June 2025 Active Life Newsletter – Dying over food Dyes -
The eyes have it! Do they? What about the old saying, “My eyes were bigger than my stomach.” With that we mean we put too much food on our plate and the stomach is full before the food is gone. While I’m pondering such things how much does what food looks like affect how food tastes? In regards to food coloring it is sad to read the studies that say fake color affects taste.
My college dormitory used to serve Red Velvet Chocolate Cake. It was fabulous, one of the best I remember ever tasting. Woe to me when I found out an entire bottle of red food coloring was what made this chocolate cake reddish. Not beets, or skins or red grapes (like red wine) or cherries, raspberries etc. Red Dye number whatever. Now adays what I can buy in a grocery store doesn’t even come close to the flavor and texture of that dessert. But the color is the same. I find that interesting. BTW I do have the recipe for that cake. I bought the cook book from the college. Let me know if you’re interested.
One of my very first memories of starting practice here in Woodland Park was when a mother and a young boy came in. He was highly allergic to many things. He had sores on the skin around his mouth. His mother was sure it was one thing but the boy insisted it was the red dye on a candy cane he had eaten. Using the leg check I could test for a reaction but I had to find something with red dye in it. There was an old piece of Hubba Bubba bubble gum in the office. There also was a packet of white sugar, a piece of chocolate, a jar of peanut butter all in the back room. We used those to test for other theories we had. I laid the little boy on his tummy on the table and placed these one by one on his back without telling him which. His leg shortened up for the pink bubble gum. Both his mother and I were very surprised. That memory has stuck with me to know there is something toxic in red dye that some people are more sensitive to than others.
I read this week in Epoch Times (No 564 ) some history on the use of man made dyes or coloring. The first was in 1856 by an 18 yr. old chemist William Henry Perkins. He was looking for a cure to help people with malaria using coal tar compounds. His teacher August Wilhelm von Hofmann had a hypothesis that such a thing might be possible. He ended up with a brown sludge, not a success. As he washed out the beaker he noticed there was a bright purple residue. This became the world’s first synthetic dye which colored cloth ‘mauve’. Soon other synthetic dyes became available.
Natural dyes had been around for eons. Natural colors are affected by changing pH, moisture, temperature, climate and seasons. Those that came from fruits, vegies, clay, plants, and indigo. Indigo required an arduous extraction process which made it expensive. Then there is the naturally occurring color in food that changes in different seasons. The yolks of eggs are much brighter yellow if the chicken that laid it had grass and bugs to eat with the typical chicken food. The color of butter will be more yellow in the summer if the cows have green grass to eat. Soil can affect that grass too. Places where the grass has better soil have calmer animals because the mineral content helps the animal’s nervous system. The comparison was made that the horses in Kentucky are feistier and better race horses than the calm horses in Wisconsin and they think it’s because of the soil content which affects the plants the horses eat.
The industrial age, the need to package foods for longer storage times, plus the excitement that a new color can bring caused a surge in other chemists looking for ‘dyes’ and what they could use them for. Synthetic dyes are being added to about everything these days and the US recently announced the removal of them from food. I say, ‘It’s about time.’ Back in the 1880’s there was a Bureau of Chemistry as a branch of the Agriculture Department. This would later become the Food and Drug Administration. (FDA). Sodium sulfites and sodium nitrites were added to meats to preserve their color. They were ‘deemed relatively harmless.’ (Many will argue that.) More scary coloring enhancers were toxic metals such as lead in cheese and candy. Copper arsenate added to pickles to make them look green and fresh. Reports of deaths resulted from these and the use of them was shut down even way back then. Interestingly when the dairy industry first started using carrot juice and extracts of plant seeds called annatto to give butter the same yellow color in winter as it naturally had in summer this was protested. In 1907 the Bureau of Chemistry head Harvey Wiley wrote that “All such dyeing materials are reprehensible, both on account of the danger to health and deception.”
