The effects of artificial colors on impulsivity, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity among young children.
Are Artificial Colors Bad for You?
4.9/5 - (19 votes)
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.
- Am J Nurs. 1975 May;75(5):797-803. Hyperkinesis and learning disabilities linked to artificial food flavors and colors. Feingold BF.
- D. McCann, A. Barrett, A. Cooper, D. Crumpler, L. Dalen, K. Grimshaw, E. Kitchin, K. Lok, L. Porteous, E. Prince, et al. Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: A randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. The Lancet, 370(9598):1560-1567, 2007.
- Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 1991 Jan 12;135(2):60-3. [Food additives and hyperactivity in children]. [Article in Dutch] van Elburg RM, Douwes AC.
- A. Kemp. Food additives and hyperactivity. BMJ, 336(7654):1144, 2008.
Image thanks to theartofdoingstuff.com
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.
- Am J Nurs. 1975 May;75(5):797-803. Hyperkinesis and learning disabilities linked to artificial food flavors and colors. Feingold BF.
- D. McCann, A. Barrett, A. Cooper, D. Crumpler, L. Dalen, K. Grimshaw, E. Kitchin, K. Lok, L. Porteous, E. Prince, et al. Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: A randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. The Lancet, 370(9598):1560-1567, 2007.
- Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 1991 Jan 12;135(2):60-3. [Food additives and hyperactivity in children]. [Article in Dutch] van Elburg RM, Douwes AC.
- A. Kemp. Food additives and hyperactivity. BMJ, 336(7654):1144, 2008.
Image thanks to theartofdoingstuff.com
Republishing "Are Artificial Colors Bad for You?"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Are Artificial Colors Bad for You?
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor'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 ADHD; Vitamin 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.
Previous Video
Next Video
