Kale Chips Blog

I stumbled across a news story “Peter Jennings reporting: How to Get Fat Without Really Trying.”  This story is several years old but the ideas are still relevant.  Although as a general rule I don’t watch much TV, this 43 minute report is a good overview of the forces at work in our food supply.  It is fine to say “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” but our entire culture works against this.  Are Americans fat because we don’t know that we should eat our vegetables or because we have allowed our food supply and government to be corrupted to an astonishing degree?

The government spends a whole lot of our taxpayer money telling us to eat more fruits and vegetables.  Yet less than 1% of farm subsidies go to support the growing of these essential foods.  Where does the bulk of farm subsidy money go?  Milk, meat, grains and fats.   This makes these food products artifically cheap and makes healthier foods like fruits and vegetables seem expensive by comparison.  It explains quite simply why fast food chains can have a ‘dollar menu’ and yet the same dollar will only buy one (maybe two) apples at the grocery.

Our largest crop is corn.  Not ‘corn on the cob’ but feed corn, used to make animals fat.  Somewhere along the line it was forgotten that corn is not the natural food choice for cattle.  It became necessary to add antibiotics to factory farmed animals and dairy cows.  In the report, they called this process being ‘cornified’.  What a great term.  Eighty million acres of corn grown with taxpayer money. The rest of the corn is used to make corn syrup.  Since corn syrup comes from heavily subsized corn, it is cheap, cheap, cheap.  Thus, ‘foods’ made from corn are also cheap, cheap, cheap.

Another subsized crop, soybeans, has also been perverted by these subsidies.  Instead of people eating healthy soybeans in their natural state, most of the soybeans grown go to produce soybean oil.  Sure it is vegetable oil but it is a fat.  As stated in the report, with just sweetener (mostly high fructose corn syrup), flour, water, fat and artificial food colorings and flavorings, you can make almost any common American food item.  Pudding, chips, cheese food, cereal, fruity drinks, soda, crackers, cookies, snack bars etc. can all be made from the same base ingredients.  Therefore, they are essentially the same nutritionally.  That is to say, there is none.  What is the difference between a high fructose sweetened cereal and a soda?  You could argue that the cereal usually has some vitamins sprayed on to appease the health conscious moms but they are virtually the same. 

Unfortunately, these low quality, low nutrition foods are what is being pushed in all the groceries in America.  Children are sucking down Gatorades, Go-gurts, and Goldfish in ever increasing amounts.  “If you build it, they will come” has become “if you market it, they will eat it”.  Just stick ‘new’ or ‘natural’ or ‘healthy’ on the label and people will buy, and eat, anything.  It is important to remember that the goal of the food industry is to maximize profit.  How can they do this?  Either make the food cheaper or get people to buy more of it.  Or both.  The fact that Americans need to eat less does not compute in the world of agribusiness. 

Think you are too smart to be caught up in the games played by the food industry?  They don’t need you.  They have gone straight to your kids.  If your kids watch TV (or go to school) they are being directly marketed to and the kids are being induced to “nag” you for the foods the industry is selling.  That’s right, the food industry is consciously trying to increase the ‘nag factor’ to get you to buy their products.  They count on the fact that parents don’t want to fight about food and so will eventually give in.  And guess what? They’re right.  How do we know?  Because the junk is selling far faster than apples and cucumbers.  It has become the cultural norm to eat junk so they have successfully marginalized real food.  Other countries have figured this out and many have very strict limits on what can be shown during kids shows.  In America, our kids are fair game with no protections at all. 

Don’t believe me?  Next time you have a group of 5 to 15 year olds in your kitchen and they ask for a snack (and they will) try putting out a bountiful spread of carrots, cucumbers, blueberries, apple slices and bananas.  Even if they eat some of it (some will, some won’t find anything to their liking) they will still ask for a snack.  Why?  They have been conditioned to think of a snack as something salty, crunchy and/or sweet eaten in unlimited quantities anytime they may be hungry.  I have done this time and time again with almost universal results.  Make no mistake, marketing works.

So, this bears repeating: eat food.  Feed your kids food.  Food doesn’t come in a box or a bag.  Food doesn’t have dancing animals or cartoon characters on it.  Food isn’t neon or day-glo.  Food doesn’t have chemical sounding stuff in the ingredient list.  Nobody gives you coupons to buy real food.  Fill your cart first with food and hopefully you won’t have much room for the other junk.