At that time there was a Commissioner Martin Makary who was fighting for food integrity about like our current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The fight continues although the fighters have to tag team through time. It was 1906 when congress passed a bill prohibiting the use of poisonous or dangerous colors in food. The newly formed FDA approved seven synthetic food dyes. After new animal studies most of these would be banned in the 1950’s. ‘Toxic effects’ were noted even then.
In 1950 the banning started when many children became ill after eating Halloween candy which contained Orange No. 1. This prompted hearings and the FDA re-evaluated all approved color additives especially synthetic dyes. Natural colorings can cause problems too. I’ve had patients in my office say they are allergic to turmeric. Tumeric is used as a yellow coloring agent in many dairy products. The Egg Nog that hits the market in November is a prime example. In 2016 a study estimated more than 40 percent of products marketed to children in grocery stores contained artificial colors. The impact on children is more profound for at least a couple reasons. Since children are small the dose of coloring has more effect ‘per drop.’ For example a drop of Tylenol will lower a babies fever because it weighs less than twenty pounds. The ten year old at 70 lbs. will need a higher dose to get the same effect. Dose per pound is how we dole out medicines. The other main reason is children are growing and their constant need for good nutrition at each stage both for mind and body demands scrutinized standards.
I remember several years ago seeing and tasting my first ‘clear cola’ that was not colored by ‘caramel coloring at a natural food store. When I worked at a ‘Pouring School’ and we had to refill the bottles with water and add a specific number of drops of ‘caramel coloring’ to the bottles to mimic whiskey vs brandy or scotch. “It’s just coloring.” Currently three synthetic food dyes have been banned in 2025. Particularly yellow and red which account for 90 percent of all the dyes used in the USA. Research of how they affect children is said to be ‘sketchy’. (Pause for artists, red and yellow make orange. Is this history repeating?) School nurses tell me after ‘sugary’ holidays like Easter and Halloween that the number of sick children that come to their office definitely increases. Is it JUST sugar?
As I read about the companies that want to slow down the phasing out of colors I have little sympathy. They shouldn’t have added them in the first place. The public can retrain their mind/eye/taste standards to be repelled by overly dyed food and drink. Put a little marketing behind it and people will be glad for the change.
Happy Summer!
The eyes have it! Do they? What about the old saying, “My eyes were bigger than my stomach.” With that we mean we put too much food on our plate and the stomach is full before the food is gone. While I’m pondering such things how much does what food looks like affect how food tastes? In regards to food coloring it is sad to read the studies that say fake color affects taste.
My college dormitory used to serve Red Velvet Chocolate Cake. It was fabulous, one of the best I remember ever tasting. Woe to me when I found out an entire bottle of red food coloring was what made this chocolate cake reddish. Not beets, or skins or red grapes (like red wine) or cherries, raspberries etc. Red Dye number whatever. Now adays what I can buy in a grocery store doesn’t even come close to the flavor and texture of that dessert. But the color is the same. I find that interesting. BTW I do have the recipe for that cake. I bought the cook book from the college. Let me know if you’re interested.
One of my very first memories of starting practice here in Woodland Park was when a mother and a young boy came in. He was highly allergic to many things. He had sores on the skin around his mouth. His mother was sure it was one thing but the boy insisted it was the red dye on a candy cane he had eaten. Using the leg check I could test for a reaction but I had to find something with red dye in it. There was an old piece of Hubba Bubba bubble gum in the office. There also was a packet of white sugar, a piece of chocolate, a jar of peanut butter all in the back room. We used those to test for other theories we had. I laid the little boy on his tummy on the table and placed these one by one on his back without telling him which. His leg shortened up for the pink bubble gum. Both his mother and I were very surprised. That memory has stuck with me to know there is something toxic in red dye that some people are more sensitive to than others.
I read this week in Epoch Times (No 564 ) some history on the use of man made dyes or coloring. The first was in 1856 by an 18 yr. old chemist William Henry Perkins. He was looking for a cure to help people with malaria using coal tar compounds. His teacher August Wilhelm von Hofmann had a hypothesis that such a thing might be possible. He ended up with a brown sludge, not a success. As he washed out the beaker he noticed there was a bright purple residue. This became the world’s first synthetic dye which colored cloth ‘mauve’. Soon other synthetic dyes became available.
