The Doctor of the Future: Color your plate with veggies, not dyes!!

Let me preface this by saying I was never exposed to ADHD drugs until I got to college. When I was in high school studying was never an issue, students were never under any pressure to make a certain grade. Now that I am in college, ADHD meds run rampant, it's almost the norm to see a student in the library for hours on some sort of medicine. For most ADHD patients it's legitimately a problem and medicine is their choice, for some its their way to get that A on the test, and for others its just a business.

Heart Attack, Stroke, Death?

Doctors have worried for a long time about prescribing these medications to patients, especially children. Heart attack, stroke, and sudden death has been in the back of many doctors minds when prescribing these medications. These medications increase the flow of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, chemicals that carry the signals between neurons (cells of the nervous system). This can result in an increase in a person’s ability to focus over extended periods of time. In a recent study funded by the FDA, parents have been reassured that these side effects are pretty slim. Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta and Strattera are some of the medicines used to treat ADHD and have now been labeled with a black box warning along with the American Heart Association advising to screen children with an EKG before prescribing. (SCARY!)

"There's such strong feelings around these drugs" and whether they are overused in children who might be helped by behavioral therapy alone, Cooper said. "The potential safety questions have added another layer of concern."

"His study was aimed at resolving the safety question. Researchers used medical records from four big health plans covering more than 1.2 million people ages 2 through 24. They found 81 cases of serious heart problems from 1998 through 2005 among all people in the study."-- USA TODAY

With around 5 million children diagnosed with ADHD and 2.7 million prescribed to some sort of medicine, I was curious to see maybe if there was some underlying cause of the dramatic increase of these numbers.

Red Dye #... excuse me?
Artificial food dyes are made from petroleum and approved for use by the FDA to enhance the color of processed foods. After researching food dyes, I can not tell you why they have been approved... but I suppose this is just another example of the FDA's brilliant work. This is such a controversial topic with numerous studies done on it, none of which are really 100% conclusive. This is where I say, "You be the judge."
For years, mothers have noticed their child's hyperactivity, decrease in attention span, dropping school grades , and overall reckless behavior at home. Mothers will immediately take the child to the doctor and BAM, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is diagnosed, the prescription is written, and off to the pharmacy you go. $40-$100 a month in ADHD meds alone (per child).
Red Dinos or Blueberries???
I have always been against taking medicines and taking the holistic approach. "Let food be thy medicine." Many patients try "elimination diets" to address the disorder. This means simply cutting out foods and products with dyes in them (dyes have no nutritional value, so this wont hurt you).

"Food dyes are added simply for their color to make foods fun. They serve no health purpose whatsoever," says Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

CSPI wants the FDA to ban eight artificial food dyes. Jacobson is particularly concerned with Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6, which make up 90 percent of the food dyes on the market.Their use has gone up fivefold in the past 50 years. "That's a good indication of how much junk food we're consuming," he says."--NPR.org

When reading a story on NPR.org I read about a young girl who tried the "elimination diet". She started simply with her oatmeal that contained red dinosaurs and substituted them with fresh blueberries. "Suddenly, my world came back together and I could do stuff," Dawnielle says. She went from being the class clown to being the class example.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is asking the FDA to ban these artificial food dyes.

	Dye	Common Name	Found In
Twizzlers	Red No. 40	Allura Red	The most widely used food dye in terms of pounds consumed, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Found in cereal, gelatin, candy, and baked goods.
Mountain Dew	Yellow No. 5	Tartrazine	The second most widely used food dye, according to CSPI. Found in soft drinks, pudding, chips, pickles, honey, mustard, gum, baked goods, gelatin and other foods.
Reese's Pieces	Yellow No. 6	Sunset Yellow	The third most widely used food dye. Found in cereal, orange soda and other beverages, hot chocolate mix, baked goods and many other foods.
Maraschino cherries	Red No. 3	Erythrosine B	Candy, popsicles, cake decoration and other baked goods, maraschino cherries
Blue M&Ms	Blue No. 1	Brilliant Blue	Ice cream, canned peas, candy, drinks, dessert powders, mouthwash
M&Ms (darker blue ones)	Blue No. 2	Indigotine, Indigo Carmine	Widely used to color beverages, candy and other foods.
Cotton candy	Green No. 3	Fast Green FCF	One of the least used food dyes, according to CSPI. Found in canned peas, vegetables, fish, desserts, cotton candy and other candy.
Sausage casing	Orange B		Hot dog and sausage casings. According to CSPI, batches of Orange B haven't been certified for use in at least a decade.