The Kitchen Think: Before You Buy Your Halloween Candy, Read This!
Do you hand out goodies on Halloween? Here’s something to think about before you stock up.
Petroleum-based synthetic food dyes, the preservative sodium benzoate and aspartame are in a lot of the candy that we hand out to trick-or-treaters. Studies have shown that these dyes can trigger hyperactivity and allergic reactions in sensitive children.
The FDA acknowledges that there is a problem, because they have a committee looking into the evidence linking the dyes to behavioral disorders. But they still haven’t forced food companies like Kraft, Wal-Mart, Mars and Coca-Cola to remove these things from their products or even require them to place a warning notice on labels.
Here’s the stunner: Those same companies have voluntarily removed many of these things from the products they sell in Europe. Yes, that’s right. M&M’s loaded with artificial dyes are apparently hazardous to the health of kids in Europe… but not here at home.
Kraft, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart and Mars removed these ingredients from their products sold in Europe but not here. Why not?
Before you buy your Halloween candy, read the ingredient label and don’t buy products that contain sodium benzoate and aspartame and artificial dyes Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has an amazing amount of information about this issue. They’ve started an online petition to get the artificial dye out of M&Ms. Click here to find out more!
It seems Mars still havn’t done anything about this, Nestle are removing artificials, but we still need to put pressure on Mars.
(Actually visiting from SITS Monday’s “About Page” LinkUp – You’re the post ahead of me! — I couldn’t find a way to directly email you, so there’s my suggestion. Couldn’t find it anywhere on your blog. Liked the little snippet followed by the longer version. Very clever! But, honestly, it took me halfway through the second section to get it. Really liked your blog layout and post layout. Very organized sidebar and I love that! Sorry again to have to post here. No where else to send you feedback!)
That is interesting bit of knowledge to share with us. Thank you for the information.
There are tons of other things you can give out… Thanks for reading!
What candies to you suggest we buy? Is there a list of good alternatives? Going to do a little research now… thanks for getting me thinking!
This is a tough one because some of the candy that is dye free has nuts… which is another allergy hit! Then you have all the gluten and dairy allergies. Hershey Chocolate is a popular choice, but it, too, has an artificial flavor!
I’ve always thought the ingredients list on most candies was more than a mouthful.
Awareness really is key and you’re smart to share.
Thank you for linking to Super Sunday Sync. 🙂