A Rainbow of Trouble - Food Dyes & Additives!

Food Dyes - A Rainbow🌈 Of Trouble!

🌈 Are food dyes and additives really a problem for our health? If they were, wouldn’t the Food and Drug Administration limit or ban the use of these chemicals. Woah, not so fast! Let's look at this topic a little deeper and consider a few things that we already know.🌈

🍭Consider the fact that 67% of the calories that American children consume come from processed foods which contain these food dyes and additives! In addition, because kids are smaller, POUND FOR POUND, they consume MORE of these chemicals.

🍬Common food dyes are Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6. What we know about food dyes and Red No. 40 in particular is that consistent exposure will lead to IRRITATION and INFLAMMATION in the gut. These food dyes are also associated with behavior and learning issues especially attention deficit and hyperactivity (ADHD). In Europe, while not banned, foods containing these dyes have a WARNING LABEL on them just like CIGARETTES 🚭!! Read that again. Shocking, right?!

🍭Food additives are ALSO associated with gut irritation and impact the nervous system in children AND adults. Food additives like potassium bromate, titanium dioxide and brominated vegetable oil have all been BANNED in Europe, China and India. Other food additives are proplparaben, carboxymethylcellulose along with emulsifiers and stabilizers. They have associations with cancer and negative impacts on thyroid function. WOW, is right! 

🍬Two states in the US are looking at banning Red No. 3, titanium dioxide, brominated vegetable oil, polypropylparaben and potassium bromate. NOTICE some of these are already banned in other parts of the world! The California bill AB418 has passed through the state Senate Committee on Health and now goes to the full Senate. 

🍭 🍬 🍭 🍬In Europe, there are about 1000 unregulated chemicals compared to the United States which has over 4000 unregulated chemicals. It is a dizzying array of chemicals to monitor on a federal and state level especially when it comes to our food which is FUNDAMENTAL for our health. Keep watching the progress of the California and NY initiatives, which are BOLD! 🍭 🍬 🍭 🍬

🍭🍬 Eating a little bit of this food once in a while is NOT a big deal.. enjoy that birthday party or family gathering. Our bodies can detoxify a little bit now and then but NOT the daily bombardment that comes with so much processed food having all these chemicals. Read labels! The more you know, the better choices you can make.
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