Image via Wikipedia
This is another one of those articles that elicits the following response from me: “Well yeah. Didn’t everyone know that?”
I know I am not the only one in the natural health community who is reacting this way to these latest studies, sponsored by the British government. The studies showed a possible link between hyperactivity in children and the ingestion of food dyes and sodium benzoate (a preservative). Since the 1990s I have known parents of hyperactive kids who were advised by some wise health expert to remove artificial colors and preservatives from their kids’ diets. Nonetheless, studies like this one can validate and affirm what may have been pooh-poohed in the past – such knowledge, if tentative, lends some credence to what was once easily brushed aside as the inchoate notion of deluded natural health enthusiasts.
The use of potentially dangerous dyes in foods is not just a possible health risk for children. FD&C Yellow #5, tartrazine, converts to hydrazine in the body. Hydrazine is a vitamin B6 antagonist, and vitamin B6 is an important vitamin for normal female hormone regulation.