Celebrity chef to the stars, Tal Ronnen, is consistently a source of quiet wisdom.  I had the chance to hear him speak and watch him cook last year. He has a very calm personality, the opposite of many famous chefs who become larger than life.  He has no trademark “BAM!” to try to reach celebrity status.  For Tal, the end result of making fantastically delicious vegan food is that the world is a better place.  He is a reluctant celebrity, only becoming famous after cooking for Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi, Chrissie Hynde, Arianna Huffington and other big names.

Recently, in an interview in the LA Times, he is quoted as saying ”So many people tell me, ‘I could be a vegan if it weren’t for bacon,’ and I tell them, ‘Be a “vegan” who eats bacon,’” Ronnen sighs. “Real militant vegans hate when I say that. But if you are cutting back on the amount of meat that you eat, you’re still doing something great for your health, for the planet and for the animal.”

He makes a courageous point.  There are many people who are one excuse away from making a change.  If you remove the excuse, they will be forced to decide if that truly is the obstacle they think it is.   Which is preferable, in terms of health, the environment and preventing animal cruely, someone who pays no attention at all to what they eat or someone who eats consciously but may have  a serving or two of meat each week?

Why courageous?  I bet his picture just made the Most Wanted List over at the Vegan Police.  Some people just love to find fault with others and I’m sure Tal will be the recipient of criticism from hard-core vegans and animal rights activists.  To me, the term ‘vegan’ means someone who consciously makes the choice to not eat meat, dairy and eggs.  There are no hard and fast rules and certainly no secret societies with passwords and special knocks that are using advanced surveillance to catch their members eating banned foods for the purpose of revoking their membership cards. It is a deeply personal choice, meaning everyone makes their own level of committment.

Back to bacon, though.  The people that tell Tal they could be vegan ‘except’ for bacon, may want to pay attention.  There is a solution and its name is coconut.  Hang in here, it’s not as crazy as it sounds.   This recipe for coconut bacon comes from Vegan Good Things and I modified it only slightly:

Coconut Bacon
makes about 3 cups (enough for about 3-4 sandwich wraps or topping for 4-5 salads)

3 large handfuls of large flake, unsweetened coconut*
1 Tbsp. liquid smoke
2 Tbsp. tamari
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. maple syrup

Preheat oven to 300. Place coconut in a shallow baking pan lined with parchment paper. Whisk other ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over coconut. Use your hands to mix and make sure the coconut is evenly coated. Bake at 300 for about 20 minutes, stirring once after 10 minutes. It is done when it is crispy and will continue to crisp as it cools. Best eaten at room temperature.

*(in Rochester, I bought it at Tadco/Niblack $5 for 1 pound, enough for about 4 batches)

I used the bacon crumbles to make BLT wraps:

BLT Wrap

1 flour tortilla
veganaise (vegan mayo made without eggs)
beefsteak tomato slices
lettuce leaves
coconut bacon chips

Lay the tortilla flat, spread the veganaise on it, cover with bacon chips, arrange tomato slices and lettuce on top, then roll and secure with a toothpick.  Slice on the diagonal to serve.  See photo on top of my last post:

I served these to meat eating company and they enthusiastically had seconds.  So, if you think “I could never give up bacon”, this is worth a try.  I am totally hooked and will probably make another batch this morning to mix into my roast vegetables tonight.  Another bonus: no bacon fat to clean up!  Here’s a picture of me and Tal.

I’ve been (mostly) vegan now for two and a half years.  I get asked all the time “don’t you miss meat?”.  No, I honestly don’t.  Though I do miss some of the flavorings.  Take bacon, for example.  My craving isn’t for the actual limp, greasy bacon.  It is for something crispy and smoky to put on toasted bread with my beefsteak tomato and lettuce.   There are some acceptable alternatives (my usual preference from the convenience food aisle is for SmartBacon because it gets crispy) but none are so good that I won’t keep looking. 

In fact, prior to going vegan, bacon was one of my favorite foods.   My husband likes to remind me that on a trip to Chicago, I made him rent a car, leave the miracle mile, and drive into the suburbs to eat at Walker Brothers, a place famous for apple pancakes and thick sliced bacon.  I remember one particularly convincing review said “if you visit Chicago and you don’t go to Walker Brothers, you will regret it for the rest of your life.”  Now, I don’t think I would spend much time regretting one meal.  Of course, I did go so I can’t really speak for those who didn’t heed this advice.  They may be having some sleepless nights.

