Dyed Dried Papaya

How much artificial colors are in dried fruits?

I am not sure about you but I knew that beyond countless sodas and candy the food dyes are also added to chewing gum, pickles, mustard and even fresh salmon. Do you know that Citrus Red No. 2 azo dye banned as a suspected carcinogen is still in use for coloring the skins of oranges under the FDA approval? And what if a mom decides to make candied orange peels and then treat her lovely babies to them? She better be aware of the carcinogen in the peel! But I would never imagine finding staggering amount of the artificial colors added to a dried fruit!

Yes, they add FD&C Yellow 5 and FD&C Yellow 6 to “improve” dry natural papaya! Isn’t this crazy?

Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 come out of papaya into water

Please note that the detected amounts are a bit lower than the actual ones because we were unable to fully extract the dyes out of the solids. Anyway, at least 270 mg (and possibly ~ 300 mg) of the two combined azo dyes seem to be what you and your children swallow with every 11 OZ of the SunTree papaya.

Why do they add colors?

Guess what? They do add food colorants to please YOU! Based on the food industry test sales, YOU, the consumer, always prefer a brighter colored food over its naturally pale counterparts. Natural does not always mean safer than artificial but as to the food dyes, this is the case. Food manufacturers do not have to put the controversial synthetic food colorants into your children’s food but they CHOOSE to do so for bigger profits. They do not tell you what kind of disorders you and your children will be suffering over the years of the “dye diet”; they simply don’t know. Will it be autism, allergies, asthma, cancers, ADHD, poor memory, Alzheimer’s disease or something else; leading to broken careers and lives? No one can tell you. Time only will show. (See the Feingold Association report: Behavior, Learning and Health). This clearly means that every time YOU are buying their colored stuff, YOU agree to take part in the long term toxicology experiment conducting on YOU and YOUR children as if you are the laboratory animals. Look, normally health problems urge people to volunteer to participate in experimental clinical trials for money paid to them. But when YOU buy artificially colored food YOU pay your money to find out if the food additives you have been consuming for years will cause any health problems to you and your child. Believe me, they will.

Shula Edelkind story

Shula Edelkind is a Research Librarian and Webmaster for the Feingold Association, a nonprofit organization teaching people how to adopt Feingold diet. Here is her story about her son, ADHD and the food colorings you may learn from. Also you can watch Shula’s presentation and the latest video Food Dyes and Behavior: A Different View on YouTube. See more articles on the topic: Dyes in Your Food; Adverse Effects of “Inactive” Ingredients and  Behavior, Learning and Health.

I will soon report how much artificial colors are in the Farmer’s Fruit Mix which I have once erroneously recommended as a healthy alternative.  Sorry about that, I have failed reading the ingredients carefully.

Let’s not to rely on the FDA and the Government but vote out artificial food colorants by not buying food containing them!

Tags: dried fruit, dye diet, food additives, food colors, food dyes, food dyes exposure, papaya

Category: Dried fruit, Food Dyes Exposure