Why to Avoid Foods With Artificial Colors 

Introduction

Most of the time, people do not think about what is actually in the Gatorade they drink, cereals they eat, and many other foods they consume on a daily basis. People probably do not think about how each of these food items gets its colorful look either. The process of coloring these and many other food items is not done through natural flavoring but through artificial and synthetic dyes. The food coloring used in many processed foods is manufactured from petroleum used in car fuel and many other chemicals that are harmful to the human body. For example, the pink color in many strawberry-flavored yogurts is made by crushing small insects and obtaining a red and pink extract. In a grocery store in North Carolina, it was found that 43.2% of the products contain artificial food coloring (Batada, 2016).

In the past decade, the increase in consumption of these foods has resulted in a variety of harmful consequences for consumers, ranging from stomach aches and fevers to autoimmune diseases and cancer. If these ingredients are this harmful for the human body, then why are they used in food production? The reason that many producers have started to put these ingredients in foods is because it’s a cheaper and more time-efficient way to produce food, and the health of consumers is not considered as closely as the time and money saved for producers. The main controversy with this process is that consumers are not even made aware of the fact that the food items they consume every day undergo this treatment. Due to the dangerous health problems related with this process, the use of artificial food coloring in processed foods should be banned by producers in factories. The three main dangers of artificial food coloring include are hyperactivity, cancer, and gene damage. The first and most common danger is hyperactivity.

Hyperactivity

Hyperactivity is a common symptom of eating foods with artificial colors. Many foods produced with synthetic colors are consumed by young children from an early age. Some of the most common foods, including fruit snacks, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and Twix Yogurt, are directly advertised toward children. Studies have even shown that consumption of these foods with colors is directly related to unruly behavior towards others. In 2007, researchers at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom selected 300 elementary and preschool kids for a test to see how consuming large amounts of artificial food coloring would affect their behavior. The kids were then split into two groups and randomly given one of two mixtures. Mixture A contained 24.98 mg of artificial food coloring and Mixture B contained 62.4 mg of it. After the kids consumed the dose and each child’s behavior was recorded for a week, researchers found that the children who took Mixture B exhibited significantly more violence and aggressive behavior at home (Weiss, 2012).

Due to the results of this research, multiple European countries, including England and France, have banned the use of artificial colors in food production. In England, Fanta is now manufactured with pumpkin and carrot extract to maintain its orange color. However, in the United States, Fanta’s color is maintained with Red 40 and Yellow 6, two dyes which both have shown to cause hyperactivity in certain people (McDermott, 2013). Because of this, more U.S. children are experiencing hyperactivity and symptoms that are even associated with ADHD (Weiss, 2012). In order to live a healthy life, it is crucial to develop good habits from a young age. When young children develop hyperactive symptoms as early as age six, their health is more likely to deteriorate as they grow older. The potential long-term complications include ADHD, increased chance of seizures, and depression (McDermott, 2013). To prevent these dangerous consequences from affecting our generation’s children, the consumption of foods with colors such as Red 40 and Yellow 5 must be prevented early.

If action is not taken early, further complications may lead to tumors and even cancer. Cancer and Gene Damage Consumption of foods with artificial colors has become a prevalent cause of cancer in the last 10 years. As mentioned in the introduction, the base ingredient used in every food dye is petroleum, the same chemical we all use to fill gas in our vehicles. The petroleum base contains a specific element, known as benzidine, which has been proven by doctors to be a cancer-causing substance (Bollinger, 2016). When this chemical is ingested by the human body, it slowly deteriorates the colon’s layer as more is taken in. There is a lack of research to show that petroleum and benzidine cause cancer in humans due to ethical issues, but the evidence has been shown through experiments on animals such as mice and other rodents. In an experiment done by researchers at Cukurova University in Turkey in 2017, 4-MEI, an artificial yellow coloring with a petroleum base, was injected into certain mice with healthy digestive systems.