Knowing all this, a friend forwarded me a recipe to make coconut bacon.  Sounds crazy until you think it through.  Coconut is fibrous and fatty and can be cut into large flakes similar to real crumbled bacon.  This bacon alternative gets some really good reviews.  I’m going to try it as soon as I make it to the store to find some big flake coconut.  (Most of the garden variety coconut flakes are very small.)  Also, the post contains a link to the Royal Bacon Society, a group that apparently exists to promote all things bacon.  I checked it out expecting to find a whole slew of snarky comments about their only vegan bacon option but was pleasantly surprised.  The recipe for coconut bacon was presented as a reasonable alternative among all the animal-based craziness. (Their store sells bacon flavored envelopes and a bacon watch with streaks of fat on the wristband.)

I’m cynical enough to wonder what Big Food Company is behind the Royal Bacon Society.  Pretending, of course, to be just some regular folks who love bacon enough to spend time developing and hosting a pretty professional looking website.  They are even declaring September 3, 2011 as International Bacon Day.   I doubt there is anything “Royal” about this group of bacon freaks but do appreciate that they even included a vegan choice. 

The coconut bacon craze seems to have started in part due to a restaurant in Montreal, Aux Vivres.  Their smoked coconut BLT chapati wrap gets consistently fantastic reviews.  My French is limited to a couple years in high school (and one glorious week in Paris!) so “aux vivres” would be most often translated as ”to life” but I’m told it really is closer to “at the place where you get the food that is necessary”.   Any way, if I can replicate their praise-worthy sandwich, my husband will be spared another road trip (after all, we are an easy drive from Montreal) in search of (vegan) bacon.  The photo above is of their BLT wrap.

So, I will be on the lookout for large flake coconut to try this latest find.  With some liquid smoke, maple syrup,  and tamari (soy sauce) it looks promising in the smoky-flavor department.  As long as it gets crispy, I may have a winner.  Stay tuned.

Do I want to go grab a burger?  Not usually.  For vegans, the options are usually some freezer-burned hockey puck that no amount of ketchup will make palatable.  Interestingly, the industry magazine Restaurant News featured an article “Veggie Burgers Get New Respect”.  It seems there are enough “flexitarians” looking for meatless options that dusting off a Boca patty is no longer enough.  Good.  Seriously, I can throw a frozen veggie patty on the grill at home for about $1.00.  If I’m going to pay your grass-fed beef prices, I’d like something a little more interesting.

The article describes some of the up-and-coming burger chains and their attempts to entice us non-meat eaters. Burgers made from quinoa, mushrooms, corn, black beans (one of my favorites), brown rice, oats, panko and/or chick peas are now being served at places like Smashburger and Elevation Burger.

Sadly, the two chains that have sprung up here in Rochester, Five Guys and Red Robin, have pitiful options for vegans.  Five Guys offers a “veggie sandwich”.  That is, they take a burger bun and put some lettuce and tomato on it and call it a sandwich. There is even a note: “veggie sandwich does not contain a veggie burger patty.”  Thanks for nothing.

Red Robin’s menu offers a Gardenburger and an asterik at the bottom says you can substitute a Boca patty on any of their burger combinations.  Gardenburger is not vegan so the only option is the frozen Boca patty.  Not much of a choice. 

The burger chain that offers an interesting, fresh burger to its vegan/flexitarian customers will capture a good share of this growing market.  Restaurant bean counters know that where the vegan can eat well, his or her friends (and their $$) will follow.

Big Food laboratories have been rushing to get genetically modified fish on your plate.  First up? The ever popular over hyped salmon.  The companies face one last hurdle: apparently consumers don’t want to eat their Frankenfish.  They’ve already done a very good job of marketing the so-called benefits of eating fish several times a week and the Frankenfish is ready to hit the market.  Tackling this last problem should be a no-brainer: just make sure the public doesn’t know what they’re eating!  Brilliant!  It works every time. 

First stop: California.  Assembly bill AB 88 would have required the labelling of genetically modified fish in that state.  Let’s look at the definition of genetically modified fish:

For purposes of this section, “genetically engineered fish or
fish product” means: A salmon or other finfish whose genetic structure has been
altered at the molecular level by means that are not possible under
natural conditions or processes, including recombinant DNA and RNA
techniques, cell fusion, gene deletion or doubling, introduction of
exogenous genetic 08 material, alteration of the position of a gene,
or similar procedure.

That’s right, a fish that is not possible under natural conditions.  What could possibly be the harm in distinguishing between salmon and genetically modified salmon?  There is a real danger to the profits of these companies because the American people DON’T want to eat this sh*#!  The only way to get us to buy it is to make sure we can’t make an educated choice.  Of course, there is also a real danger to the health of consumers (hasn’t been tested) and the environment.

