Food Additives & Hyperactivity

Nutrition
1

I used to think that most people who said that artificial food additives were wrong/crazy/ conspiracy theorists. Then I read this article in the Lancet. And now, I’ll significantly increase my avoidance to artificial food additives.

Also note, they indicate sodium benzoate, which I think is in all soft drinks. Meaning, that maybe it isn’t such a good idea to drink diet pop. I do, 2 a day. No longer.

Summary
Background

We undertook a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trial to test whether intake of artificial food colour and additives (AFCA) affected childhood behaviour.

Methods

153 3-year-old and 144 8/9-year-old children were included in the study. The challenge drink contained sodium benzoate and one of two AFCA mixes (A or B) or a placebo mix. The main outcome measure was a global hyperactivity aggregate (GHA), based on aggregated z-scores of observed behaviours and ratings by teachers and parents, plus, for 8/9-year-old children, a computerised test of attention. This clinical trial is registered with Current Controlled Trials (registration number ISRCTN74481308). Analysis was per protocol.

Findings

16 3-year-old children and 14 8/9-year-old children did not complete the study, for reasons unrelated to childhood behaviour. Mix A had a significantly adverse effect compared with placebo in GHA for all 3-year-old children (effect size 0·20 [95% CI 0·01-0·39], p=0·044) but not mix B versus placebo. This result persisted when analysis was restricted to 3-year-old children who consumed more than 85% of juice and had no missing data (0·32 [0·05-0·60], p=0·02). 8/9-year-old children showed a significantly adverse effect when given mix A (0·12 [0·02-0·23], p=0·023) or mix B (0·17 [0·07-0·28], p=0·001) when analysis was restricted to those children consuming at least 85% of drinks with no missing data.

Interpretation

Artificial colours or a sodium benzoate preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the general population.

Affiliations

a. School of Psychology, Department of Child Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
b. School of Medicine, Department of Child Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
c. Department of Paediatrics, Imperial College, London, UK

2

Nobody cares? Are you all to hyperactive to read even just the Interpretation at the end?

3

many man-made organic chemicals are dangerous to human health

news at 11

how the hell is anyone surprised by this ? business looks at their profits first and the safety of their consumers second

4

[quote]cyph31 wrote:
many man-made organic chemicals are dangerous to human health

news at 11

how the hell is anyone surprised by this ? business looks at their profits first and the safety of their consumers second[/quote]

Because food additives generally have to go through a reasonably rigorous testing process and so it’s generally assumed that most are harmless. Maybe these chemicals were grandfathered in before the GRAS status & testing laws/regulations.

Also, sodium benzonate is in tons of soft drinks.

EDIT: and that this is the only “real” (peer reviewed, respected journal) study that proves this.