After dissecting each mice’s digestive system with the injection, the scientists found that many of them showed signs of carcinogens and tumors near the stomach (Norizadeh, 2017). The effects of these artificial coloring agents can go to the extent of affecting one’s genetic makeup. At a biology research lab in Portsmouth Polytechnic in Hampshire, England, DNA samples were taken from a set of humans and mixed with a variety of artificial dyes. When these dyes were mixed, most of the DNA samples were damaged by a bacterial strain similar to that found in Salmonella and E. Coli, two life threatening diseases (Haveland-Smith & Combes, 2004). The DNA changes found in this study have shown to be linked with many health symptoms, some of which include skin discoloration, trouble sleeping, stunted growth, and temper tantrums. Due to the chemically dangerous nature of artificial food coloring, we as humans need to be more mindful of the things we put into our body.

Call to Action With the extensive amount of research and experiments that have been done to show the dangers of artificial food colors, it is clear that work needs to be done in the American food industry as well as through the choices we make to stop the consumption of synthetic colors. What needs to happen for our health to be safe then? One important point to note is that each of the three research studies examined above were initiated by universities in European countries. As a result of those studies, the governments in Europe have been quick to respond and enforce laws against synthetic dyes. For food items that do have synthetic colors and artificial flavors, the British Government requires produces to place warning labels on the front to warn customers about them (Ravella, 2016). If these colors have been banned in England and France, why have they not been banned yet in the United States then?

According to nutritionist Ty Bollinger, the problem in the United States is that most people eat with their eyes and not with their mouth (Bollinger, 2016). Studies by psychologists at the University of Southampton have shown that the appearance of a food is becoming an increasingly important factor to consumers (Weiss, 2012). For example, is someone really going to turn down a mouthwatering, carefully designed and decorated piece of cake as opposed to a freshly grown apple from a tree? Knowing that people will choose the food that looks more attractive, companies have started to use more and more food coloring for this reason. Along with that, the use of these chemicals in food also makes it cheaper to produce and preserve. When more people are delighted by the look at the food and start buying more of it, the food companies continue to use these products as it helps them make more profit (Rittweger, 2008).

The fact that many of these food companies are sacrificing consumer health for their own personal benefit should raise attention as criminal behavior in today’s world. The worst part is that most people do not even know that these chemicals exist in their food. The question now is, what can we do as citizens to alleviate the issue and prevent food companies from using these toxic chemicals? At this point, the food companies will continue to put chemicals in processed food as long as it helps them make more profit. In order to stop them from processing the food with colors, we need to stop ourselves first. If we stop buying into the hype and stop consuming these foods ourselves, the food companies will stop making the extra profit and start making more health-conscious decisions in production.

Before chewing on the next piece of gum, we should check the ingredient list to make sure it does not contain Red 40 or Yellow 6. Along with refraining from the foods ourselves, we also need to spread awareness of this issue to as many people as we can. Even more than making poor decisions, the main cause of these issues is that most people are not aware of what is in their food. It surely does not help that American food companies do not have warning labels like European food companies. The more that people learn about what is in their food, the less likely they are to develop health problems from a young age. Once enough people are aware of these dangers, it would surely help to reach out to government officials or start a petition to change the laws as well. In order to save the health of our fellow citizens, it is mandatory that we take these actions as a whole.

Conclusion

With consequences such as young age hyperactivity, cancer, and gene damage, artificial food coloring is a lot more dangerous than what many people think. The sweetness and chemically-based nature of artificially-colored products have affected both the mental and physical health of many individuals through symptoms like aggressiveness and violence. The petroleum base in many of these colors have also proven to have associations with tumors and numerous cancers. Unfortunately, companies continue to add these colors into their food products because of how much money they save and the increased amount of profit they receive.

In order to stop companies from following this unethical process, it is necessary for us as individuals to read the ingredient list and make sure there are no artificial colors whenever we buy food. The more quickly we realize this and stop buying into a food’s looks, the sooner food companies will start adopting healthy production guidelines. After reading this article, heavy consumers of processed food should now be aware of what they are actually doing to themselves the next time they pop a piece of bubble gum into their mouth.