They make your food bright and colorful, but synthetic food dyes are made from crude oil.
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The FDA took a big step just this year, banning cancer-linked red dye 3 in our food. It is one of several dyes that can cause behavioral problems.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi talked to one Georgia family about their lifechanging story.
The family is on a mission to get the word out about food dyes and how they affect people, especially kids.
They made a documentary about their own experience and how science backs up what they suspected.
Atreyu Cawood, 6 years old, is calm as he plays with his sister, 4-year-old Aslyn.
It is a total 180 from how he acted while eating foods with synthetic dyes over three years ago.
“He had lots of fits and hitting and biting and tantrums,” said Atreyu’s mother Whitney Cawood.
The Cawoods went to all sorts of doctors with no real improvements. Then they decided to look at his diet.
“We did an elimination diet, and we determined that synthetic dyes were causing 98% of his issues,” said Whitney Cawood.
Research shows synthetic dyes can cause behavioral issues including hyperactivity and aggression in some children.
“It was kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” said Atreyu’s father Brandon Cawood.
Professor Lorne Hofseth, Ph.D., director of the Center for Colon Cancer Research at the University of South Carolina, is studying if they can also cause cancer.
“We have given mice red 40 during pregnancy. Unfortunately, all the pups died after that,” said Hofseth.
Around 30 years ago, scientists linked red dye 3 to cancer in mice.
The Food and Drug Administration banned the dye in cosmetics but kept allowing it in food and drugs.
Now all these years later, the FDA finally banned red dye 3 altogether.
But that is not the only dye concerning scientists.
“Red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, those are all azo dyes,” said Brandon Cawood.
“I really felt that our story was hard to believe,” Whitney Cawood says in a trailer of “To Dye For,” a new documentary the Cawoods made to help get the word out to parents.
“We were shocked that there is that much research, but yet so few people know to be wary of synthetic dyes,” said Whitney Cawood.
One of their biggest discoveries – it is in children’s medication including pills and liquids for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, which can mimic the same issues caused by synthetic dyes.
“The only place he was getting synthetic dyes regularly was his daily allergy medicine or like a prescription medication,” said Whitney Cawood.
Thomas Galligan, Ph.D., Principal Scientist for Food Additives and Supplements with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is one of the researchers the Cawoods interviewed for their movie.
Galligan said dyes have no nutritional benefit and are nothing more than a marketing tool.
“They’re used to make food look visually appealing so that consumers want to buy them,” said Galligan.
In Europe, food makers must put a warning label on items that contain synthetic food dyes.
“The warning label says may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children,” said Whitney Cawood.
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But many food makers want to avoid using that warning.
Sophia Choi held up two bags of food made by the same company for two different countries.
The brighter bag was from the U.S. and contains synthetic dyes. The more muted bag used natural dyes and was from Canada.
The International Association of Color Manufacturers sent Channel 2 Action News this statement:
“Colors are safely used as ingredients in consumer products, are among the most widely studied food ingredients, and are subject to strict global regulatory requirements. Color additives play an important role in food, and they do so without posing a health risk to children. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international regulatory bodies have all concluded that food colors are safe for children and no study has offered compelling evidence that these colors cause adverse behaviors.”
Scientists said the best way to test your kid is to do what the Cawoods did - an elimination diet or better yet just stay away from dyes by reading labels.
“It was a game changer for our family. It completely changed the trajectory of his life,” said Brandon Cawood.
Scientists are hoping the FDA banning red dye 3 is the beginning of a domino effect with the other dyes.
The Cawoods have a call to action asking everyone to reach out to state and federal leaders to ban dyes.
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