Many sweets and chocolates sold in the UK, especially children's sweets, contain harmful chemicals.

Never mind the sugar! Are our children being poisoned by their sweets?
article by Alex Renton in the Daily Mail

I've only just come across this interesting article, which was published on Jan 1st this year, but better late than never...(o:

I do hope you will read all of the original article because it contains such a lot of information important in safeguarding children's health. - Here is an extract:

"During my investigation, I found dangerous colourings and preservatives in famous names such as Cadbury Roses chocolates, Maynards, Wrigley's gum, Jawbreakers, Jelly Babies, Kiddies Mix, Refreshers, Lovehearts, Hubba Bubba bubble gum and Fizz Bombs, as well as a huge range of corner-shop sweets sold as Nisha's or Family Favourites.

Novelty sweets branded on Bratz dolls and cartoon character Scooby-Doo had them too. A build-it-yourself gingerbread house from the John Lewis toy department had more bad dyes than any other item I found.

If it's cheaply made and highly coloured, it seems, it's more likely than not to have an 'azo-dye' (a synthetic nitrogen-based compound dye) in it - and that includes all the children's favourites: the snakes, marshmallows and bootlaces sold loose in corner shops.

The chief villains - the ones everyone agrees are dangerous - are mainly colours derived from coal tar. These are known as the 'Dirty Six' and go under the names sunset yellow (or E number 110), carmoisine (E122), tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red (E129).

They're reds and yellows, and commonly found in sweets, jellies, ice lollies, fizzy drinks and many obviously coloured foods, such as icing on cakes. Three of them have been linked with asthma and other allergies. Many of them are banned in medicines, or must carry warnings.

All of them, government scientists now agree, can cause or exacerbate hyperactivity or attention disorder.

For my daughter - who's pretty busy, not hyperactive - the worry is what's known as the cocktail effect: these colourings combined with commonly used benzoate preservatives (which go under E numbers 210 to 219) may exacerbate other allergic conditions as well as hyperactivity.

The benzoates, according to the FSA, are thought to worsen symptoms of asthma and eczema in children who have these conditions - and they're banned in food products for the under-threes."

You may like also to visit http://www.actiononadditives.com/Home/

A ban on six food additives linked to hyperactivity in children has reportedly been backed by the Government, signalling an end to green mushy peas.

Ban on food additives 'supported by ministers'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Ministers have agreed that if food manufacturers do not voluntarily phase out the additives, which the Food Standards Agency asked them to stop using earlier this year, they will pursue a ban through law, according to the BBC.

One of the additives is used to give mushy peas their bright green colour. Without it, the takeaway staple is a murky grey. Manufacturers have so far been unable to find an effective alternative.

The Food Standards Agency request came after researchers from Southampton University found last September that children behaved erratically and lost concentration after they consumed the additives, which are also commonly found in fizzy drinks, sweets and processed food.

The additives are Allura red (E129), an orange/red dye; Carmoisine (E122), a red colouring in jellies; Ponceau 4R (E124), a red colouring; Quinoline yellow (E104), a yellow colouring; Sunset yellow (E110), a colouring often found in squashes; and Tartrazine (E102), a colouring found in fizzy drinks, lollies and mushy peas."

Well it will be good if/when these additives do get banned, but in my opinion it is much more urgent for children's health to get rid of added salt from children's food.

Children and Obesity

See Sodium in foods

vulnerable groups

'Artificial colourings as harmful as leaded petrol for children'

'Artificial colourings as harmful as leaded petrol for children'

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Artificial colourings could be removed from hundreds of food products after researchers found that they may be almost as harmful to children's development as leaded petrol.

The additives, found in a host of sweets and soft drinks, have been linked to behavioural problems. But a team at Southampton University, carrying out a £750,000 study for the Food Standards Agency, (FSA) suggested seven colourings, including tartrazine and sunset yellow, could also affect children's intelligence by up to five IQ points.

The board of the FSA, the industry's governing body, will meet on Thursday to consider recommendations from its officials that manufacturers should voluntarily remove six of the E numbers from their products while further research is carried out on the seventh, sodium benzoate. They would be urged to use natural replacements.

The Southampton study was published in September but the FSA ignored calls for swift action after the Committee on Toxicology said additives had only a moderate effect on some children.

Claims that the colourings were virtually as damaging as lead emerged when the leader of the research, Professor Jim Stevenson, wrote to the FSA demanding immediate action."

"The additives linked to hyperactive behaviour are:

• Tartrazine (E102): Yellow food colouring found in mushy peas and candy floss, banned from all foods and drinks for under-threes.

• Quinoline yellow (E104): Food colouring found in squash, flu capsules

• Sunset yellow (E110): Orange yellow colouring found in bubble gum and jelly babies.

• Carmoisine (E122): Red food colouring found in throat lozenges

• Ponceau 4R (E124): Red food colouring found in pear drops and bombay mix

• Allura red (E129): Red food colouring found in fruit jelly sweets and lollipops.

• Sodium benzoate (E211): Artificial preservative found in squash, fizzy drinks and cough syrup"

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has ruled against the Food Commission's calls for a complete ban on food additives.

Food campaigners are up in arms following the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ruling against Food Commission's calls for a complete ban on food additives. The call for a complete ban was made last week when the Food Commission identified Cadbury as having the most products that contain one or more of the seven food additives that contribute to increased hyperactivity in children. This includes products such as Cadbury Creme Egg, which is coloured with Sunset Yellow (E110), one of the additives that the Action on Additives says should be banned from children's food. The EFSA says that the UK study provides limited evidence that the additives "had a small and statistically significant effect on activity and attention in some children selected from the general population."
Read article in Marketing Week magazine (UK)
Comment: As is also the case with pesticides, many artificial additives are manufactured by some of the same pharmaceutical and chemical companies that would like to ban vitamin supplements and force GM foods onto our dinner plates.

Food additives that could be damaging your children

Warning over food additives - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Parents are being advised to cut several food additives commonly found in sweets and soft drinks from their children’s diets until the publication of a new study which is expected to link the “E numbers” to behavioural problems.

The latest study, conducted for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), is thought likely to back up earlier research which raised doubts about the safety of some food colourings and a widely-used preservative. "

"A source at the university told the food industry magazine The Grocer last week that their findings supported those of another FSA study seven years ago, which linked the additives to problems such as hyperactivity, lack of concentration, temper tantrums and allergic reactions. "

"The colours, tested on three year olds and eight-to-nine year olds, were tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129). The preservative tested was sodium benzoate (E211), which is found in many sweets, drinks and processed foods in the UK.

The additives are all approved for use by the EU, although some of the colours are banned in the US and Scandinavian countries.

The Hyperactive Children’s Support Group (HACSG), a charity which advocates a dietary approach to the problem of hyperactivity, has long recommended that some of them should be completely withdrawn from children’s diets. "

You can further protect your children's health by minimising their intake of salt. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)