Last week, I had to revisit the topic of autism, when a very recent and important research correlated the weed-killer, Roundup with the prevalence of autism. The prolific Professor scientist Stefanie Seneff of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) predicted that by the year 2025 one out of two children would be autistic due to the frequent use of Roundup, which ends up in American produce and processed agricultural products. Third World Countries must be using it without restriction.

I also wrote about the excessive additives and chemicals (pesticides) found in Chinese foods and toxic materials (melamine) in baby milk formula. Today, I will discuss synthetic additives, which are freely used by the drug, food, and beverage industries.

Food additives and colorings are causes of allergies in children. I have warned about them several times before in previous Parts of this series of articles. Activists cannot be silenced anymore and conscientious scientists are proving them right with scientific evidence. The harmful effects of the additives are real and not the imagination of the parents. The stir they make is productive and effective.

Lately, it was found that 19 medicines for children contain synthetic colors, which have been scientifically associated with hyperactivity. Just to mention a few, some of these medicines do not require prescription. They are off-the-counter remedies such as Calpol Infant Suspension and Anbesol Teething Gel as well as prescription drugs like Amoxicillin and more. There are many more, which contain additives. Hopefully, they are eliminated from medicines and food.

It is encouraging that recently the United Kingdom placed a ban on artificial colors in children’s medicines.

However, parents are also demanding a ban on artificial chemicals in children’s medication. Hopefully, eventually the US and Saudi Arabia will follow the British and European example and succumb to activist pressure and scientific findings.

The restriction came after the 2005 Southampton study findings, linking seven additives to hyperactivity in children. The additives, known as the Southampton Seven, are six synthetic colorings and one preservative. The following are the Southampton Seven: Tatrazine (E102), Quinoline yellow (E104), Sunset yellow (110), Carmoisine (E122), Ponceau 4R (E124), Allura red (E129), and the preservative Sodium Benzoate (E211). As I mentioned in my earlier articles, most artificial additives are “concealed” under E and number. So, look out for them on food labels.

According to Professor V. Howard of Ulster University and expert on child brain development, “Artificial colors or 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,” so removing the additives from food and medicines becomes a “matter of urgency.”

Thanks to the 2005 study, the Southampton Seven have been removed from medicines, food, and drinks manufactured for 3-year-olds and under. Due to the British Food Standards Agency insistence, food manufacturers stopped adding the seven additives to foods and beverages of children as well.

The drug industry’s rebuttal to the Southampton study and ban on the seven is that medicines are taken in small doses for a limited time, which cannot be of any harm to children. The giant industry Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of Calpol, also retorted that there is “no evidence to suggest additives are associated with hyperactivity when present in medicines.”

The industry claims that the synthetic colors are necessary for pharmacists and doctors to differentiate drugs visually to avoid wasting time reading labels. To make it easier for doctors and pharmacists, innocent children and parents have to suffer the side-effects of such additives.

Apart from the Southampton Seven, there exist many other Es that “conceal” offensive additives. One of them is E5, which represents the color red. Once in the body, it mimics aspirin, causing allergic reactions in susceptible individuals.

The bright orange hue added to Kraft’s Macaroni and Cheese and the vivid colors in chocolate buttons like M&Ms and Smarties have been associated with allergic reactions, hyperactivity, and cancer. While artificial colorings can cause allergic responses and hyperactivity in children, natural plant colors have not been implicated in any of these reactions. Because natural colors cost more than synthetic additives, the food and drug industries are reluctant to make the shift. Kraft and others will have to reconsider the addition of the additives (colors, preservatives, taste enhancers and artificial substitutes), simple sugars, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and over-processed and refined grains to food and beverages in order to protect their market share. Hopefully, soon the giant industry will succumb to consumer pressure and scientific research.

Many savvy competitors have already jumped ship to protect their sales. The other threat to the industry is that aware consumers are willing to pay the extra penny just to have additive-and-toxin-free foods and drinks to save their children from the harmful effects of toxic chemicals and give them healthier food. American meat and chicken industries buckled and stopped giving cattle and birds antibiotics to fatten them when consumers switched to natural farms. They would rather get their money’s worth. Treatment and hospitalization cost much more than healthy organic food, which is much more life-sustaining.

Another health-offending E is E621, which represents the infamous artificial sugar substitute, aspartame, a neurotoxin, which is used universally to substitute sugar in food and beverages. One of aspartame’s damaging ingredients is methyl alcohol, which is converted into the neurotoxin and carcinogen formaldehyde, once it is ingested. In the body, formaldehyde becomes formic acid, the poison fire ants use to attack their enemy. Formaldehyde is only one of its harmful components. Sugar substitutes cause a range of disorders such as mental, nervous system, thyroid, and autoimmune disorders, tumors, seizures, birth defects, and mental retardation, to state a few. I dedicated a good section to it in Part 8.

In the last thirty years, there are more adolescents, young people, and in some countries even 7-year olds smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco. They do that to give themselves a grownup appearance. Most of the time, one or both parents are smokers, influencing the children to follow suit. It also happens due to peer pressure. Cigarette smoking has been implicated in compromising health, leading to lung, throat, and esophageal cancers.

The US has seen a drop in the rate of smoking recently due to bans and restrictions on smoking in public and government buildings, hospitals, airports, restaurants, and confined places. However, in spite of efforts to restrict smoking, it has been found that one third of death-causing cancers in America come from cigarette smoking. The American Cancer Society is urging public health officials to increase efforts to reduce smoking in order to lower the cancer risk.

More than three decades have passed with the death rate from cancer in the US stable at 30 percent.

Not only did it not drop, but has actually increased, especially in women, in spite of the restriction on cigarette smoking. The study indicated an increase in lung cancer among female smokers, but there is a decline in death from causes other than smoking.

The research finding in the journal Annals of Epidemiology in 2010 did not take into account deaths from secondhand smoke, tobacco chewing, and cigar and pipe smoking. Children exposed to secondhand smoke by parents smoking have increased risk of developing respiratory issues and asthma.

N.B.:

Individuals with medical conditions or on medication should consult their physicians when they decide to introduce anything new in their diet even if it is natural.

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