The food choices at the grocery store frequently remind me of a box of crayons – so bright and colorful and shiny. Unfortunately I am not talking about the produce department. I am talking about the fake, processed foods you find in the middle of the store.
Nature has provided us with so many wonderful options that are bright, colorful and shiny. Yet we walk briskly through the produce department to get to the food most people eat. Boxed, manufactured, processed foods are typically so fake that companies have to add artificial colors into them so that they will be appealing to the eye.
This is not normal – or even necessary. As this article over at 100 Days of Real Food points out other countries have either banned food manufacturers from using artificial colors or they require a warning label be added to the packaging. A warning label! Artificial colors – think red #40, yellow #5, blue #1, etc – are horrible for you. These fake colors are made from petroleum – you know the stuff our cars are fueled on? Next time you pump gas think about eating that for a minute.
I have found plenty of food companies that make their products using natural coloring like beet juice to achieve the desired color. Walk through the organic aisle and you will see many options like what you find in the regular aisles – boxed mac & cheese, chips, candy, etc – all made with no artificial colors. It can be done! Except we are allowing these companies to continue to create foods with artificial food dyes that will harm us and we continue to buy them and feed them to our kids.
You can make better choices though. Read food labels & purchase a different brand of yogurt, ice cream, candy, cookies, cereal, etc. Spending your money on better products with real ingredients will make an impact. It will make a huge impact on your family’s health and eventually the companies will start listening and change their ways.
If other countries have convinced these companies to quit using artificial food colors, why is the United States still allowing it? Why are we still purchasing this stuff?
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Yes it can be done – just this past week there were announcements that Nestle UK is removing ALL artificial additives from its entire line of sweets and beverages; and Coke and Pepsi are lowering the amount of caramel coloring (listed in other countries by its rightful name – “ammonia caramel”) from their soda recipes. In order to avoid having to put a warning label on their products overseas, companies like Kraft, PepsiCo, WalMart, Mars, and others have simply replaced the petrochemicals with all natural food colorings. Since our FDA hasn’t made the change here yet, it’s up to us consumers to vote with our dollars and not buy those dyed products. A small shift in demand will make the manufacturers perk up their ears. Trix yogurt is making a naturally dyed version of kids’ yogurts now too. I blog about our own dye sensitivities at http://www.DieFoodDye.com and am always on the lookout for people like you sharing this important info. The mamas on my DFD Facebook page are super helpful too, so feel free to post questions and interesting links there. Thanks for this post!
We avoid all artificial colors at home, but I find that my kids are getting it so many other places. School, church, parties, sports, the library, etc – it never ends! I am trying to educate them, but it is a slow process. Thanks so much for the info! It makes me so mad that companies are willing to stop using artificial colors in other countries but not the US. They have the means to do it, they just won’t.
Oh and regarding being frugal, there are several DIY food coloring recipes you can find online (using fruit and veg to make the color), which are cheaper than purchasing ready made natural food colorings, and can be a great little kitchen science lesson for the kids, too.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? It all frustrates me. Yet I just bought TCBY yogurt – some of which (but not all) contained artificial food dyes. We have to be so careful.
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