Photo by luisana zerpa
Red dye, specifically Red #40 turns your child from a domesticated, reflective human being into a screaming lunatic. If they've been on it for long enough, you may not even know the real personality of your child.
This article is my personal acecdotal evidence and research. This shouldn't be weighted as much as a long term, 20,000 subject, double blind randomized trial that's FDA approved, as I'm still about $20 million short in funding (tongue in cheek).
I first heard about the notion that red dye causes hyperactivity in the early 90s, when I was about 10 years old. It was from my naturalist aunt who lived around Northern California, during a holiday party. My cousin (and her nephew) was a crazy child and I overheard her telling her sister that it was from red dye. I laughed internally at her for the next 20 years whenever I recalled the incident, like many of you may be doing at my article.
I thought red dye and food coloring was basically just extracted from the leftover parts of fruits and vegetables, like beets or oranges, or maybe even rose petals. This is utterly false (in America). According to the FDA, right on the government website, they report the following.
Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi
"Although certifiable color additives have been called coal-tar colors because of their traditional origins, today they are synthesized mainly from raw materials obtained from petroleum."
https://www.fda.gov/industry/color-additives/color-additives-history
"Petroleum, also called crude oil, is a fossil fuel. Like coal and natural gas, petroleum was formed from the remains of ancient marine organisms, such as plants, algae, and bacteria."
www.nationalgeographic.com
"Petroleum is a broad category that includes both crude oil and petroleum products. The terms oil and petroleum are sometimes used interchangeably."
www.eia.gov - U.S. Energy Information Administration
"Don't eat crude oil" ~ Every mom
I just want to make sure we're on the same page. I don't want people to immediately think of petroleum jelly and how that might be ok to ingest somehow. No, we're talking about crude oil being synthesized with other things and then added into the food supply. Anymore down the technicality trail would really be beyond the scope of this article.
Anyway, not until my sister in law had her child and we were involved in many days and sometimes nights of babysitting did I come into contact with the phenomenon of the red dye effect. To be fair, it's probably all the petroleum based dyes, but anecdoctally I only noticed red #40, red 3 is different and bad in it's own way.
Her child could not be satisfied and would always need to be doing something. I thought it was just that he was intelligent and a boy, but it was much more. He couldn't sit through anything and would be the only boy in a crowd that would yell out, like at church. He was 3 years old at the time. We were involved in his every day life for about two years, until the father took an out of state position. We blamed his sleep schedule and inconsistent parenting or just sheer boredom, the normal things we can think of.
Photo by Senjuti Kundu
It wasn't until my sister-in-law called and informed us they had seen a nutritional expert and nixed red dye out of his diet. She said he was a totally different person. One that would scream and bang on the back door just to go outside and then run around till he collapsed, to a child that could sit down and do jigsaw puzzles, 50, 100 piece etc. One that was helpful to his little sister, and would listen when told to help out around the house. I didn't believe it.
My second example is my own daughter. We noticed an inability to cooperate and faster than normal progression to tantrums than her cousins would reach. She was also a wild child once she was able to walk. I thought she just liked excitement and was a tomboy. It turns out that red dye triggered it. So cutting it out of her diet helped. I would post a before and after video, but I promised myself I wouldn't experiment on my own children. Her last instance was from cough syrup that was prescribed. We didn't even think about it, unti she had a running meltdown and couldn't figure out what was going on. Sure enough it had dye in it.
"Many parents say they have cured their kids from ADHD by removing artificial colors from their diet, especially Red Dye #40. Since 2010 the European Union has required warning labels on foods with artificial dyes stating that they “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
https://childrensmd.org/browse-by-age-group/toddler-pre-school/does-red-food-dye-cause-adhd-or-hyperactivity/
In South Korea, our current residence, they use red bean paste to color their food. You can taste it too, especially in the sweeter foods.
I hope this helps someone and let me know if you've noticed this in your own children.