Food Dye Clean out
Published by amberlicious March 4th, 2010 in How I torment my kids, Indoctrinating my kids, What I'm making my kids eatOne of my children has been ‘pre-diagnosed’ with ADHD and Dyslexia. Three of my four children wet the bed. (The younger three). I was talking with a friend at belly dancing and she was saying how they’ve seen huge improvements in behavior and bedwetting by cutting out artificial dyes. I figure it’s worth a shot right? I’m giving it a month. If I don’t see any improvements then there’s no harm done. If I do then we all win. This is what I had to get rid of:
Saddest about:
Life Cereal: yellow 5, yellow 6
Quaker Instant Oatmeal:
- Strawberries and Cream: Red 40
- blueberries and cream: Blue 2 lake, red 40 lake
Pickles (Nalley and Vlassic): Yellow 5
Hosin Sauce: Red #40
Sad but not devastated:
La Choy Fortune Cookies: Yellow 5 and Yellow 6
Smucker’s caramel flavored syrup: yellow 6, red 40
Smucker’s butterscotch topping: yellow 5, yellow 6
Kraft creamy french dressing: yellow 6, yellow 5
Any flavor cake mix except chocolate
Not really that sad:
Vanilla pudding mix (harvest of the west): yellow #5 and yellow #6
bear creek tortilla soup mix: Yellow #6
Let us all know how it goes, Amber. I am anxious to hear results on this subject from someone besides a crazy celebrity.
Although perhaps you are a little crazy and you are definitely a bit of a celebrity. 
I really think it might make a difference. If you have a food co-op or health food store (or maybe from the church place there) you can buy many foods in bulk and it is much cheaper anyway. Since we have started using almost all whole grains I buy a loot in bulk at the co-op. Quinoa, wheat germ, TVP, some different flours, stuff like that. As for the sweet stuff, you can always cook down some fresh fruit, especially in season - and even if you use sugar it’s still got to be better than the purchased ice cream toppings and stuff. I LOVE all the fake stuff. I grew up on junk food. Michael could live without it forever, though. He is a good example to me. He does eat sweets, especially ice cream, but if he didn’t NEED 3000 calories a day to maintain his weight I don’t think he would do it. My new purchase this week is steel cut oats. I read that you can cook them overnight in the crockpot and then hot breakfast is ready in the morning. I have dried apples I can throw in and I think it will be very yummy indeedy. I will probably try it this weekend. I have to find the article again so I can get the water amount correct.
You can also try taking them to the chiropractor to get an adjustment. It can help for bed wetting.
http://www.chiroweb.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=42457
I hope it goes well. I have nephews who are dye free, and everyone can tell the difference if they cheat.
I’ve always wondered why so many companies use dyes in so many foods. I mean, did your strawberry and cream oatmeal really need to be red to taste better? We keep a big bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer and use those with milk to make our strawberry and cream oatmeal.
A friend of mine was having problems with their older daughter and they did that. They said it helped immensly. Worth a shot.
When K was going through his CRAZIES (and it was bad. I never even told any of you how bad it was) when he was three, we cut out dyes pretty hardcore. It made a difference. I’ve gotten lax about it lately, and need to crack down some more. Good luck with it.
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Good luck! I hope it works for you! I’m trying to limit as much as I can right now, and once we move and I have time to really organize everything and cook from scratch more we’re going to try it completely. We’re cutting out dyes and artificial flavors. I’m going to try for about 2 months I think, because I heard it can take a while to really get out of your system. I heard with some kids there is a detox period where their behavior gets worse before it gets better.
I hope this works for us, the reason I’m trying is because we highly suspect that Abby has ADHD and since she’s only 3 we’d like to try this first before anything else. ADHD/ADD runs in my family so it’s not really surprising that she might have it. My dad and a few siblings and nephews/nieces have it, and some have ADD, thats what I have.
I’ve been getting good ideas from some friends online who do this with their kids. I’ve heard the Kirkland brand mac and cheese is all natural w/ no dyes or artificial stuff, it’s supposedly cheap too.
Anyway, this is a long comment, so I better stop now. But if you want to talk about it or anything, I’m trying this too.
I can’t believe pickles have dye! I didn’t think to check mine. I love pickles! I’m going to be so sad if there are no kinds without dye!
I’ve heard a lot about food dyes so this will be interesting to see how it works for you.
And I know my son’s problems aren’t from the dyes, since he eats so few foods.
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i just think about your beautiful cakes…not the same w/ out fake colors. Belive me, I’ve tried the natural ones. They arent so hot!
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Hi Amber,
My computer crashed and I lost your bread recipe that I loved so much. Do you still have it up on a blog? If you do would you mind letting me know the blog address please. My husband would love to have me make it again.
Thank you.
Lisa
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Oops, I found it on the recipe index. Sorry about that. Good luck with the no food die, the nice thing here is I’ve seen more foods and medications being die free, hopefully it will help your little kidlings.
Lisa
Lisa’s last blog post..The Christmas Present Chapter 6
It’s funny, I won’t feed artificial dyes to my dog, but I will to my kid. I guess, bc it’s easier to cut it out of the pet food! I’m curious to see what you find out.
Did you count caramel coloring or only numbered dyes? I just read the ingredients to these fab new cracker sandwiches I bought and they have caramel coloring. I have to start taking my lunch to work now. No more eating out with the reduction in income, so I was looking for easy foods.
I’d be bummed about the hoisin sauce, too. i use it in one of my favorite chicken dishes. hope this dietary change works for your kids!
i enjoyed meeting you today, too!
Your URL was the easiest for me to remember. heh.
Don’tcha wonder WHY there’s artificial coloring in a lot of those foods? Like pickles….why do you need to add color to PICKLES?
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