Red dye # something just got put on the banned list.
When my son was little he was hyperactive. The doctor diagnosed him as hyperactive. He was born in 1985. He was a wild child, even as a baby.
My wife read the book, "Why is my child hyperactive." And the short answer is: Hyperactivity is an allergic reaction to 3 foods we eat: 1) Artificial colors, 2) Preservatives, 3) Additives. By removing those 3 things from a child's diet hyperactivity can be reduced to normal activity.
We tried it. That meant absolutely no pre-packaged, store bought, factory processed food. It meant no store bought sweets, or anything. Everything we ate was home made from scratch. We controlled everything. Absolutely no colorings or dyes in the food, and we eliminated the preservatives, and kept track of everything we (and the son) ate.
Within a week he calmed down. In 2 weeks he was "normal!!!!" It worked.
For the next couple years we never deviated. It was hard preparing our own foods, not eating store bought breakfast cereals, pop-tarts, ice cream, candy, and you name it. It was basically fresh meat, fresh vegetables, real butter, whole milk, real sugar (not artificial sweetners), and absolutely no "instant" anything foods.
Log story short, we started re-introducing store bought foods and tracked the ingredients. Then all of a sudden the kid went whacky again. But .... we identified the problem....
You guessed it .... Red food coloring dye. Once we figured that out, we checked the ingredients on all store bought, factory processed foods and anything that had red, a red color, or red dyes in it were off the food list.
The kid made it to his 20's, and to this day, (IF) he eats anything with red in it, he gets hyper. Even as a 40 year old adult now!
Absolutely 100% true story. Why is my kid hyperactive? Artificial colors, Preservatives, and additives. Remove those from the diet and the kid won't be hyper. (But, making the kid pop a pill is soooo much easier than being a responsible adult you know!)
