Vani Hari and Lisa Leake, two mothers of young children from North Carolina, have started a petition against Kraft and their Macaroni & Cheese. The reason? The use of the potentially harmful synthetic food colorings Yellow #5 and Yellow #6 – two food colorings containing the carncigogen benzidine 4-amino-buphenyl which is derived from coal tar and petrochemicals.
The FDA says that there is “insufficient evidence” that synthetic food coloring additives cause hyperactivity, asthma, migraines or other health risks such as cancer although there is a “trend” that requires “more research”. Simple logic suggests that human beings were not made to consume coal tar and petrochemicals, the base components of synthetic food coloring. These colorings are actively used in foods marketed to children with an increasing number of reports linking these colorings with ADHD. Others believe that this type of disregard toward long-term health risks is in part responsible for increased cancers in society.
In 2007 and again in 2010, the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom did a study of these synthetic additives along with the preservative Sodium Benzoate. Their findings were that hyperactivity in their test groups of 3, 8 and 9 year-olds all showed higher hyperactivity than the general population. Critics state that these studies were not adequately constructed and need to be discounted as they might be biased. Dr. Benjamin Feingold’s studies on the subject in the mid-seventies are also discounted because of inconsistencies in his findings.
Rather than discount these studies and an alarming “trend”, shouldn’t the FDA commission studies to find out the truth?
For now, the best advice is to avoid any food with any artificial or synthetic food coloring.
If you want to join the petition against this practice at Kraft, go to www.Change.org and search for Kraft Mac and Cheese.
