You know how so many cereals, candies, and just our food in general can be so brightly colored? Artificial food dyes! No, they aren't coloring or flavoring much of our food with natural ingredients. Why do manufacturers put them in our food, well, ever heard of the saying, "We eat with our eyes?" This is why. It's sad, but true. The food dyes make it more eye appealing, who wants to eat dull-colored M & M's? Hopefully after reading my post, you won't care if our food were a little more dull-colored.
There are many artificial colors, I will outline some of them below. Many of them are used in poor nutritional value foods. However, you would be surprised what they are used in, Life cereal, Quaker Oatmeal Squares- two seemingly "healthy" cereals, both have artificial colors in them. Many artificial colors are petroleum-based and are made from synthetic chemicals. There is a petition out to get the FDA to ban the used artificial colors in the U.S. Here's the link if you would like to sign it: http://www.cspinet.org/fooddyes/
The use of artificial colors is banned across Europe, so why are they still legal here in America?
Types of artificial food dyes:
Red 40
The most widely used food dye, there have been many studies on this dye, but many of them were flawed. The FDA has acknowledged problems with the dye, but doesn't say the evidence was substantial enough.
Red 3
There is "convincing" evidence that this dye caused tumors in animal studies. It was going to be banned from the market, however the maraschino cherry companies fought for it to stay-it was the main dye used to color their cherries. Since then, the Red 3 dye has been replaced with the Red 40 dye in the cherries. Red 3 is still being used in cake icings, gum, and fruit roll-ups.
Yellow 5
Known for causing "allergy-like hypersensitivity reactions", and can cause misbehavior and hyperactivity in children. Also, it may contain cancer-causing agents.
Blue 2
In some animal studies, shown to cause cancer, but was not conclusive. The FDA ruled it as safe.
For the full descriptions on these food dyes and more, here's the link:
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm#blue1
Scroll down to where it describes all of the food dyes.
In some animal studies, shown to cause cancer, but was not conclusive. The FDA ruled it as safe.
For the full descriptions on these food dyes and more, here's the link:
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm#blue1
Scroll down to where it describes all of the food dyes.
These are just some of the food dyes that our used in the U.S. market today. I encourage you to click on the link above and read more about them. Reading through all of the descriptions of the food dyes, I found a common denominator, it seems like they all (or most of them) have had studies, that they caused cancer or some adverse effect, but the FDA has ruled that there is no harm. Really? Why is the FDA alright with having ingredients in our food supply that could possibly, in some way, shape, or form cause cancer? Please educate yourself on this topic and read those ingredient lists, you'll be shocked what has food dyes in it!
Many restaurants and companies are starting to work on taking out the food dyes in their products (Panera, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, General Mills) and are replacing with natural colors. These include paprika, turmeric, annatto, beet root red, and many more. If you notice one of your favorite foods or restaurants are using artificial food dyes, write to to company and ask them to take them out. If enough people speak up and demand that these are taken out of our food, the food industry will listen!
