Guest guest Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 We all know, or have, at least one child who is sensitive or allergic to food additives. The following excerpt from the Feingold organization (www.feingold.org) has a simple action that can help millions of children: Last month I told you about the editorial in the British Medical Journal by Andrew Kemp, Professor of Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Children' Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Dr. Kemp maintained that a diet without artificial colorings, etc., should not be considered " alternative. " Rather, he said, a dye-free, preservative-free diet should be part of standard treatment for children with ADHD. The McCann study was published last fall, showing that even " normal " children exhibit hyperactive symptoms and difficulty concentrating when exposed to a modest amount of food dyes and a preservative. Almost immediately, and in response to a strong media campaign, the big supermarket chains in England fell over each other competing to see who would be the fastest to get the additives out of their house brands before the end of the year. Now, with editorials and articles in prestigious medical journals like the BMJ supporting the McCann research, the big multinational companies (Mars candies, McDonalds, Kellogg's, Kraft etc) are coming around -- in England, anyway. Is it fair that these companies -- these AMERICAN companies -- will color their candy and cereal with safe natural colorings to sell in Europe, while continuing to dump their trashy candy and cereal colored with dyes like Red #40 and Yellow #5 on our American kids? Let's change this now. Scroll down below this email to find a sample letter which you can copy and paste into the forms to send by email or fax to your senators and representatives. You can find their addresses here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml Remember to add the name of the person you are writing to at the top of the letter, and your own name and address at the bottom. Feel free to add anything else you like - perhaps write about why this is important to you, or why you think this should be important to the government. Most of the time you will have to use a form rather than getting an actual email address. Watch for a word or character limit posted on some of the forms, so your message won't end up cut off before the end. At the moment, the message contains 286 words (1,847 characters). Dear _________ I am writing to ask you to hold hearings and to pass a law banning artificial food dyes. Since 1973, many studies in the US and abroad have shown that these petroleum-based chemicals can trigger behavior problems in children. A recent meta-analysis (Schab 2004) concluded “our results strongly suggest an association between ingestion of AFCs (artificial food colorings) and hyperactivity” and called for “ambitious vigil against avoidable harmful exposures.” In one study, for example, 75% of 200 hyperactive children improved on a diet without the dyes (Rowe 1994). Also in 2004, a British government-sponsored study of 277 toddlers linked colorings and a preservative to behavioral changes (Bateman 2004). The authors called for removing these chemicals from the diet of all children. A subsequent British government-sponsored study of several hundred toddlers and older children (McCann 2007) found that the food dyes cause overactivity, impulsiveness, and inattention. The researchers wrote, “These findings show that adverse effects . . . can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity.” Responding to that research, the British Food Standards Agency is urging manufacturers to color their foods with safe natural substances. The European Parliament is now expected to ban artificial dyes in foods for small children and require a warning label on other foods containing these dyes. Kraft, McDonald’s, Kellogg, Mars and other multinational companies are removing the dyes from food sold in the UK – but not in the US. In light of the research showing that these petroleum-based dyes pose some health risk to all children, with no benefits to any children, I urge you to protect American children and their families by passing legislation to end their use in the US. Sincerely, Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 This is fantastic Robin, thank you for sending this! I just sent my letters. Missie On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 7:04 AM, robin koloms <rkoloms wrote: > We all know, or have, at least one child who is sensitive or allergic to food additives. The following excerpt from the Feingold organization (www.feingold.org) has a simple action that can help millions of children: > > > Last month I told you about the editorial in the British Medical Journal by Andrew Kemp, Professor of Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Children' Hospital in Sydney, Australia. > Dr. Kemp maintained that a diet without artificial colorings, etc., should not be considered " alternative. " Rather, he said, a dye-free, preservative-free diet should be part of standard treatment for children with ADHD. The McCann study was published last fall, showing that even " normal " children exhibit hyperactive symptoms and difficulty concentrating when exposed to a modest amount of food dyes and a preservative. Almost immediately, and in response to a strong media campaign, the big supermarket chains in England fell over each other competing to see who would be the fastest to get the additives out of their house brands before the end of the year. Now, with editorials and articles in prestigious medical journals like the BMJ supporting the McCann research, the big multinational companies > (Mars candies, McDonalds, Kellogg's, Kraft etc) are coming around -- in England, anyway. > Is it fair that these companies -- these AMERICAN companies -- will color their candy and cereal with safe natural colorings to sell in Europe, while continuing to dump their trashy candy and cereal colored with dyes like Red #40 and Yellow #5 on our American kids? Let's change this now. > Scroll down below this email to find a sample letter which you can copy and paste into the forms to send by email or fax to your senators and representatives. You can find their addresses here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml > > Remember to add the name of the person you are writing to at the top of the letter, and your own name and address at the bottom. Feel free to add anything else you like - perhaps write about why this is important to you, or why you think this should be important to the government. Most of the time you will have to use a form rather than getting an actual email address. Watch for a word or character limit posted on some of the forms, so your message won't end up cut off before the end. At the moment, the message contains 286 words (1,847 characters). > > Dear _________ > > I am writing to ask you to hold hearings and to pass a law banning artificial food dyes. > Since 1973, many studies in the US and abroad have shown that these petroleum-based chemicals can trigger behavior problems in children. A recent meta-analysis (Schab 2004) concluded " our results strongly suggest an association between ingestion of AFCs (artificial food colorings) and hyperactivity " and called for " ambitious vigil against avoidable harmful exposures. " In one study, for example, 75% of 200 hyperactive children improved on a diet without the dyes (Rowe 1994). > Also in 2004, a British government-sponsored study of 277 toddlers linked colorings and a preservative to behavioral changes (Bateman 2004). The authors called for removing these chemicals from the diet of all children. A subsequent British government-sponsored study of several hundred toddlers > and older children (McCann 2007) found that the food dyes cause overactivity, impulsiveness, and inattention. The researchers wrote, " These findings show that adverse effects . . . can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity. " > Responding to that research, the British Food Standards Agency is urging manufacturers to color their foods with safe natural substances. The European Parliament is now expected to ban artificial dyes in foods for small children and require a warning label on other foods containing these dyes. Kraft, McDonald's, Kellogg, Mars and other multinational companies are removing the dyes from food sold in the UK – but not in the US. > In light of the research showing that these petroleum-based dyes pose some health risk to all children, with no benefits to any children, I urge you to protect American children and their families by passing legislation to end their use in the US. > > Sincerely, > Robin > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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