There's Something In That Cupcake
Cora went to a birthday party recently and
consumed only the frosting from one of those hyper-decorated cakes,
covered with sugared roses in every color of the rainbow. She was a
maniac, crabby and irritable to the nth degree the rest of the day,
and when she had a poop the next day that looked like seaweed or
spinach I thought, “Yuck! That just confirms that I want to
make my daughter’s own birthday cakes, with less artificial
frostings.”
A couple months ago, a friend of mine mentioned casually that every
time her daughter has a favorite sherbet, she’s hyper and
crazy the rest of the day – like, ten times crazier than
sugar-crazy. Her best guess was that her daughter was allergic to
the dye in the orange sherbet.
Turns out, she’s not so wrong.
target="_blank">Healthy Child, Healthy World published a
blog recently about the synthetic food colors used in pretty much
all junk food, and it was certainly eye-opening. Specifically, the
passage about Yellow Dye numbers 5 and 6, which can cause
allergy-like hypersensitivity in people and which are two of the
most common dyes used today. The article had much to say, picking
apart many of the dyes we take for granted in our junk food (you
didn’t think Mellow Yellow looked like that naturally, did
you?), but reading that article reminded me of my friend and her
daughter’s severe reaction to the sherbet. It also reminded
me why chocolate is often the “favorite” kids’
candy for pediatricians and dentists; as one dentist told me,
“At least chocolate melts completely in your mouth and is
gone, with no dyes or anything. Those suckers or gummie bears or
Starburst get stuck in your teeth and sit there, slowly
disintegrating and slowly making cavities.”
Take a
target="_blank">read for yourself – it’s
definitely worth the time, and hopefully will make you think twice
about quite so much junk food. I know I am.
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