOTE with your dollars.
I recently posted an article that took off and was seen by hundreds of thousands of people talking about a new chemical coating on produce that you can’t wash off, can be used organic produce and where one of the investors is The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. So many people don’t want anything to do with that for good reason but will still buy products with food coloring… in other words if you are continuing to give these people your money but you’re also pissed about the coating on your produce then you’re contradicting yourself. They go hand in hand.
Please — read ingredients on the products you buy. There are so many brands making products like cereals for kids (and big kids), candies, drinks and everything under the sun that use natural food coloring from plants to give them a “pretty” look. You can still “taste the rainbow” without having to worry about artificial food dyes. Here are two amazing companies that make natural food coloring and even sprinkles using plant-based colors like turmeric, spirulina, and beets!
Supernatural Kitchen —> They make the coolest sprinkles ever and even have vibrant colors, too and it’s all plant derived!
Color Kitchen Foods —> I love this food coloring! It’s my favorite… it works great!
By the way — for whatever reason this post is not getting seen and I’m sure it’s because I’m poking fun at the FDA so do me a solid and go like this video below on instagram, leave a comment and share it, too.