Sadly, this bill failed to pass on May 27.  So, if you live in or are planning a trip to California, stick to eating your veggies.

A recent study out of Sweden finds that taking in more calcium than your body needs actually slightly increases your risk for bone fracture.  The Swedes have good reason to study this.  They are one of the few countries with higher rates of fracture than the US, despite their love of all things dairy.  Conventional wisdom has over-simplified the trend in bone health.  As the population has developed increasingly fragile bones, the “go to” solution has always been more milk, more cheese, more yogurt.  Even the pediatricians have been drinking this kool-aid.  At every well-visit, parents get asked how much dairy their kids are eating and drinking for “good bone development”. 

Yet, despite this love affair with dairy, the rate of fractures in the US is higher than most other countries.  How can this be?  We’re doing everything we can aren’t we?  There is extra cheese stuffed in the crust of our pizzas and our kids are eating go-gurts like crazy.  We’re even putting cheese in foods like Spam.  How much more can we do?

Clearly, just blindly chugging milk hasn’t solved anything.  The more relevant question is how to get all this calcium into our bones and keep it there.  There are several factors that help bones hold onto calcium:

1. Weight-bearing exercise.  Exercise increases circulation, which brings blood to your bones.  If there is calcium in the blood, this gives the bones an opportunity to grab it.  Bone reacts to physical stresses by strengthening. Regular exercise is a must.

2. Adequate vitamin D levels.  Vitamin D affects parathyroid hormone, which affects bone resorption.  Low vitamin D, more bone loss.

3. Too much protein.  Our obsession with protein has a downside.  No argument, protein is essential.   However, protein releases acids which then are absorped by calcium.  Therefore, too much protein uses valuable calcium that is no longer available to your bones.

Obviously, this list could be much longer.  Nutrition science is complex and much of the time reductionistic advice is of limited value.  But focusing on protein and calcium as isolated nutrients and not worrying about vitamins, minerals and fiber is silly.  Only a few people in the US are calorially deficient.  However, many people are nutrient deficient.  We should all focus on eating our vegetables, especially the green leafy and cruciferous varieties.  Sometimes the simple answer is the best one.

You can’t unring a bell and you can’t unlearn new knowledge.  (Unless it is calculus and physics, I have managed to unlearn some of that.) Based on my intense love for his fiction, I picked up Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals. Critics may say it is not scholarly enough and although well researched, it is not full of dates and facts and charts.  It is simply the author’s story of his on-again, off-again vegetarianism. 

I wish I had an ounce of his talent.  An old friend recently read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I know a book is powerful when I can quote lines a year after I’ve read it and this is one of those books.  In a very gentle tone, Mr. Foer, takes us along on his quest to determine whether he can continue to justify eating animals.

My friend wrote to me ”I wanted to read the book after seeing an article about him in the April issue of Vegetarian Living. The article starts with: ‘is it right or wrong to eat animals?… I think the better question is: is it right or wrong to do it the way that we are now doing it?’ This is very much something I struggle with. I like the taste of meat. I believe humans were designed as omnivores. On the other hand, I also believe there needs to be a level of respect given to the animal. Various cultures have paid their respects to the hunt/slaughter and knew the animal gave the ultimate sacrifice. When did we stop caring?”

My friend raises an important point.  Forget about whether or not you want to eat meat, want to not eat meat or are just trying to reduce the meat you’re eating for your health.  The way meat is produced in this country is sick.  Those millions of animals are tortured. Not just at the end but for their whole lives.  Unless you are getting your meat exclusively from a farm that you know personally and have talked with the farmer, your meat came to your plate in the most despicable way possible.

So, what is an omnivore to do?  Forget about Michael Pollan and his elitist ideas.  There is absolutely no way for even a fraction of the current demand to be produced by local, humane farmers.  Sure, some people can afford it and they can give themselves a big pat on the back and get to act holier-than-thou at the grocery.  What about everyone else?  The only way is to reduce consumption.  No civilization in history has eaten the amount of meat, eggs and dairy that we do.  We eat it at every meal.  Many times multiple servings in one sitting.  There is no way to make that sustainable.  Especially not when the demand for factory farmed meat, eggs and cheese in countries like China and India is increasing.

