Hey Reader,
If your news feeds are anything like mine, you have heard a decent bit about artificial dyes and food colorings. And it can be super confusing to figure out what's actually going on, so I thought I'd summarize some of the important bits here.
Here's a quick recap on the background
- Ultra-processed foods are often colored to look more palatable and fresh than they are.
- Compared to other countries, colored foods sold in the US have a higher percentage of cheaper artificial colors that are often petroleum-based.
- Some research points to health hazards of artificial dyes, particularly attention deficit associated with red coloring.
- Many states have already introduced legislation to reduce or ban dyes, and under the last administration, in early January, the FDA banned Red Dye #3.
What's happened recently?
- RFK Jr. won popularity with his MAHA campaign to ban all petroleum-based dyes, among other things. He initially sought a partnership with both major campaigns, but was rejected by Harris and accepted by Trump shortly before election day. He went on to become the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services.
- RFK Jr. recently held a meeting with industry leaders to discuss artificial dyes, after which he announced on social media that the food system would remove dyes.
- No additional legislation or regulation has been put in place to require or enforce this, so any immediate changes will be completely voluntary. The FDA has published a plan to review these dyes in the future with the hope to ban 2 additional dyes.
- Since then, two large companies have made public commitments to remove dyes voluntarily (In and Out and Kraft). It is unclear if they will follow through on these beyond the removal of Red Dye 3, which is required to be removed by January 2027 per the FDA.
Where does that leave us?
It's hard to say!
Removing artificial dyes from the food system and replacing them with food-based dyes would be great! However, it is unclear right now how sustained and widespread this change will actually be. Just because the social campaign wants to remove dyes doesn't mean it will happen. And just because a marketing campaign says there's a plan, doesn't mean it will successfully follow through.
But perhaps the publicity will help drive some corporations to update their products because of perceived market pressure. In-and-Out quickly committed to removing dyes from their foods (though they had little artificial dye in their food to begin with) and Kraft has also recently committed to do the same.
As we move forward, it will be important to monitor what actually gets legislated or removed from companies' ingredient lists, more than the marketing campaigns and social media announcements.
And we must consider the cost!
In addition to this pledge to remove dyes, there have been other massive changes to public health policy. For example, research grants to study lifestyle medicine, cancer, and women's health have been cut. Key programs that provide healthy food to the needy have proposed cuts, and we know those programs reduce chronic disease and the associated downstream burden to the healthcare system. Programs that support fresh local produce going directly from local farms to schools have been cut, hurting children's health, food access, and local farmers. Many scientists and researchers have been removed from the department and been replaced by unvetted people with potential conflicts of interest and missing quailfications, making the future of health advancements unclear at best.
Where does that leave me?
I don't want fake dyes, and I think all companies could easily use real food products instead of artificial ones to color their foods. Bring on the Beet juice over the Red Dye #3! I think it's a good move and I wish I could feel more celebratory about it.
But, I think corporations will follow profit first because they are legally required to do so. So unless there is additional regulation or legislation, I am skeptical of long-term and substantial change resulting from this meeting.
And if we are concerned about public health, the removal of these programs designed to increase the availabiity and consumption of whole foods is very concerning and far outweighs the benefits of food dye removal.
Here's some deeper reading on the topic:
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Artificial Colors
What are they, how common are they, and how can they impact health?
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RFK's meeting
... with major food conglomerates to discuss the potential to remove artificial colors.
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The FDA's roadmap
The FDA has released this roadmap of action for food dyes. This is their plan, so it will be interesting to monitor and see what they accomplish
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Now, for the tasty treats
Recipe Spotlight
Homemade Hummus
I've been trying to get extra protein these days so have been eating a decent amount of hummus. If you are trying to be on the leaner side, feel free to sub up to 3/4 of the oil with water! Still as creamy and delicious.
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Next time you have a question on the validaity of a nutrition claim, email me about it or try looking it up here.
One of the benefits of publicly funded research, aside from removing industry bias, is that you the tax payer have the right to the results!
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