Americans should think twice before
adding green food coloring to everything from bagels to beer on St. Patrick's
Day.
A
friend and I once tricked his kids on St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe “tricked” is too
strong of a word for what we did: The festive green pasta we served was spinach
fettuccine, but we didn’t admit that it contained traces of the vegetable.
The
pasta didn’t taste at all of spinach. The kids, no doubt, assumed it contained
a much more “acceptable” ingredient: artificial food dye. And the meal was
eaten without complaints. Afterward, I ‘fessed up, gleeful to prove to the kids
that vegetables can sometimes taste good.
We
pulled the same stunt at the little one’s birthday party, using a few drops of
beet juice to dye the cake frosting pink. That secret had to be kept under
wraps because even some grown-ups at the party would have avoided the cake had
they known. They were much happier assuming the frosting was made with a food
dye derived from a petroleum product.
Even
more commonly cited concerns are hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children. Years ago, one of my
friends found that his stepson was extremely sensitive to these food dyes.
After removing the dyes from his stepson’s diet, the little boy’s behavior
improved. It was like night and day. After that, every now and then, the little
one would act up and his parents would find out he’d had a popsicle or other
artificially colorful snack at a friend’s house.
Of
course, not all kids are so sensitive. But imagine your child attending school
with someone else who is. How much attention will your child receive if the
teacher is trying to deal with an off-the-wall classmate who ate Froot Loops
for breakfast?
Sometimes,
the chemicals in our lives are there to serve a purpose. Sometimes, the
chemicals we use might be harmful, but there are no safer alternatives. For
example, I’m not sure what effects the pharmaceuticals I take every day for my
migraines have on my body. But I’m positive that living with daily migraines is
worse.
Artificial
food dyes serve no purpose (although a 5-year-old who wants a birthday cake
with pink frosting might disagree) and we have safe alternatives. A few years
ago, the British banned artificial food dyes for these reasons. A McDonald’s
strawberry sundae in London is red because it contains strawberries. Imagine
that! Over here, it’s dyed red with artificial food coloring.
You
know what that means? All of the world’s largest food companies that sell the
same products in both the UK and the United States already know how to make
their products without food dyes. And, apparently, the cost of making the
switch did not put them out of business or tank their profits.
Why
must Americans continue to face risks from artificial food dyes while the
British play it safe? Let’s follow their lead on this one.
OtherWords columnist
Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe
for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org