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Food Additives May Cause Hyperactivity
WASHINGTON - Certain artificial food colorings and other additives can worsen hyperactive behaviors in children aged 3 to 9, British researchers reported on Wednesday.
Tests on more than 300 children showed significant differences in their behavior when they drank fruit drinks spiked with a mixture of food colorings and preservatives, Jim Stevenson and colleagues at the University of Southampton said.
"These findings show that adverse effects are not just seen in children with extreme hyperactivity (such as ADHD) but can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity," the researchers wrote in their study, published in the Lancet medical journal.
Stevenson's team, which has been studying the effects of food additives in children for years, made up two mixtures to test in one group of 3-year-olds and a second group of children aged 8 and 9.
They included sunset yellow coloring, also known as E110; carmoisine, or E122; tartrazine, or E102; ponceau 4R, or E124; the preservative sodium benzoate, or E211; and other colors.
One of the two mixtures contained ingredients commonly drunk by young British children in popular drinks, they said. They did not specify what foods might include the additives.
Both mixtures significantly affected the older children. The 3-year-olds were most affected by the mixture that closely resembled the average intake for children that age, Stevenson's team reported.
"The implications of these results for the regulation of food additive use could be substantial," the researchers concluded.
ONGOING DEBATE
The issue of whether food additives can affect children's behavior has been controversial for decades.
Benjamin Feingold, an allergist, has written books arguing that not only did artificial colors, flavors and preservatives affect children but so did natural salicylate compounds found in some fruits and vegetables.
Several studies have contradicted this notion.
Stevenson's team made up several batches of fruit drinks and carefully watched the children after they drank them. Some did not contain the additives.
The children varied in their responses but in general reacted poorly to the cocktails, Stevenson's team reported.
"We have found an adverse effect of food additives on the hyperactive behavior of 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children," they wrote.
Dr. Sue Baic, a registered dietitian at the University of Bristol, said in a statement: "This is a well designed and potentially very important study."
"It supports what dietitians have known for a long time, that feeding children on diets largely consisting of heavily processed foods which may also be high in fat, salt or sugar is not optimal for health."
Others disagreed.
"The paper shows some statistical associations. It is not a demonstration of cause and effect," said Dr. Paul Illing, a registered toxicologist and safety consultant in Wirral, Britain.
© Reuters 2007
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13 Comments so far
Show AllYou mean to tell me, the things I put in my body will affect the way I feel?
What!? Artificial living is harmful?
Vitamins and minerals aside, none of the chemicals they put in foods are good for us. Some can cause cancer, and most have a dulling effect on the conciousness. I've read that human cadaevers take longer to decompose nowadays because of all the preservatives in the food.
Minimally processed organic food is best. To hell with pesticides, growth hormones and preservatives. Many people are more concerned with caring for their cars than they are with caring for their own irreplaceable bodies.
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"Contact with the sun should be much sought after, and the vitalization that comes through its rays. The sun kills all germs and frees from disease." The Tibetan
Before you believe anybody's "study" or "research", find out who funded that study or research!
just what we need more might haves and possiblies,,,,with the advent of refridgeration self-life with preservatives and colorings should be a thing of the past, unless there is something to be gained by dulling the brain???
Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) is banned in Japan, Australia, Europe and Canada. It's given to most of the dairy cows in the USA. It causes cows to increase their production of milk. The big corporations can make bigger profits with the assistance of chemicals. Many cows never see the light of day, they spend their whole lives in milk factories.
Unbridled capitalism is like a cancerous tumor sucking the life force from mankind. It's effect on the animal kingdom is pretty ugly too!
Yes, food additives cause cancer in humans; that is the important study, but it gets left behind in place of moral prejudices against the freedom of children.
Everyone has "food sensitivities." The degree of which and the reaction to vary from person to person. Food sensitivities include food, food chemicals, food preservatives and food coloring.
A nutritionist finally found what two GPs, two Gyns, and one ENT couldn't find--and to this day dismiss--food sensitivities were making me very sick, fat, and depressed. In fact my cervix was well on it's way to turning into cancer with high grade dysplasia but is now returning back to normal cells after avoiding the foods I am sensitive too. And my headaches?-They're gone.
What am I sensitive to that was making me sick? Black pepper, soy, cow milk, broccoli, spinach, sesame, vinegar.
Sounds like a healthy salad doesn't it?
I've already dropped 20 pounds since April 1, 2007 by just avoiding the foods that hurt me. I've written about my personal food sensitivity story in detail on this page if you want to know more.
http://www.thevideoqueen.com/food_sensitivities.html
Nerissa
Was it only a week ago that there was a fairly acrimonious discussion of whether or not kids ought to be given drugs for hyper-active behaviors? Maybe not, maybe it was 2 weeks ago... Now, it appears taking away the little sugar-tits that keep them wound up would interfere with their rights to be free.
At any rate, I hope something is done about the inability of the average reader of Common Dreams to remember what they got all excited about in the past month. No wonder they've stretched out the Presidential Primary Season to 18 months. By the time people actually vote in Iowa, all those strange and wonderful candidates will appear to be reborn and fresh as daisies.
Your sex lives must be phenomenal: A continuously new and exciting proposition!
What is that? Sex?...The food additives that stop that would have been banned along time ago, but not the ones that make you crave for more and dumb. Its bad business!
Oh, Fruit Loops! We are the most powerful nation on earth because we do eat so many delightful chemical additives.
There is just no substitute for preparing meals at home with fresh ingredients. All prepared packaged foods contain unhealthful additives -- all of them. Home cooking with fresh ingredients is not only safer and more healthful than reliance on packaged food products, but also tastes far better -- even modest ordinary dishes are better tasting than commercial preparations and far more healthful.
For some folk, this means getting off one's butt and into the kitchen. It may involve learning new skills. Others may have to spend less time on the job or limit other time-consuming activity. Leftovers can be taken to work the next day for lunch. There are ways to do it, bu tone muct commit to doing it. The seduction of easy meals that take no time to prepare must be fought with the knowledge that an hour or two a day must be devoted to fixing the food that sustains us.
What could be more important?
thats why we dont giv up fighting in irac! out govurnment are high on E(-numbers).