finding dyes?

ch574

New Member
I feel crazy for asking this question, but what does artificial color read as on an ingredient list?? I've been eyeballing labels in my house lately, just to try and see what has it and what doesn't (with the idea that I need to explore ALL possibilities into my son's behavior)... and I can't find anything. We don't tend to eat a lot of junk food, and I do the majority of our grocery shopping at various organic food stores, but I still figured I must have something in my house that would show an example. Honey Nut Cheerios? Oreos? That's about as "junk food" as we get, and while I can easily find all the bad stuff (fructose corn syrup, etc) on a label... I don't see anything that looks like a color ingredient.

Are they less prevalent than one would think? Are companies not required to list them? Are they hiding under names I wouldn't recognize?

Anything else beyond dyes and preservatives to look at?
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I probably do not know all of the ways they hide food coloring, but often they are listed as Red #X, blue #Q, and what have you. Carmine is also used. It is actually the tushies of beetles used to give a bright red color. I know that Burt's Bees has it in one of their lip balms (not the colored ones, on of the unisex ones).

You also want to seek out flavor enhancers like MSG. This may be under MANY different names. One NASTY factoid about MSG is that if a restaurant says "no MSG added" their food probably has MSG. If they are using much of ANY frozen products, then the MSG is added in the factory. So the restaurant is right - they are not ADDING msg but it is already there. I have had many many health problems with this.

I used to have a lot more info easily available on this, but since I started making all of our mixes I have forgotten quite a lot of it. If you are interested in switching to home-made mixes for foods pick up a copy of "The Make a Mix Cookbook" by Eliason et al. I found it saved us quite a bit of money and worry, as well as being healthier. Each of my kids reacts to different foods and additives and I react to most of them, so this book has been a LIFESAVER. And strange as it sounds, the time to make the mixes is NOT very long. Even if you don't have a food processor it doesn't take long.

Probably the worst offenders as far as causing problems for me are the taco seasoning packets. I can MAKE 10 or 12 packets' worth of mix in under 5 minutes if I am on top of my supplies of ingredients, then it takes no more time to make than with any other seasoning mix! And no more nights spent fighting off the migraines or dealing with the behaviors caused by other ingredients the kids react to!
 

ch574

New Member
Probably the worst offenders as far as causing problems for me are the taco seasoning packets

That's so funny that you mentioned this one because I was just looking at these the other day and I was absolutely shocked to see what was in what I thought was just a fairly simple blend of spices!! I will definitely find that book! Thanks so much for your thoughts, Susie!!

~C~
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Sometimes the packages are labeled with just caramel color, or color, but doesn't have the dye #. I stay away from that.

Susiestar....thanks for the book suggestion. I will have to pick that up.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Caramel coloring was a bad thing for Miss KT. It really increased the hyperness. And it's in all the brown sodas.
 
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