A new study reveals that some food additives do increase hyperactivity in kids.
Yogamum says: Duh.
I understand that this is the first study to prove scientifically that such an effect exists, but I’ve been observing the phenomenon for years. When FreckleBoy was a toddler, I used to do my grocery shopping at Safeway, where the kind ladies in the bakery would give him a free cookie to gnaw on while I rushed around trying to throw stuff in the basket before he demanded to get down. I started to notice an interesting phenomenon: after eating cookies with colored sprinkles on them, he would go — hhmm, what is the technical term? — absolutely effing apeshit crazy and start babbling at the top of his lungs and totally spazzing out. If he ate a plain sugar cookie or even a chocolate chip cookie, he was fine. So I stopped giving him those cookies. After a few years FrogGirl came along, and when she was a toddler, I kind of forgot about the Sprinkle Effect and let her have a sprinkled cookie. Holy crap! She started speaking in tongues, in a weird space alien kind of voice, and running in circles.
So anyway, I’ve always tried to avoid the artificial coloring and additive junk, as much as possible. I mean, it’s not always possible because I live in the real world, and I’m kind of lazy, if you want to know the truth. Plus the kids seem to have outgrown the Sprinkle Effect. But generally we eat Annie’s White Cheddar Mac-n-Cheese instead of Kraft Mac-n-Cheese, Pirate’s Booty instead of Cheetos — okay, those foods aren’t perfect either, but it’s a start. I had to laugh at the quote from the doctor in that article who is concerned that taking food additives away from kids would cause them to be socially ostracized for not eating the same foods as their peers. If any kid ever laughed at my kid’s food, I’d tell my kid to tell them, “At least my mom loves me enough to actually make me a real lunch out of fresh ingredients, rather than stuffing some prepackaged chemical crap in a brown paper bag and calling it food.”
No, I wouldn’t say that, but I’d think it.
How much science do we really need to tell us that fresh, unprocessed, natural ingredients are better for us than a bunch of chemicals and additives extruded in a factory? My favorite rule of thumb for eating comes from Michael Pollan (I’m paraphrasing): “If your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.” I don’t always live up to that standard, but it’s something to shoot for.
September 7, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I babysat for a family 15+ years ago who wouldn’t let their kids have food coloring, particularly red, because of the same problem. 15 years ago! and just NOW they are making this link? I have never noticed this problem with my kids, but food coloring just creeps me out. When we were in DC last weekend all these people were eating blue cotton candy and walking around with blue tinged mouths. It just looks wrong! Gross!
September 7, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I heard this on NPR and said “well, duh” too. As for the lunches, no one gives my kids a hard time at all about the lunches they bring… and the boy is 9, prime teasing-for-differences age.
September 7, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I didn’t buy that processsed stuff either, and I’m not aware that my daughter was teased for her healthy food lunches (she’s in college now). I think it probably did happen sometimes that she ended up trading something healthy for one of those evil additive things. And, I don’t know if she was over-reacting to my insistence on healthy food, but she definitely got into the candy thing when became old enough to do what she wanted. However, I am pleased to say that she seems to be starting to grow out of that.
Hopefully, the healthy start will have the stronger influence.
September 7, 2007 at 11:30 pm
This was covered by the British media yesterday and I was hitting my head and going “duh” too. I thought we knew all this already. I guess there’s nothing wrong with a bit of over-emphasis in case some people missed the message before.
September 8, 2007 at 11:05 am
Would your grandmother recognize peanut butter cups?
Sigh. I thought not.
My kids love sushi, hearts of palm and stuffed cabbage leaves, all great lunch foods. Asher loves hunks of plain tofu as a snack (blech). The only one who will actually take any of this for lunch is the 5-year-old. The others are tired of the abuse. Between what I’ll let them eat and what they are willing to eat in public, school lunches are a freaking nightmare.
September 8, 2007 at 11:49 am
justmakingitup — you forgot to factor in what the school allows them to bring, which I know is a factor for you (for us too, but for a different reason — nut allergies).
I’m not so keen on the great-great-grandmother rule since I like a lot of ethnic foods my great-great-grandmother certainly would not recognize (though hopefully someone else’s great-great-grandmother would). So, it’s interesting to think about whether there is likely some genetic influence that makes it better for me to eat what *my* great-great-grandmothers ate, or is it ok to eat anything *anyone’s* great-great-grandmother might recognize.
We’ve gotten more and more lenient about the junk food lately. I’ll admit I even picked up a bag of assorted bags of chips/doritos/etc. when they were on sale last week for lunch box “emergencies”. And in the winter, when fresh fruit gets pretty boring, we start relying on fruit cups and fruit leather to supplement our apples and clementines.
I like the *idea* of a whole foods diet, but in reality, it doesn’t really happen in our family.
September 8, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Its pretty interesting how different certain “junk” food can be. I love the munch on small items, but I prefer eating the healthier alternatives such as Pirate’s Booty. I am actually kind of sad that in Houston they don’t have any Trader’s Joe. I use to love their junk food because it was less processed and contained ingredients that were better in nutritional content. I mean something we need to stray from eating only fruits and vegetables. Our mind and body need temporary fixes. =) But I always believe that you have to maintain a well balance diet for your body’s wellbeing.
September 12, 2007 at 9:30 am
I always thought this was pretty much a proven link and was quite surprised by the coverage. Possibly the study in question was just too definitive for even the food industry bodies to spin. Of course, the UK government’s ducked out of actually doing anything…
November 28, 2007 at 7:00 am
Was this the show regarding a school lunch director who started using tofu in the school lunch program? I’m trying to find the recorded program where they discussed this.
November 28, 2007 at 7:41 am
No, Betty Lou, it wasn’t, but that sounds interesting!