Food coloring and preservative linked to hyeractivity

In September 2007 over in the U.K. a study was released based on a grant from their Food Standards Agency. Experts issued a warning to parents about the links between tantrums and food colorings.

The Food Standards agency eventually jumped in to make parents aware that food colorings and preservatives have been shown to create overactive behavior in children.

The September study was the 3rd in 4 years completed to compare the effects of food colors and preservatives on a child's behavior.

In the U.S. the medical media writers attempted to downplay the significance of this report by misreporting the significance of these findings.

Anyone who is around young children enough has seen the misbehavior that arises after sweet foods have been ingested. So why does psychiatry scoff at a parent's suggestion that sugary food brings on hyper behavior?

There have been many studies looking at the effects of glucose sugar on children's behavior. Those studies have not been able to show a strong relationship between misbehavior and ingestion of common sugar.

This series of British studies seem to show that we Americans missed the true ingredients that were the true cause of the hyperactivity, namely food colors and preservatives.

This may explain why parents saw misbehavior which was blamed on sugar that Science could not prove a link to. I find it fascinating that the geniuses who spent time looking at the relationship of sugar to behavior did not further their investigation into all components of what constitutes the major ingredients of foods marketed to children.

Read your food labels and you are sure to find Blue # 7, Yellow #5, Red#6, etc, etc in a number of things. But remember, a low dose to us may still be a massive dose to a child.

The Food & Drug Administration does not require ingredients be tested on children. They just want to make sure your preservative doesn't kill you.

Take a look at Taylor's mice experiment. He found that mice given a small dose of yellow food coloring caused them to take 5 times longer to complete a maze then before getting the dye.

This is an incredible way to look at the cognitive "thinking" effects of a substance. I was amazed by Taylor's genius in creating this study.

So if you are having problems with behavior or concentration, try an elimination diet to see if the problems can be reduce or "cured" by staying away from potential bad foods.

Good luck.