What's in our Halloween Candy?
Raising a carefree, happy and healthy child is our number one goal, and one of the ways we achieve that is understanding what we're eating and limit food that is not good for him.
Two years ago, when we were having issues with our son's behavior in school (could not sit still and was disruptive) I discovered dyes being a link to hyperactivity. (Dye's are in most childrens's cereal, cakes and candies) I blogged about the issues with dyes in our food and the effects it has on behavior in children and adults and was amayzed at how many people had never heard of dyes being unhealthy. I got rid of everything I could find that had dyes, but we still let him enjoy those fun foods on the weekends. All this did not come without scrutiny. Many said I was looking for excuses for our son’s behavior. (ADHD in their eyes of course) Fast forward to now, where he is dye & gluten free 5 days out of the week. He is quite the balanced kid with focus and more self control then he ever had before removing dye's & gluten from his diet. But always and forever that happy energetic boy. The most common complaint from his teacher these days is that he chats to much in class.
Even with this success, I felt I had to keep digging. What I found surprised me even more.
The whole “dye in our food” issue goes as far back as 1970! Dr. Ben Feingold created a dye free diet because he believed food dyes were linked to hyperactivity. He wanted to understand why it affected some kids more then others. It’s been found that kids & adults with food sensitivities & allergy issues are more susceptible to the neurotoxins in food dyes.
**Banned in Norway, Finland & France, Red #40, Red #3, Blue #1 and Blue #2 can be found in candy, cereal, drinks and pet food in the U.S.
Now the word is out. There is no more denying the link between dyes and behavioral issues. And it’s on almost every news channel in the USA this month.
- “The blog” website through the Huff Post-Food for Thought segment. Has written an article simply put: “Halloween Warning: Watch Out for Neurotoxic Artificial Food Dyes in M&M’s Candies.”
- On the Today show- Rossen Report segment, a mom speaks out with her young son who’s behavioral issues made a turn for the better when they removed food with dyes from their diet. She is petitioning for Mar's the maker of M&M's and other candy to remove dyes in their product and use natural coloring.
- In 2011 another group of mom & dad’s petitioned for the FDA to properly label food with dyes with a warning. “Life changing” were some of the words by parents in this article. This story offer's up a link to stores where you can buy dye free foods for your children. Here you will find an app where you can scan the bar code to see what is hiding in the ingredient.
- 2011 Today show link: http://www.today.com/moms/why-some-moms-have-banned-artificial-food-dyes-their-kids-1C7398534
- On June 26, 2013 – ABC news reported on 11 food ingredients banned outside of the US that we eat. Food coloring being one of them.
Halloween should not be so scary that we can’t enjoy the candy we look forward to eating with our children each year. In this mom’s mind, all that’s needed is a little vigilance and a few minutes of time signing petitions for the FDA to ban or food companies to label our foods transparently and with warnings. Other than that, my biggest worry this Hallow's eve is making fake blood for our zombie costumes.
From our family,
Have a safe and goulishly Happy Halloween!
Want to help? Sign this Petition to get Kraft to stop using Dyes.
