Halloween treats to avoid: Candy Corn
Three color candy imitating corn is popular in North America around Halloween since 19 century. I don’t know what they made the Candy Corn from in good old times but today’s Candy Corn that you can buy at CVS for $0.99 a bag, I cannot recommend for trick-or-treating. We expect that sugar contributes heavily into the weight of a candy, but what makes a big difference is what they add for taste, flavor and color.
DyeDiet Doesn’t Buy It!
Candy Corn: Risk, Nutrition and Dye Content
Every serving of 24 Candy Corns contains 34 g of sugar and combined 30 mg of three artificial food colors (105 mg per whole container):
- Yellow 5 – an azo dye
- Yellow 6 – another azo dye and
- Red 3 (Erythrosine) – a highly iodinated chemical, which, according to the Wikipedia, was temporarily banned by FDA in 1990 referred to a research indicating that the food colorant have been found to cause cancer in rats. For now erythrosine is in the American food again without any restriction; that is the toxicology experiment on the population is going on and I do not recommend to volunteer. Read PDF files Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks and Behavior, Learning and Health: The Dietary Connection.
While unknown amount of honey and proteins (nutrients, green segments) are also listed among the ingredients, the Nutrition Facts chart shows 0 g protein. For this reason the assumption that modern day’s Candy Corn is simply chemically colored sugar should be very close to the truth. There is too much red in the DyeDiet diagram indicating high chemical risk DDFI = 31/15 ~ 2 and miserable nutritional value of DDNF = 15/44 ~ 0.3.
Bottom line. If we do care about our children and the future of this country, we will do whatever is possible to avoid needless risks associated with so many strange chemicals deliberately added into our food. This is easy: Not to buy chemically polluted products even (or especially!) if they are sweetened with lots of sugar. Even Jelly Belly Company eventually came to realization that American children do deserve nutritious candies which can be and should be produced and offered. Have a healthy Halloween!
Category: Candy, Food Dyes Exposure, Food Terrorism
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