I have only been vegan for a couple years.  I was raised on meat and dairy.  I loved meat and dairy.  I ate my way through France, Scandinavia, and Japan eating meat and dairy.  There came a time when what *I want* was not always the most important thing to me anymore.  Watching our society ‘race to the bottom’ (to borrow a phrase from JSF) in a sea of Wonder bread, fruit gummies and chicken nuggets is maddening.  Granted, no one ‘dove in’ to this sea.  Jonathan Safran Foer wrote about the ’earth tilting and we all slid in’.  A much less deliberate act but it gets us to the bottom just the same.

Hosting a surprise baby shower, Mother’s Day and my eldest daughter’s birthday on the same weekend, I used it as an excuse to cook and bake for almost a week. When you’re vegan, you can’t just pop in to your local grocery and grab a tub of potato salad to serve.  Plus, I like to cook (when I have the time) and needed to try some new recipes.  I’m far from a professional chef but have learned most of what works and what doesn’t, especially for parties.  The main criteria: anything that can be made ahead. If it says “serve at room temperature” at the bottom of the recipe, even better.

For the baby shower, my plan was to make all the sides and have our local grocery, known for its catering, do a sandwich tray.  However, their slick full color brochure, had no vegan sandwich options.  I even asked if they could do their sandwich wraps with Tofurky slices and they refused.  In my mind, there is nothing hard about putting a Tofurky slice (looks just like deli turkey) on a piece of bread but they wouldn’t even consider it.  As a matter of fact, they didn’t even return my call.  Maybe they thought I wasn’t serious so I had to call back to get the big “no”.   No problem, I just made my own sandwiches, thank you very much. (I have emailed their customer service dept.)

A dear friend having twins is cause for an all out feast.  Serving a crowd of 25 non-vegans, I knew I had to make food that would appeal (or fool) those used to eating meat, cheese and eggs.  I made a full buffet for the shower, but here are the highlights:

Gardein “chicken” salad served in mini pitas with spinach leaves

Broccoli cashew salad (from Kosher by Design Entertains, just substitute veganaise for mayo)

Quinoa with carmelized onions and peppers

Lentils with cherry tomatoes (125 Best Vegan Recipes)

Lemon bundt cake with fresh raspberries (Joy of Vegan Baking)

Chocolate Crinkle cookies (Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)

Mini carrot cakes with (faux) cream cheese frosting

And, of course, that old vegan favorite PB&J for the kids.

I sent more than a few people home with food and recipes but still had plenty of leftovers.  So, next day, my mother came for a Mother’s Day dinner.  My mom eats mostly vegan in a house full of meat and cheesers so I felt good about giving her a vegan meal for Mother’s Day.  In a flash, I prettied up my leftovers (I had to make another batch of broccoli cashew salad) and added in a mix of roast sweet potatoes, white potatoes and onions.  There were enough desserts left to make a worthy tray of sweets.

Finally, one of our traditions is to have a dinner with friends for our kid’s birthdays (aside from any ‘kid’ party).  Monday is always busy for everyone but we manged to fit it in.  The weather was spectacular so the nine kids could play outside and the adults (oops, almost said grown-ups) could enjoy some wine and scotch on the porch.  Not all food keeps for three days and we had been noshing non-stop all weekend so the leftovers were getting a little low.  Plus, this crowd had two meat-lovers to try and satisfy.  Field Roast sausage to the rescue.  Field Roast makes wonderfully flavorful vegan sausages.  I like the Italian flavor and the one with sage.  This time I turned to my buddy, Tal Ronnen. (I met him once but we seemed very simpatico and I’m sure if I lived in SoCal, we’d hang all the time).  His book, The Conscious Cook, is full of fancy, you’d better take the day off to make this meal, type of party food except for Whole Wheat Penne with San Marzano Tomatoes.  I think it’s his only recipe that fits on one page.  Anyway, I just added sauteed Field Roast Italian sausage.  I still had quinoa, salad greens and lentils.  Sesame Brussel Sprout Saute (from Terry Walters’ Clean Food) also filled in the buffet.

Three great parties in three days and after the initial prep, just a bit of filling in here and there.  I was not stuck in the kitchen at all, I enjoyed myself the whole time.  Though I was very happy to have just a salad for dinner after a full weekend of eating.

Every five years, the government gets together to decide what Americans should be eating.  The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) were recently released.  These Guidelines will be used to ‘guide’ the nutrition in federal programs, such as school lunches, as well as shaping the current thinking about nutrition in general. 

