Food Dye
When our 4 and a 1/2 year old was 10 months old we went out
to eat at a local restaurant that serves phosphates. My husband, being the
giant child he is, decided immediately that he had to have a cherry flavored phosphate
and since we pretty much never go out to eat, I told him he could have as many
as he wanted. I dare anyone to have one of these sugared up, whipped cream
covered babies on a table close to a child who can drink through a straw and
keep it to themselves. Not gonna happen. We ended up with two cherry
phosphates. My husband still drank almost all of it, but with generous help
from our first born. I soon forgot about the treats as we went about our
evening and I didn’t think about it again. For years actually. Then, that night
our son could be found standing up in his crib screaming in joy until around 2
am. We couldn’t figure it out. He wasn’t always the best sleeper, and rarely
really conformed to my bed times for him, but he’d never stayed up for hours on
end like that, just standing there screeching. We remember it now with laughter
of course, but at the time I was almost pulling my hair out. I remember him
standing there laughing in his crib and I then laid him down for what was
probably the 50th time and said “bad baby!” Which just caused a new
round of laughter. He bounced and giggled until we were pretty sure it would be
a good idea to drop him off at one of our mother’s houses and run like crazy.
He eventually went to sleep of course, and I didn’t take him to my mom’s to
drop him off, nor did I sell him to the circus as the ‘Amazing Baby That Doesn’t
Need Sleep’. We’ll never forget that
night because of the hilarity involved. But also now I am unable to forget it
because I now know that this family outing and special treat was my son’s first
exposure to red dye #40, and his reaction was both immediate, and severe.
I had heard as a child at Girl Scout camp about some
children having reactions to red food coloring, but didn’t really associate the
rumor with my son’s stand up baby routine for quite some time. He was just a
baby, how could you tell if your baby was just being silly, or if he is having
some sort of problem. We often had candy and other treats in the house, my
husband is a complete sugar freak and because of this we nearly always had bags
of skittles, peppermints, candy corn, etc. around. We never let him gorge on it,
but we never really restricted him either. We had/have two philosophies concerning
kids and treats. The first we formed after some reading and watching of a Nova
program about children who were restricted from treats that gorged themselves
immediately on treats if a parent was out of the room, vs. children who were
allowed to have treats within some sort of limitation for their health who
often made better or at least alright choices about snacks when unsupervised. (This
theory has proven to work for us by the way.) Our other philosophy was ‘eh, he’s
gonna lose all those teeth anyway.’ Not the best theory, but we do brush his
teeth, so in my mind it all evens out. At any rate for a large part of my son’s
life food was unrestricted except that halfway through (so about 2 and a half
years now) we decided to no longer have any partially hydrogenated oil of any
kind which has stemmed into not eating hardly any preservatives at all. All
through this time our son would have these wild periods. We couldn’t even talk
to him; he didn’t make eye contact for more than a couple seconds at a time. We
could say his name a dozen times in a row and never get his attention, he
couldn’t play the way he ought to have been able to, and truly it was just
making us depressed for him. I even took him to see his pediatrician to ask
about possible autism (something she was unconcerned with). I was at the end of the rope. It was awful
watching him struggle. I knew somewhere in there, a good kid was waiting
patiently. I just didn’t know how to get to him. I knew my son was in there
somewhere because, albeit infrequently, he would have these brief periods where
he was alright. He would engage in a long conversation, and learn in his workbooks,
play like a normal kid, ask good questions, all those things which he couldn’t
do on normal days. He was in there. I knew it.
After some thought I decided to get rid of red dye for him. That was
what I had heard back at camp was a problem for kids with ADHD. And magically I
saw some improvement. Some, but not much. Not enough I guess I should say. Some
things were better. It would take 8 times saying his name to get him to look at
us, but he still didn’t make eye contact very much, he still struggled with
normal play, couldn’t control himself, and couldn’t stay on task. But I was happy with the improvement. Early
this year, he asked me for a candy. I don’t remember anymore what it was, but
it was something loaded with red dye, and as a dutiful mommy I went online to
try to find an alternative treat for him. Something similar he could have that
I could order for him. And I came across some web pages talking about banning
of food dyes in Europe, and then that lead to more pages talking about food dye
eradication and children’s improved behaviors. I thought about it, and said to
myself ‘well, he has dye sometimes, but not that often right?’ The more I read,
the more I was beginning to wonder and by the end of the day I found myself in
the kitchen staring down the cabinets. (I never did find that candy because I
spent the entire time researching children’s reactions to dye, by the way.)
Systematically I went through each cabinet looking at the ingredient labels and
item after item, even things I generally thought of as a natural food product,
or things that just don’t seem to have a color to them all had dye in them.