Natural dyes had been around for eons. Natural colors are affected by changing pH, moisture, temperature, climate and seasons. Those that came from fruits, vegies, clay, plants, and indigo. Indigo required an arduous extraction process which made it expensive. Then there is the naturally occurring color in food that changes in different seasons. The yolks of eggs are much brighter yellow if the chicken that laid it had grass and bugs to eat with the typical chicken food. The color of butter will be more yellow in the summer if the cows have green grass to eat. Soil can affect that grass too. Places where the grass has better soil have calmer animals because the mineral content helps the animal’s nervous system. The comparison was made that the horses in Kentucky are feistier and better race horses than the calm horses in Wisconsin and they think it’s because of the soil content which affects the plants the horses eat.
The industrial age, the need to package foods for longer storage times, plus the excitement that a new color can bring caused a surge in other chemists looking for ‘dyes’ and what they could use them for. Synthetic dyes are being added to about everything these days and the US recently announced the removal of them from food. I say, ‘It’s about time.’ Back in the 1880’s there was a Bureau of Chemistry as a branch of the Agriculture Department. This would later become the Food and Drug Administration. (FDA). Sodium sulfites and sodium nitrites were added to meats to preserve their color. They were ‘deemed relatively harmless.’ (Many will argue that.) More scary coloring enhancers were toxic metals such as lead in cheese and candy. Copper arsenate added to pickles to make them look green and fresh. Reports of deaths resulted from these and the use of them was shut down even way back then. Interestingly when the dairy industry first started using carrot juice and extracts of plant seeds called annatto to give butter the same yellow color in winter as it naturally had in summer this was protested. In 1907 the Bureau of Chemistry head Harvey Wiley wrote that “All such dyeing materials are reprehensible, both on account of the danger to health and deception.”
At that time there was a Commissioner Martin Makary who was fighting for food integrity about like our current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The fight continues although the fighters have to tag team through time. It was 1906 when congress passed a bill prohibiting the use of poisonous or dangerous colors in food. The newly formed FDA approved seven synthetic food dyes. After new animal studies most of these would be banned in the 1950’s. ‘Toxic effects’ were noted even then.
In 1950 the banning started when many children became ill after eating Halloween candy which contained Orange No. 1. This prompted hearings and the FDA re-evaluated all approved color additives especially synthetic dyes. Natural colorings can cause problems too. I’ve had patients in my office say they are allergic to turmeric. Tumeric is used as a yellow coloring agent in many dairy products. The Egg Nog that hits the market in November is a prime example. In 2016 a study estimated more than 40 percent of products marketed to children in grocery stores contained artificial colors. The impact on children is more profound for at least a couple reasons. Since children are small the dose of coloring has more effect ‘per drop.’ For example a drop of Tylenol will lower a babies fever because it weighs less than twenty pounds. The ten year old at 70 lbs. will need a higher dose to get the same effect. Dose per pound is how we dole out medicines. The other main reason is children are growing and their constant need for good nutrition at each stage both for mind and body demands scrutinized standards.
I remember several years ago seeing and tasting my first ‘clear cola’ that was not colored by ‘caramel coloring at a natural food store. When I worked at a ‘Pouring School’ and we had to refill the bottles with water and add a specific number of drops of ‘caramel coloring’ to the bottles to mimic whiskey vs brandy or scotch. “It’s just coloring.” Currently three synthetic food dyes have been banned in 2025. Particularly yellow and red which account for 90 percent of all the dyes used in the USA. Research of how they affect children is said to be ‘sketchy’. (Pause for artists, red and yellow make orange. Is this history repeating?) School nurses tell me after ‘sugary’ holidays like Easter and Halloween that the number of sick children that come to their office definitely increases. Is it JUST sugar?
As I read about the companies that want to slow down the phasing out of colors I have little sympathy. They shouldn’t have added them in the first place. The public can retrain their mind/eye/taste standards to be repelled by overly dyed food and drink. Put a little marketing behind it and people will be glad for the change.
Happy Summer!
