Crazy Makers 101
I was standing in line at our local Health Food store the day before Valentine’s Day. There was a little girl about 3 ½ years old and she kept ramming her head into her mother. She was literally running circles around her mom and then when I said hello to her, she crashed into my leg. I noticed she was eating a bright red sucker. Her mom apologized and said, she just came home from her party at school and she’s on her 3rd sucker. It should be a pretty wild day! I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that the artificial coloring and overload of sugar might just be a problem for this child!
Shame on M&M’s
A 2004 meta-analysis affirmed that artificial dyes increase hyperactivity. The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency has urged food companies remove dyes from their products based on two studies that it commissioned, on top of all the earlier evidence, and that found that mixtures of dyes adversely affect the behavior of ordinary kids (not kids thought to be sensitive). The European Union then required foods that contain any of the dyes used in those two British studies to bear a warning label. Those dyes include Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6—the three most widely dyes in the United States and Canada. Partly as a result of that action, very few foods in Europe contain the dyes and bear the warning notice. M&M’s in America contain Blue 1, Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6. (http://www.cspinet.org/new/201310161.html)
I was talking to a friend the other day and she was telling me that her daughter, age 11, was being tested for Attention Deficit Disorder. I asked her how her diet was and she just mentioned that she was a very picky eater and survived on junk food. She also mentioned that the only thing that worked for her daughter’s migraines was Mountain Dew and Tylenol. So what’s in Mountain Dew that might be problematic?
The main problem ingredient in Mountain Dew is bromine. It is a poisonous, corrosive chemical, linked to major organ system damage, birth defects, growth problems, schizophrenia and hearing loss. There’s flame retardant in your Mountain Dew. That soda with the lime-green hue (and other citrus-flavored bubbly pops) won’t keep your insides fireproof, but it does contain brominated vegetable oil, a patented flame retardant for plastics that has been banned in foods throughout Europe and in Japan. After a few extreme soda binges — not too far from what many gamers regularly consume — a few patients have needed medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders, all symptoms of overexposure to bromine, according to a recent article in Environmental News.
I think the best book I ever read about this subject is called The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children. It helped me to take an honest look at what I allowed to make it into my children’s mouth. This book may just be the one that helps you reclaim your child’s life by taking charge of their eating habits.
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