RFK announced last week that the FDA will be banning petroleum based food dyes auch as Red Dye #40, Red Dye #3, Citrus Red #2, and Orange B.
This will require food manufacturers to use natural dyes like beet juice or curcumin to get the bright colors it wants in many of the junk foods may Americans eat every day.
My Story
Before we look at the changes this will require in our food supply, I want to tell you a story from my life. I was a youth pastor for many years and on a trip I was talking to one of the father’s of a kid in my youth group. He was telling me that when his son was a child, he had horrible behavioral problems they didn’t know what to do about.
This kid had uncontrollable bouts of rage where the only way they could get him to not hurt himself or others is to hold him tight until he tired himself out. They took him to several doctors and they best they could do was prescribe a mild sedative they could give the kid when he blew up to control him.
They started looking for help from alternative sources including at one point taking him to a priest for an exorcism. (I’m not making that up, they were desperate!)
Eventually they started taking things out of his diet one at a time to see if that would change anything and little by little they narrowed it down to one of the red dyes in his food. Once they removed that, the tantrums stopped and the kid was totally normal and able to control his emotions.
I’ve known this kid for years now, he’s my son’s brother in law, has a wife and kids of his own. Fantastic guy and a great husband and father. All of that came from parents who were willing to experiment and remove these food dyes from his diet.
Will this Work for Everyone?
I can’t tell you that the work that RFK is going to do will reduce the rates of children with behavioral issues or autism or any of the hundred other things that seem to be going wrong with our children. I don’t think this will be a panacea but what if it is a step in the right direction? What if it gets us a little closer to solving the problems with juvenile health that we face today?
There will be issues that come up. For instance, the reason they use these food dyes instead of the more natural alternatives is the food stays fresher longer on the shelves. It might mean there is more food waste and food prices tick upwards a bit.
But I think RFK said it best when he said if petroleum executives want to put petroleum byproducts in their own food, they are more than welcome to do that for their own families but no more putting it in our food.