Things that were white would have blue #5, corn products that ought to turn
yellow on their own would have yellow in them, and sometimes red too. Half the cupboards
were full of product with dye in them. So I decided to experiment.
Starting immediately that day, I didn’t give my son
anything, and I mean anything, that I was not absolutely positive was
completely free of dye. This included fruit since some companies dye their
fruit skins to make them look more appetizing, and meat from the store as some
is dyed red in store. Pretty much if I didn’t make it or hadn’t researched the
product online fully to be sure of it’s origins, it didn’t go in his mouth. I
also gave him a new natural toothpaste, and dye free soap for the bath tub.
Nothing with dye other than his clothes touched his body. And 3 days later when
everything was out of his system, I met my son. It’s strange to think I hadn’t
met him before, but I didn’t. I had no idea who he was. Some things are the
same, like he still loves trains, and more than anything wants to build things
with tools in the garage, but instead of getting frustrated seconds after
starting projects, he finishes things now. He listens. He can play with other
children without crying, and most importantly, he’s happy. That morning I asked
him as I always do how he felt, and his response was “I feel better”. And he
was looking right at me. Like right at me. Like he hadn’t ever done before. I
said “better? Did you feel sick?” He said “no. I just didn’t feel good before.
I feel good.” For the rest of the day, he played without needing constant help,
he asked me questions, not just “why?” or “what’s this for?” but good
questions. Questions I didn’t know he thought about like; how do they get tar
for roads? And what makes the wheels turn in the car other than the steering
wheel? And even more astoundingly, he remembered the answers. Go ahead; ask him
how the car turns. I bet he has a good answer. Ask him what a fractal is, and who
created them. He knows, he can’t pronounce it terribly well, but c’mon the kid
is almost 5 and knows what a fractal is, give him a break Benoit
Mandelbrot is hard to say for a lot of adults. He asks questions, deep
questions about how the universe works now too.
I’ll go ahead and admit it, I cried. I cried
a lot. My son was finally able to think clearly. He enjoyed his life that day.
I don’t know that he had before that. Sure he had fun, but ask him about things
before we took away dye, and he doesn’t know, can’t remember any of it, but if
you ask him about anything after that, trips he took, things he learned at
school, he remembers it. From talking it over with him, he’s basically
described his dye loaded days as his head always feeling cloudy, or fuzzy. I
know when I have a headache, sometimes I can’t think clearly, and that’s sort
of how I think he felt. That day I went through all the cabinets again. I got
rid of everything that even mentioned food color with the exception of caramel
color, as he doesn’t seem to have problems with this, but we still avoid it
rather heavily. I do still have dye in the house in things like Mountain Dew
(because seriously, I NEED the Mountain Dew sometimes) but it’s only in products
he never had in the first place. Things loaded with caffeine, weight lifting
supplements, and an ever present box of honey combs that my husband scarfs unapologetically
in the middle of the night while the kids are sleeping.
It sounds kind of depressing to a lot of
people when I tell them we’re a virtually dye free home (considering the few
exceptions mentioned above.) And really, think about it. Things you did
yourself as a kid, are things he can’t do, things he can’t have. Trick or
treating is pretty much completely not fun. Nothing, with the exception of
plain Hershey’s bars could he eat without consequence. Birthday parties with
cake and ice cream, a treat from the bakery, going out for ice cream, popsicles,
holiday parties at school, a sucker at the bank. Yeah, the list continues. But
I’ll tell you what, he’s happy about it. He certainly misses things, but for
most of his favorite treats like suckers at the bank, I’ve found alternatives
that I can buy in bulk, and give out when the time is appropriate. The worst so
far was trying to find marshmallows. He’s very good about all of this. Before
he asks for things at the store, or when someone offers him something, he’ll
ask me if it has ‘yucky dyes’ in it. We always check. Even if it’s something I
already know has dye in it. And we do it together. Sometimes he’s disappointed,
and will even ask “why did they put the dyes in there!?” But he’s happy to not
have the foods that are harmful to him, because even he understands now that
the dye makes him feel bad. We’ve found some natural dyes from the website
mentioned in a previous post and he’s very happy to have it to decorate
homemade treats with. Anything we can’t find an alternative for, we find a
recipe for, and when we can’t find them, we make them.
