Food Coloring, ADD, and Environmental Toxins in Chinese Medicine
As I mentioned in this previous post, Environmental Toxins are considered one of the Miscellaneous Causes of Disease in Chinese Medicine, the other Causes of Disease in Chinese Medicine being Internal Causes, or diseases caused by the emotions, and External Causes, or air and water borne infections. As you can imagine, though the category heading “Miscellaneous” sounds kind of minor, its actually a huge category including errors in Diet, Lifestyle, and Physical Trauma, the last including bites from venomous insects and snakes. In the modern, urban world, we are unlikely to be bitten by scorpions or venomous serpents. The poisonous snakes we need to worry about, and sometimes even have the ability to avoid, are Environmental Toxins.
Of the many environmental toxins a modern person is exposed to, from the perfumes in body care products and cleaners to the linings inside of cans, one of the most evil is artificial food colorings in foods, especially foods given to small children, like Lucky Charms breakfast “cereal”, jelly beans, M and M’s and strawberry sundaes at McDonalds.
There is so much evidence now of a link between artificial food colorings and hyperactivity, that they are actually banned in Europe. And guess what? The same American food manufacturers, like Mars, which makes M and M’s, that use natural colorings in Europe, continue to use artificial ones in the USA.
Avoiding artificial food colorings is not hard to do. Its much easier than finding clean air. What do you have to do? Read the labels of things. There is not anything at Whole Foods or a similar market with artificial coloring. But if you shop at Walmart, or any of the supermarket chains, you are going to have to read the labels. Is it worth doing? Is the greatest wealth good health?
PLEASE READ THE LABELS OF FOODS BEFORE YOU BUY THEM ESPECIALLY WHAT YOU GIVE CHILDREN.
Any time it says “artificial food coloring, or FDC Red, Blue Lake, etc. that is what you must avoid if you want to avoid contributing to ADD in your child.
And its not always obvious. Food colorings are found in many manufactured foods, such as pickles, salad dressings, even some mayonaisse.
Here is a link to an online article on the NPR website on the topic
copyright eyton j. shalom march 2014 all rights reserved