Food Additives/Hyperactivity

The issue of whether food colorings and additives can affect children’s behavior, especially those with ADD/ADHD, has been controversial for decades. Benjamin Feingold, an allergist, has argued this fact for years. Feingold says that, not only do artificial colors, flavors and preservatives affect children, but so do the natural salicylate compounds found in some fruits and vegetables. Most everyone is familiar with The Feingold Diet for ADD’ers.

The most recent research findings as of September, 2007, have been done by British researchers who have reported their findings on tests done on more than 300 children ages 3-9. In the research, children showed significant differences in their behavior after drinking a fruit drink spiked with a mixture of food colorings and preservatives. The mixture included: Sunset Yellow Coloring (also known as E110); Carmoisine (E122); Tarazine (E102); Ponceau 4R (E124); the preservative Sodium Benzoate (E211) and other colors. The mixture significantly worsened the hyperactive behaviors in this age group. Their findings also showed that adverse effects were not just seen in the children with extreme hyperactivity (such as ADHD), but could also be seen in the general population.

This research study supports what homeopathic doctors, dietitians and a lot of parents have known for a long time … feeding our children on diets largely consisting of heavily processed foods which may be high in fat, salt or sugar, is not optimal for health.