Considering the overwhelming problem of adult and childhood obesity coupled with the lack of any progress in either, this would be a logical place to start reframing the way Americans eat.  Unfortunately, the interest of special industries coupled with the government’s never-ending belief that Americans are too stupid to be given the truth, resulted in a mess of conflicting and confusing statements.

I shouldn’t be too critical.  There are some steps forward this time but given the fact that these guidelines come out only once every five years, they really need to have crystal clear information.  Unfortunately, the latest edition is so wishy-washy as to not be helpful.  In trying so hard to please all of the food industries and not step on any toes (and by toes, I mean profits), they end up being useless. 

For example, I have never seen the words ‘solid fats’ used so much.  Solid fats?  Unlessyou are eating a stick of butter or spooning out crisco regularly this is exactly the kind of double talk that we have come to expect from the government.  A solid fat is something found in food and most of the time it is hidden.  Which foods have them?  Meat, dairy, and some vegetable fats.  It’s used to make processed foods taste better and to fry things.  Instead of saying eat less meat, dairy and vegetable fats they recommend eating less solid fat.  Which to most people just sounds like spreading a little less butter on your bread. 

Now, these government spindoctors aren’t stupid.  They chose these words very carefully.  It does take five years to figure out to appear to be giving unbiased advice while not pissing off big business.  This is the resulting advice: reduce solid fats.  Make no mistake, the only way to reduce solid fats is to reduce the foods that contain solid fats: meat, dairy and solid vegetable oils.  Meat and dairy are the primary sources of solid fats in our Standard American Diet.  What the authors of these guidelines mean but were afraid to say “Eat less meat, eggs and dairy”.

To further decode this double-talk let’s look elsewhere in the Guidelines.  They also recommend reducing cholesterol and saturated fatty acids.  Where are these typically found?  In meat and dairy products.  So why the needlessly technical terms in a document intended for the general public?  They are afraid of upsetting big business and big government.  There is alot of money being made off what people eat (or don’t eat).  The advisory committee that helped shape these guidelines is a virtual “Who’s Who” of agribusiness including individuals with ties to companies like Dannon, Kraft and McDonald’s.  I can imagine the kind of back-room wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes.  Sadly, these days food is politics.

To be fair, the Guidelines do spell out in plain language that we should all be eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.  (Duh!)  They just don’t connect the dots.  They leave the impression that by adding fruits, vegetables and whole grains, you are following the most current thinking in nutrition science.  It is just as important to subtract the sources of solid fats, saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet. 

Although the government doesn’t think the general public is smart enough to connect the few dots they left in this puzzle, I have every confidence that the public is smart enough to know when they are being snowed.  Our taxes pay for this ongoing attempt to appease big business while appearing to help the the general public.  The least they can do is be honest with us.

Recently the know-it-alls at the FDA got together to discuss food dyes.  Why now?  The first reason is the The Center for Science in the Public Interest is calling for it.  They are the self-proclaimed “organized voice of the American public on nutrition, food safety, health and other issues”.  This advocacy group is calling for a ban on the most common food dyes or, at least, a mandated warning label.  The other reason is that the Brits are doing it. 

There was a study that was widely talked about in the U.K.  The study, published in the Lancet (Britain’s equivalent of the Journal of the American Medical Association), was titled “Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.”   The conclusion was “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.”

So what did those reserved, stoic Brits do?  They banned them!  What did the manufacturers do?  They complied!  So now, many of the common junk foods have a U.S. version (full of synthetic dyes) and a U.K. version (using more natural dyes).  What’s the difference?  In the U.K. the burden is on the food manufacturers to prove their food is safe.  In the U.S. you can sell anything you want until it is proven unsafe.  This is a HUGE distinction.

I would rather have my kids eat beetroot than Red No. 40 anyday!  Of course, the easiest way to reduce your intake of food dyes is to cut down on junky, processed food.  As a parent, avoiding food dyes is really difficult.  They are used in everything: bread, macaroni and cheese (did you think the yellow was from cheese?), chocolate syrup, cereal etc.  Some foods are just labelled “color added”.  It makes me wonder how many parents are packing lunches and snacks full of food additives and sending their kids off to school.  I know they are in every school cafeteria where kids are eating them at lunch and then going back to try to focus in class.  Of course, not all additives cause problems and not all kids are equally sensitive, but it does make you wonder if we’re being fair to these kids.

The FDA had the chance to take a pro-active step instead of the too-little, too-late approach they have become known for (meat recalls, egg recalls, spinach and tomato recalls).  The US is already falling behind in education, manufacturing, growth and health. So, sadly, we can add food safety to that list.