ExclusiveThe controversial history of artificial food dyes and how they impact children

Welcome to Epoch Insights with Tiffany. My name is Tiffany Brannan. In the news lately we've seen a lot about synthetic food dyes and the debate about whether they truly cause problems for children, particularly, and neurodevelopment. This has gone from more than just speculation and conversations in the health scene recently because there has been a lot of legislature passed, particularly in my state of California. In fact, red dye number three was recently banned by the FDA. This is by no means a new issue. It's been discussed and debated for over a hundred years. There's an article in the Epoch Times called Artificial Food Dyes Affect Children's Brains. It's on the cover of Mind and Body and it's an in-depth look into some of the latest steps and events that have happened in this ongoing conflict. So let's go back to the history of food dyes. It's well proven that ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Babylonians colored their food. They used natural substances like turmeric or beet juice. We all know if you've ever cut up a beet it has a very strong color. Turmeric has a powerful orange or golden color to it. And these are just a few examples of potent colors that can be found in nature and have been used for many years. The transition from all these natural substances to synthetic dyes all began in 1856 with the color mauve. An 18-year-old science student, William H. Perkins, was challenged by his professor to synthesize quinine. While working on this, he came across a purple substance in the things that he was mixing and creating in the laboratory and he realized it was a very nice color. As a matter of fact, it's very similar to the color of this dress I'm wearing and that color was named mauve after the French term for the mallow plant and it quickly became very popular as a fabric dye. It was used to dye silks and other colors and within a few years it was the color to wear. It was labeled mauvine or also known as mauveen or mauvin. It's many different ways to pronounce it. That's the more scientific term. Around the end of the 19th century, food dye began to be used. We can tell it is by the fact that it was mentioned in the Pure Food and Cosmetic Act of 1906. So in the 20s and 30s, more studies were done and then the FDA was founded in 1938 by Franklin Roosevelt and they started cracking down on different dyes that they thought might have bad health impacts. We like to think of butter as having this nice yellow color and it didn't, they put some food coloring in and then when margarine became popular, that always had yellow food coloring because they wanted it to have that nice buttery look and naturally it's very pale and colorless. As early as 1950, people began to realize that food coloring could be dangerous and the main thing which brought this issue to light was some Halloween candy that made many children sick in 1950. So as a result, orange dye number one, which was used in that Halloween candy, was banned and that was the beginning of some studies and discussions that food dyes could be carcinogenic, meaning that they cause cancer and cause other health issues. And around that time, some people began saying let's ban all food coloring. But a study was done in 1979 which showed that red dye number three could cause cancer and yet we're just now banning it and even now with all these latest bills in California banning all food dyes in schools and even banning any use of red dye number three across the state and that's great but it won't go into effect until 2028. If we know it causes cancer and it's bad, let's ban it now. But hopefully the fact that the FDA is finally starting to do some things will create an impact. Because of some studies showing that red dye 40 and yellow number 5 in particular are linked to ADHD, a lack of attention span, hyperactivity and poor developmental rates in children, Europe has banned the use of many different food dyes since 2010 or at least required a label that says that they're known to cause these problems with learning and activity in children. As a result, these food companies do not want a label like that on their products. So even though they didn't have to, many of these big companies changed the formula. Here in the article, it gives an example of the ingredients in Froot Loops across different countries. In Germany, Froot Loops contain flour, sugar, glucose syrup, salt, fruit and vegetable concentrates, carrots and cherries, natural citrus aroma with other natural flavors and color from carotenes that comes from carrots. This chart illustrates how much artificial food color people have ingested. Looking at milligrams per capita per day, it was around 10 in 1950 when they were first starting to discover that they could be dangerous and by 2010 it was up to 70. This article in particular is talking about how certain families have discovered the drastic effect these dyes have on their children and it's really startling. It's like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation. It's almost behavior altering in some children. Like this one family, Whitney and Brandon Cawood had a very sweet, smart, curious and deep down even tempered child. They were convinced. Yet other people didn't believe that about their son because he would act out. He would bite and hit the other children in daycare and after he was even kicked out of a half-day preschool, they realized it wasn't just a behavioral issue. He had these drastic personality changes. They tried an elimination diet for ADHD and they began by taking gluten, dairy and food dyes out of his diet. He calmed down. So then they decided to try reintroducing these things to determine what the problem was. Gluten didn't cause a problem. Dairy didn't cause a problem. But as soon as they gave him something with artificial food dye, he started acting like he did before. Out of control. So they realized that it was having a very drastic and horrible negative effect on him and as they've discovered, it can be in more than just food. It's also in sugary drinks but not just soda. Many fruit juices that are labeled for children have dyes in them. So many products particularly aimed at children have dyes. Many medications have dyes. Chewable gummies or other vitamins have dyes and it can be very problematic for children who have some other kind of allergy medication or if they're prescribed a fever. There have been all these different studies and documentaries and many people advocating for it. One of the most powerful groups advocating to eliminate dyes or at least put warnings is the CSPI which is the center for science in regards to public information. So they try to inform the public and they've been lobbying for years and doing more studies to try to convince the FDA and individual companies and just take the first move to get rid of these dyes. Especially things like we see Fruit Loops and other companies already have recipes that they're using in other countries. People are buying them, they've figured out how to make it work, so they could do that here. Maybe it's not quite as vivid but is your life any less rich if you aren't eating bright blue cereal in the morning? It's not really the best thing for children to be eating anyway and one good thing as people are turning away from that, they might realize some of the other additives that are in their food that aren't doing them any good and as the article points out, we have an obesity epidemic in our country so making food palatable isn't really something we need to be doing. People already like food too much. On January 14th, the K Woods released a documentary called To Die For, DYE. It's available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo and basically every other platform and so many people say that it moves them to tears because they see the same things that they've observed in their own children and it gives them hope as a way to change because they say it could seem overwhelming as you're trying to make this change but they try to give practical advice and even small changes like some people are on an 80-20. If their children don't react too badly to it, they'll and hopefully other people will begin to be aware of the fact that it isn't doing anyone any good and it does some people real harm. Many mothers for instance are finding that this documentary can be a very powerful way to show their husbands about this issue because maybe dad's a little skeptical, could have really caused that big of a problem but to see such a vivid example in this hour and a half documentary, it can help open people's eyes and realize that this can be a serious problem and even if it doesn't create a drastic difference behaviorally, it won't hurt you to not have food dyes but it could help you a lot. Some parents might be concerned if they have children who only like to eat particular things and they don't like more natural options. The article recommends as the K-Woods do, don't give up and keep trying and as a pediatrician Dr. Alan Green says, it's easier than you might think if you're insistent. There are good options for almost everything. If you try anything six to eight times, the child is more likely to accept it and like it especially getting children involved with the food process will make them more receptive to it whether it's growing some of your own things, picking it or having them shop with you at the grocery store and look at labels together and look at fruits and vegetables and see that those have colors naturally and it's better for you. There are many creative ways to help children enjoy the process and at any age so I would definitely recommend looking at the documentary and at Facebook clubs if you want to find out more about how you can begin the journey to die free if that's something you think could help you and your family. It might not be the easiest change you've ever made but if you have children who are having issues like the K-Woods and many other families have experienced, it could mean the difference between chaos and calm for your family. I hope you enjoyed this discussion of the history of food dyes, the health concerns which they've raised and how you can make the switch to die free. If you enjoyed this video, I hope you'll like it, subscribe to the channel, share it with your friends and leave a comment letting me know what you think. Thank you for watching!