A Word from Laura

     I hope this newsletter finds you well, and I hope your children are doing well too.  As they say, a mother is only as happy as her least happy child!

     This month a really good analysis of ADHD and artificial food dyes was published in a first rate journal—the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry—by researchers at Oregon Health and Science University.  I’ll tell you more about their study in “News for You” below.

     We continue our analysis of common foods and their dye content.  What is obvious is that the largest amounts of dyes are found in beverages children consume every day, some breakfast cereals and, of course, candy and sugary snacks.  Red and orange beverages and candies appear to contain more dye than other colors like blue, green and purple.  I’ll keep you posted on our study.

     Times are changing.  Gatorade has come out with a new, clear Fruit Punch beverage—no dyes and just natural flavors.

Best wishes,

Laura J. Stevens, M.S. Editor

News for You

More about Artificial Food Dyes and Behavior

In January 2012 Joel Nigg and his associates published the following article: “Meta-Analysis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms, Restriction Diet, and Synthetic Food Color Additives” in the first-rate Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  A meta-analysis is a statistical device where the results from many studies are put together and analyzed.  The advantage of the meta-analysis is that the total number of subjects and data is increased. 

Nigg points out that the causes of ADHD are multi-factorial—both genes and environmental factors play roles.  Numerous environmental factors suspected of playing a role in ADHD include prenatal toxicants, low birth weight, exposure to lead and other heavy metals, cigarette smoke, PBCs, etc.  Exposure to artificial colors in common foods as a triggering factor has been studied since the 1970’s and is certainly the most controversial factor.

In Nigg’s analysis he and his team studied 24 previous studies about food dyes, and 10 studies where diet had been restricted.  Here’s what the authors concluded: “In conclusion, approximately 33% of children with ADHD may respond to a dietary intervention.  Although as many as 8% may have symptoms related to food colors, the source of most of this dietary response remains unclear.  We thus conclude that dietary effects on and treatments of ADHD, including food additives and colors, deserve renewed investigation.”

One point to make is that many of the studies Nigg used for his analysis used mixed dyes at low amounts—around 24 mg/day. Studies that used larger amounts of dyes—50 to 100 mgs—were much more revealing than the low amounts. We know now that just one-8 ounce serving of certain red and orange beverages contains over 30 mg of dyes.