Remove red dye

[Anonymous]

I hear about removing red dye helping ADHD symptoms by some people. My kids are picky eater and junk food eater. What food or drinks have red dye? Any lists? I will see if I can cut down or narrow down the consumption of red dye.

[Anonymous]

Seriously? Start with foods that are… red. Skittles, Swedish Fish, jellybeans, Twizzlers, certain tomato sauces, ketchups, cereals, fruit punch, anything red velvet, certain yogurts, gums, Gatorade, sodas, strawberry milk, Jello, some bbq sauces.

Read ingredients.

[Anonymous]

It’ll be on the list of ingredients on the food packaging. Even if you order online, you should be able to view a list.

[Anonymous]

Read ingredients. It’s an allergen. It’s listed if it’s there. Basically anything red or purple sometimes orange.

[Anonymous]

A lot of national brands have artificial food dyes, even if they aren't brightly colored, although some are phasing them out. Wegmans store brand and Whole Foods store brand are dye free.

Removing food dyes is a big task and requires reading the ingredients label of every single thing.

We have found that it makes a big difference for one of our DC and no effect for the other.

[Anonymous]

Our ABA therapist from a few years ago said that diet made a real difference for one of her clients so I would certainly try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? Start with foods that are… red. Skittles, Swedish Fish, jellybeans, Twizzlers, certain tomato sauces, ketchups, cereals, fruit punch, anything red velvet, certain yogurts, gums, Gatorade, sodas, strawberry milk, Jello, some bbq sauces.

Read ingredients.

FYI, none of the candies or junk food at Trader Joe's have Red #40. They use vegetables to dye their stuff.

[Anonymous]

So, it lists as label ingredients "Red #40"?

[Anonymous]

Use the Yuka app. It helps identify harmful additives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, it lists as label ingredients "Red #40"?

Have you never read the ingredients of anything before? Yes, it literally does. Yellow #5 and Blue #1 (occasionally 2) too.

[Anonymous]

Shop at Trader Joes. No artificial dyes.

[Anonymous]

Whole Foods. No artificial coloring or preservatives.

[Anonymous]

Op here. I never read the ingredients, and I thought those red colored food or drinks are just food grade safe coloring. I don't understand what the differences are red, yellow, blue etc are, and why only red coloring is unsafe. I normally shop at Costco, Sam club, Safeway, giant, trader Joe and Asian supermarket.

[Anonymous]

It’s probably not gojng to help. There is a small subset of people who have a good sensitivity to Red Dye 40. Eliminating it helps them. I think if your kid was sensitive you’d probably already notice a correlation with issues after birthday parties of Halloween or whatever. (Unless you’re giving him food with red dye daily.)

I did years with no red dye for my kid and it did not make any difference at all. And it was a pain once he started gojng to birthday parties.

Also, a lot of products now use carmine or cochineal which is derived from beetle shell rather than Red Dye 40 because its use is restricted in Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I never read the ingredients, and I thought those red colored food or drinks are just food grade safe coloring. I don't understand what the differences are red, yellow, blue etc are, and why only red coloring is unsafe. I normally shop at Costco, Sam club, Safeway, giant, trader Joe and Asian supermarket.

Some people also have issues with one or more of the Yellow dyes. They are just each a different chemical so some people have issues. They are all approved as food safe. But note all those tests are done assuming relatively small consumption—so if a kid is drinking red dye constantly it may be a bigger exposure than was tested.