Adverse Effects Of Artificial Food Coloring

Artificial food coloring agents, or color additives, are substances that added to foods to offset color loss, correct natural color variations, enhance naturally occurring colors or make foods more visually appealing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates artificial food coloring to ensure that they're safe for consumption, but opponents believe that the coloring agents pose adverse effects and should be banned.

Allergic Response

Certain artificial food colorings can cause adverse effects in people who have sensitivities to them. One of them is the coloring FD&C Yellow No. 5, which is commonly used to color drinks, ice cream, candy and other foods. According to the FDA, the coloring may cause hives outbreaks in fewer than one in every 10,000 people. As a result of these findings, the law requires food manufacturers using FD&C Yellow No. 5 to list the coloring on the line of ingredients to help allergic individuals avoid allergic reactions.

Carcinogenic Potential

No research has directly linked consumption of artificial food coloring to increased risk of cancer. However, the Center for Science in the Public Interest condemns most relevant studies for having several major limitations. First, it claims that the studies may have an inherent bias because they are conducted or commissioned by food dye manufacturers. It also criticizes the studies because most haven't lasted longer than two years, making them less likely to find a correlation between the dyes and development of cancer years down the line. Another problem the group finds with the studies is that they only evaluate the safety of individual dyes when a single food or beverage may contain multiple dyes that could negatively interact with each other. The Center for Science in the Public Interest points out that the three dyes used most frequently -- Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 -- contain compounds that have been linked with cancer.

Hyperactivity

No evidence confirms that artificial food coloring causes attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, but more research has linked certain colorings to hyperactivity in children. For instance, a 2007 British Study published in "The Lancet" found that children who had never been diagnosed with attention or hyperactivity disorders still exhibited hyperactive behavior within one hour of consuming a combination of synthetic dyes. More research is necessary before a direct link can be found, but artificial food colorings that may increase hyperactivity children include FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Red No. 40 and D&C Yellow No. 10, according to MayoClinic.com.

Considerations

Although the existing research on artificial food colorings isn't comprehensive, you can still benefit from cutting most dyed foods and beverages from your diet. Many foods and drinks that contain dyes are processed and unhealthy in other ways. For instance, they generally contain excess levels of sugar and heart-unhealthy fats. If you still want to enjoy a bag of fruit snacks or a can of soda from time to time, look for foods labeled with the green-and-white USDA-certified organic emblem, recommends "EatingWell" magazine. Also look for foods with natural colorants such as beet, capsanthin and carotenes. Foods that list "artificial color" as an ingredient or mention "color added" on their labels actually use nature-derived pigments because foods using synthetic colorings are obligated to list them by name.