The Effects Of Artificial Food Dyes | Dr. Rebecca Bevans | TEDxCarsonCity

imagine holding your brand-new baby the awe and joy of that moment all you can think of are the wonderful possibilities of their future and then when years later you're looking into the screaming crying face of a seven year old who tells you that he just wants to die what would you do I have three degrees in psychology I'm a professor and a researcher and I felt helpless I knew I had to look for answers his life depended on it in 2005 I gave birth to our son he was a happy healthy easygoing baby he became a curious infant who developed into a fun and inquisitive toddler he was full of life and he loved everyone by the time he was three he was energetic enthusiastic and into everything our nickname for him was our crazed lunatic monkey we thought that's just who he was constantly on the go into everything and all over the place his self-esteem was fantastic and he had a ton of confidence he was so excited to go to school during the second week of kindergarten his teacher pulled me aside and suggested that he had ADHD I was shocked his preschool never said anything like that I mean yes he was interested in a lot of things and yes he was enthusiastic but ADHD and why did it seem like he only had ADHD on some days his doctor disagreed he said he's just a very bright boy and I'm grateful that his doctor did not try to medicate him in second grade he started having problems he had a hard time concentrating one day I looked at him and said do your best to focus and he said I can't concentrate mom my brain buzzes brain buzzes I have a PhD in cognitive neuroscience if I learned anything in college it's the brains are not supposed to buzz so I started looking for answers I searched the textbooks scientific research articles and I scoured the internet and I found articles on the artificial food dye red 40 and how it caused hyperactivity in some children I found story after story about how red 40 caused ADHD like symptoms in some kids it made them hyper impulsive disruptive in class and caused brain buzzing so I thought aha it's the red 40 and we pulled everything with red 40 in it from our diet and the brain buzzing stopped but we let them consume other foods with other artificial dyes like yellow five and six green three blue one in hindsight I don't know why we thought those were safe when red 40 wasn't maybe we couldn't imagine pulling everything with artificial food dyes from our home in our diet that meant no more colored cupcakes no more cheese yellow chips no pickles no candies no colored breakfast cereals you see artificial food dyes are in many of the foods of the processed foods that we eat maybe we just couldn't imagine taking away foods that kids enjoy in their childhood now I bet many of you are wondering what our artificial food dyes well there are a set of chemicals that are added to our food to enhance the color and appearance they are man-made petroleum based and banned in many countries they provide no nutritional value and many have been linked to cancer and now I know many of you are thinking oh then why are they in our food well because we Americans we like our brightly colored shiny stuff and this includes our food so now that he wasn't eating red things he turned to yellow things cheese yellow chips yellow candies pineapple syrup on shaved ice in Hawaii you name it if it was yellow it was okay then seven months after the removal of red for tea we have a new problem he's having emotional meltdowns and temper tantrums the likes of which I had never seen he would get upset over the littlest things these temper tantrums turned into they got more intense and more frequent I'd ask him to turn off the TV and he would break down and cry and the crying would turn into anger and this anger would turn into a full-blown emotional fit he would scratch it himself he would shred at his clothes he would swing on me he would scream and eventually it would lead to him begging mom just get me a knife so I can kill myself I just want to die we couldn't believe it we had a suicidal seven-year-old and all I can think of was if this continued by the time we hit he hit puberty we would lose him we were wondering what was happening to our sweet boy so I searched the text books the articles the internet I searched and searched and I found one article on yellow 5 and how it caused irritation and kids I found more articles and anecdotal evidence of other dyes like yellow 5 & 6 causing emotional disruptions and children so we thought all right that's it no more artificially colored food no cheesy yellow chips no artificial colored drinks breakfast cereals if it was naturally colored it was okay and we started living our life dye-free and I was not ready for what happened next that poor kid crashed like an addict coming off of drugs he slept a lot he would get up in the morning and he'd go lay back down on the couch he was so tired and he would he craved milk and cheese he would have eaten an 8 ounce brick of cheese in one setting if we let him and he was sore for the first week it hurt his body to be touched he ate he ate and slept his body was starved and it was finally beginning to recover after a few weeks he became more active and he tried playing with the neighborhood kids but his stamina was so low that he can only play for five or ten minutes before he ran out of steam it took three months for him to recover physically enough to play with the neighborhood kids it took six months for him to recover enough to where he was back to himself the self we had only glimpsed over the years for most of his life he was a pretty thin kid you could see his ribs through his shirt before removing artificial dyes that previous year he only gained six pounds that whole year after we removed artificial food dyes he gained six pounds in six weeks the rest of the year he gained another ten for a total of 16 pounds he was fit and healthy and it was obvious that the dyes were causing some physical metabolic disruptions as well as psychological reactions as we looked we found oh yeah you know I forgot the best part the best part was that just days after we removed the dyes from his diet the emotional fits completely stopped to this day he's never again said he wanted to kill himself now there have been times where we have had accidental and naso accidental times where he's ingested dice about seven months after living died free we were eating at our favorite local Thai restaurant and he wanted green tea ice cream but it contained green three well we had never tested green and he tried to convince me that it would have no effect on him being the researcher that I am I said sure it's Friday let's give it a shot well by the time we got home he was bouncing off the walls he was manic hyper euphoric and up until midnight needless to say he won't be eating green again once we were on our way to a play in Los Angeles and he would offer he was offered a mint and it contained blue one again he tried to convince me that blue had no effect on him an hour later he was moody grumpy tired and irritable he will not be eating blue again last year he had had a really rough week he got in