We’ve really changed how our family views
food. There is a wise saying that I think applies to this area in our lives, “Pay
for it now, or pay for it later.” Do we have a huge food budget? Oh yes. It’s
crazy expensive in our area to buy the natural unaltered meats, organic fruits
and veggies, and all the other things we use like juices, crackers etc. that
are free of preservatives and dyes. But the benefits of doing so are absolutely
worth the extra expense. On the off times we end up doing something silly like
going to McDonalds while traveling, we always feel the difference in our
bodies. It’s absolutely worth the expense to prepare all of our food the way
that we do. I highly recommend it. In fact I challenge you to do this for a
week. Or even just 4 days. For the next 4 days, don’t eat anything you haven’t
prepared yourself, that you know is free from dye (which is made with petrol
chemicals) and free of preservatives. Eat no fast foods, and just to be sure,
read every label, even when it seems stupidly obvious what must be in the
product, because you’re going to be surprised. And see how you feel. I bet you’ll
be pleased with yourself!
There are absolutely times when we have a ‘containment’
issue. The major Star Trek geek that I am calls this a ‘breech of containment.’
Times when he accidentally gets dye into his system. It’s always from innocent
seeming things. As an example his grandparents took him to lunch at steak and
shake, they carefully asked questions about the foods he was given, but no one
noticed that his milkshake had a candied cherry on it. He loves these and
happily eats them without second thought, but they are basically red dye in a
jar. One day his grandparents took him to church and the Sunday school teacher
gave him a cupcake with pink frosting. I’m still a little upset about that one.
I’ve accidentally given him dye myself, but I know that he asked the teacher if
it had “yucky dye in it” and I’m sure they told him to just eat his cupcake, so
he did. Sure it seems like you should just give it to him so he doesn’t feel
left out, but in the end he has to pay for it by being uncontrollable for the
next 3 days and he can’t understand why. All in all this breech of containment
is pretty rare thank goodness. We’ll see what happens after Halloween, I’m sure
we’ll pay for that one too.
Roast
Since I’ve been loading you all up with
stories about sweets, I thought I’d break from the pace and tell you about a
savory meal this time. I made a roast a couple nights ago. Usually I’m all for
tossing meat and veggies in a crock pot with a bouillon cube and a cup of water
and hoping for the best, but this time I decided to use different spices and
use the stove top. (I used a red wine for this recipe, I don't think wine generally has food dye, but to avoid any confusion after my last post, the child I'm talking about refuses to eat roast, so I wasn't worried about label checking for this recipe since he wasn't going to even try a bite anyway. Don't you just love picky eaters? It means cooking two meals a night instead of one sometimes!)
Taking a 4 pound roast, I seared it in olive
oil on both large sides, and then added ¾ of a bottle of a soft red wine, 1 cup
of water, 1 ½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, one beef bouillon cube, a palm full
of ground cloves, 3 bay leaves, a half bag of baby carrots, and a few peeled
cubed russet potatoes. I brought the pan to a boil and then reduced the heat to
let it all simmer covered for a few hours until fork tender. I served it with
some poppy seed muffins I made just before the roast was done. If I had it to
do all over again (and I do) I would have left the potatoes out and roasted
them in the oven, skins on. There wasn’t anything wrong with having them in the
pan. They just didn’t take on the flavor of the wine in a way I like as they do
in the crock pot when I add wine to the roast, and the soft potatoes but crispy
skins would have been just perfect instead. As for the roast and carrots, the
wine and cloves made a truly delectable meal of it. The savory nature of the
cloves pared with the slight fruitiness of the wine was a real treat. I may
always cook my carrots this way. This meal was truly scrumptious. Quite possibly the best roast I've ever made.
I would love to recommend products to you for this recipe,
as I feel like I’m not doing you justice by posting something simple without
any added flair, but for this one recipe I just don’t see how I can cloves are
pretty much cloves. As long as you’re not using a discounted expired bottle of
spice, you can’t really go wrong here. The bay leaves I generally use are dried
for long term storage, and I’m sure if you want to use fresh instead, you’ll be
even more pleased with your dinner. My veggies were organic for my kids, but that
shouldn’t change anything really. And as for the wine, well I just can’t really
help you there either sadly. We don’t drink. Not, we don’t drink often enough
to call it usual or know much about brands, but we just, don’t. My knowledge on
alcohol is limited to knowing a few brands and types and how drunk to expect
someone after they’ve consumed x bottles of said beverage, and what is the best
beer to use when making fish and chips. When I buy a bottle of wine to cook
with, I usually just pick one up at the grocery store while wearing a vacant
expression and wondering what on earth makes this red wine different from that
one. I will say though that I used a wine called Oliver which is made in Indiana. It tasted great in the recipe. But if you have a favorite one that you already know you enjoy, you ought to go ahead and use it. Or hey, if you know of one I ought to be using you could totally tell me about it, and I'll try it out on my next roasting adventure.
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