#40 Red Dye.... Harmful or Harmless

I have a friend that her boy was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.  Struggling with this new found information she turned to the doctor, a pediatric neurologist, for some advice on helping him. The best advise she got was to AVOID #40 red dye.  I wish you could all have seen the difference in her son. It was night and day, he would still have some spells but he was manageable. So I decided well if it effected him so much maybe it's effecting my children. So I went searching for the things that have #40 red dye. Here is a small list of cereal that contain it:Kix Berry Berry, Lucky Charms, Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs,Trix,Hunny B's, Mickey's Magix, Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries, and Cap'n Crunch Choco Donuts. Some of these surprised me like the honey bunches of oats!!!! Check this link out to see if your favorite snack or food is on here. http://www.red40.com/pages/foods/index.html

I loved this next website. http://www.red40.com/pages/foods/index.html It really took a step back and said, " Is red dye really going to kill you? No but it Can do damage."  I was really interested in the changes in DNA that their studies have found. There is some news that the FDA will make red dye illegal to use next year, so hopefully we won't have to worry but it's better to be safe now, right?

This is the one thing that I found that could change my family atmosphere the quickest.  I bought Trix one day just because the kids were being so good I wanted to reward them. I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!! All three of my children had melt downs that day.  The Trix are still in my pantry waiting to be given away. Some kids don't really have a change in mood/behavior. My daughter doesn't really have a struggle with it but my son will struggle all day if he consumes it.  This doesn't cost anything and in fact may help save money. If your family needs their snacks look at the labels and find ones without red dye. For instance Doritos chips have red dye but Cheetos do not.

Small and simply changes make HUGE differences in our family life. Try it in yours. Let me know what you find in your pantry with #40 red dye.