Food by the Numbers, the numbers you want to avoid!

If you look at labels of candy, soda and some of our favorite cereals you will find ingredients that have numbers. These are ingredients added to give food a nice bright color so we will want to buy them and eat them. Food is more attractive when it is colored. But is it healthy? These are ingredients that I ate daily for years and gave them to my children.

Artificial dyes are derived from petroleum are found in thousands of food products. Synthetic food dyes are banned in many countries around the world because of their health hazards. Placing food dyes in candies amounts to experimenting with our children’s health. Petroleum belongs in gasoline engines not our bodies. We have evolved to process food products over millions of years. Synthetic food colors derived from gasoline is not meant to be a food additive.
Synthetic dyes are linked to cancer and behavioral problems.

Examples: Yellow number 5 and 6 and Red number 40. Look for these. Food doesn’t have a number.

Natural alternatives to synthetic dyes do exist:
Food manufacturers still use plant-based colorings in some countries. For example, in the United Kingdom Fanta orange soda is colored with pumpkin and carrot extracts while the U.S. version uses Red 40 and Yellow 6. McDonald’s strawberry sundaes are colored only with strawberries in Britain, but Red 40 is used in the United States. With many U.S. consumers desiring fewer synthetic additives, “companies may be better off switching to [plant-based colors],” Jacobson says.”

From PubMed
Link to the evidence:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957945/

Bottom Line: Synthetic foods dyes are linked to cancer and neurotoxicity.
Action Item: Pay attention to Food by the Numbers. Avoid ingredients with a number. Numbers belong on spreadsheets, arithmetic, mathematic and calculus books not our food. Eliminate food by the numbers in your diet and your children’s diet.