trouble at home at school and even in theater rehearsal we were at our wits end I was so frustrated I just wanted to blame him for acting up but his behavior wasn't normal so I took a step back and I looked at what he was eating now I know he's not eating anything behind our backs he's more cautious than we are he reads everything he knows what it dyes feel like and he avoids them vehement ly so I started looking at the not so obvious stuff and that's when the bagel on the counter caught my eye it was from the bakery local grocery store it was an egg bagel and it had a yellow tint I thought don't all bagels have egg in them why is this one yellow so I called sure enough they contain yellow five and six he'd been eating them twice a week for three weeks that's all it took see each dye affects him differently red makes them hyper give some migraines and causes brain buzzing the behaviors resemble ADHD and the effects last about two days Green makes him manic hyper and euphoric the behaviors resemble bipolar disorder and a manic phase and the effects last less than a day blue makes him tired moody and grumpy there's no disorder for that yet but the effects last about a day yellow is sneakier yellow intensifies emotions increases anxiety increases agitation aggravation and defiance leading to violent outbursts and thoughts of suicide the behaviors resemble oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder and the effects last five days as we looked we found that dyes are in many things go to any kid's party and they're everywhere you see our country likes are bright and shiny stuff but at what cost the health of our children's bodies and minds now I know some of you might be thinking maybe dyes only affect your kid and I wish that was the case then I wouldn't need to be standing here telling all of you our story now I know all children are not affected but many are currently seven and a half percent of children are on some sort of prescription medication for emotional and behavioural difficulties eleven percent of children have been diagnosed with ADHD four percent of children between the ages of 9 and 17 will develop conduct disorder and ten percent of all kids will be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and doctors and researchers still have no cause as to this disorder they think it might be environmental and genetic so even if 1% of all the children under the age of 18 are affected by food dyes that's still almost 1 million kids 1 million now I know our son is not alone I have had students and Friends remove their children and grandchildren from artificial food dyes from their diet they too have reported amazing success and behavioral changes in these kids when the kids notice a difference I had a doctor tell me once that he wonders just how many kids are on medications when in fact they're having a reaction to artificial food dyes ironically most medications for behavioral problems contain artificial food dyes and all it takes is living two weeks die free that's it just two weeks and you'll know if your child is food dye intolerant any child with emotional disruption should be checked for a food dye intolerance beware food dyes are in processed foods both obvious and hidden some restaurant food theater popcorn medications both prescription and over-the-counter mouthwash toothpaste fluoride treatments at the dentist office shampoo conditioner lotion the list goes on however there are plenty of brands that don't contain dyes our house is full of every food and over-the-counter medication we could possibly need and they're all dye free it just takes reading the label and looking at the ingredients list one day we were at the supermarket funds at the other end of the aisle and he's reading a bag of snacks the ingredients on a bag of snacks and he yells down to me mom these don't contain artificial food dyes can we get them I watched as the rest of the shoppers immediately looked down what they had in their hand I started reading the ingredients it's that easy just read now I know some of you are thinking that this sounds so hard it's not it takes some getting used to but it's not the end of the world and it's worth it the kids are worth it their sanity and yours is worth it any child with emotional disruption should be checked for an artificial food dye intolerance our son lives a very happy and fulfilling life without eating artificial dyes he eats out his cake has chips and snacks in his school lunch he doesn't go without more importantly he's not suffering anymore he's just a kid that has to avoid some foods like others with different food allergies now I bet many of you are wondering how do you remove artificial dyes from your children or grandchildren diet well you start by reading what you have at home look at the labels and look at the ingredients list as you run out of products that contain dyes replace them with brands that don't natural dyes are okay replace their lipstick mouthwash shampoo conditioner with dye free items explain to your kids once the house Oh be sure to remove any dye filled tempting candies and snacks from their home in their environment the obvious first once your house is dye free explain to the kids that you're all going to try a little experiment that everyone including you are not going to eat anything with artificial food dyes for two weeks tell them you want to see if everyone feels different next send a note to his or her teacher informing them that they are you eat no foods that contain artificial food dyes every teacher I've met has been fantastic about following this wish next inform the extended family that the kids are to receive no foods with artificial food dyes in them tell them that this is a test and that you need their cooperation honestly this could be the most difficult part of the process for some reason family can be the most difficult to get on board just explain that it's a test it may only be for two weeks and that it's really important last sit back and watch your child's behavior see if their behavior changes see if the disruptions slow and cease they are still kids they will still act up but the intensity of the disruptions should be minimal if you see no change in their behavior then you can assume that they're not affected by dyes and you can go back to your normal diet if you choose if they are affected by dyes you will see a difference in their behavior within 5 to 7 days more importantly they will feel a difference I know I am a professor I teach psychology I have three degrees in psychology I'm a researcher but I'm also a mom we removed artificial food dyes from our child's life and so can you now it's your turn it's time for you to make a decision can you start paying attention to what's in the food that you're feeding to your family can you remove artificial food dyes from their diet can you help your family live die free it just might save a child's life like his thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 379,191

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Social Science, Cognitive science, Family, Food, Health, Mental health

Id: nQzOHAwCfXs

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Thu May 26 2016