Are Artificial Colors Bad for You?

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The effects of artificial colors on impulsivity, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity among young children.

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Artificial colors. Harmful, harmless, or helpful? Now, I know, I tell people to eat the rainbow of bright colorful foods—but not that colorful. We now know: artificial colors are harmful.

34 years ago, Chief of Pediatrics Ben Feingold published heresy, suggesting that artificial food colors could so damage a child’s developing nervous system that it could actually affect their behavior. Dow Chemical disagreed, as did Coca Cola, and other players within the $200 billion dollar food industry, who were able to convince the medical establishment that this was ridiculous. But the truth can only be buried for so long. And last year, after the publication of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge in the most prestigious medical journal in the world, showing artificial colors increased impulsivity, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity among young children, there have now been repeated calls to better regulate, or ban, artificial colors altogether.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Artificial colors. Harmful, harmless, or helpful? Now, I know, I tell people to eat the rainbow of bright colorful foods—but not that colorful. We now know: artificial colors are harmful.

34 years ago, Chief of Pediatrics Ben Feingold published heresy, suggesting that artificial food colors could so damage a child’s developing nervous system that it could actually affect their behavior. Dow Chemical disagreed, as did Coca Cola, and other players within the $200 billion dollar food industry, who were able to convince the medical establishment that this was ridiculous. But the truth can only be buried for so long. And last year, after the publication of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge in the most prestigious medical journal in the world, showing artificial colors increased impulsivity, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity among young children, there have now been repeated calls to better regulate, or ban, artificial colors altogether.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Image thanks to theartofdoingstuff.com

Doctor's Note

Check out these videos for more on the health impacts of artificial coloring :
Artificial Food Colors and ADHD
Is Caramel Color Carcinogenic?
Seeing Red No. 3: Coloring to Dye For

And check out my other “HHH” videos (Harmful, Harmless, or Helpful?) – listed below the post. 

For further context, also see my associated blog posts: Food Dyes and ADHDVitamin B12: how much, how often?; and Should We Avoid Titanium Dioxide?

If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here. Read our important information about translations here.

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