Can commercial food colorings make children hyper?
Push a cart down a supermarket aisle, and you’ll pass a kaleidoscope of color. The use of artificial dyes by food makers is up by half since 1990, and it’s not limited to candy. The list of foods made pretty by chemicals now includes pickles, bagels and port wine cheese balls.
“Americans are really turned on by a bright-red strawberry juice, and they think it’s natural,” said Kantha Shelke, co-president of the food research firm Corvus Blue.
Food makers have used dyes since ancient times to make food more appealing, but the practice has so invaded the modern psyche that artificial dyes are being used even on some pet foods.
Federal regulators are re-examining artificial ingredients they have long deemed to be safe, prompted by studies suggesting that color additives might be linked to hyperactivity in children and other health effects. On Wednesday, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will begin a two-day meeting to discuss the science behind artificial dyes and whether the government ought to restrict their use.
“There are sometimes nine different dyes in a food product,” said Laura Anderko, of Georgetown University Medical Center, who serves on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Moms and dads will say, ‘Here’s a Fruit Roll-Up; that must be healthy.’ But it’s filled with dyes. And emerging science suggests it’s a harm to children.”
European studies
Two recent studies sponsored by the British government found that children given foods made with some artificial dyes and a food preservative, sodium benzoate, showed an increase in hyperactivity. The study sampled kids in the general population, not just those known to show hyperactive behavior.
The studies remain controversial.
“At first glance, a study may appear to show an association, but when you consider other important factors that could be responsible for the results, such as gender, maternal education level, pretrial diet and other factors, it becomes impossible to affirm that the change in behavior was due to food colors,” said Keith Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at the Rose F. Kennedy Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y.
Changes seen overseas
In 2009, after the studies on hyperactivity, the British government urged food makers to stop using six dyes.
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