Press Release from eatingsafe.com: The Additives That are Being Allowed to Harm Australian Children
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
How to detect and avoid the additive cocktails sending our kids ‘hyper’ and others that are banned worldwide but not on Australian shores.
New research from the Southampton University in the United Kingdom has found that hyperactivity in young children increased after consuming artificial colours combined with a common preservative called sodium benzoate.
In all there are 13 harmful artificial colours and an array of preservatives which have been banned in the US and across differing countries in Europe which are still legally being consumed in Australia by Australian children.
These additives have known side effects, including but not limited to: altered states of perception and behaviour, uncontrolled hyper agitation and confusion; wakefulness in young children; a cause of Asthma; provocation of allergic reactions such as abdominal pain, hyperactivity, hives, nasal congestion, bronchoconstriction, kidney tumours; chromosomal damage, and distaste for food; nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure, skin rashes, breathing problems, brain tumours…
In the study, 3 year old and 8/9 year old children drank a mix with sodium benzoate (or preservative 211) along with either a food colouring or a placebo and it was the drink mix with the preservative and artificial colour that induced the major effect of hyperactivity.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) says they are investigating the report to see if any action needs to be taken in Australia.
This investigation may be propitious for the recently formed Obesity Policy Coalition – obesity experts representing the Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Australia (Victoria) and the World Health Organisation’s Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University – as they heat up demands that we protect Australian children by placing a ban on junk food ads from television and sugary breakfast cereals be hit with GST akin to other indulgent food items.
The coalition’s senior advisor, Jane Martin said that many food labels – especially claims such as “99 per cent fat free” – were disingenuous and designed to confuse parents.
While this may be science only confirming what many parents already instinctively believe, the real news is that there is now a newly available website, eatingsafe.com that allows parents to analyse and compare what’s in the foods they give their children and protect them from the threat of obesity along with additional harmful or unwanted behavioural side effects.
eatingsafe.com allows the consumer to easily search products for the presence of these ingredients and other allergens and choose the safest product for their children:
Using eatingsafe.com’s comprehensive analysis tools it was found that of the 224 soft drinks in their database, 73 contained sodium benzoate and 1 or more of the artificial colours – the cocktail that produced hyperactivity in the study.
It is also found that 95% of kids’ cereals contain artificial colours. Of these: 20% contain colours that have been linked to hyperactivity and other allergens. 70% contain 10 – 60g/100g of sugars.
eatingsafe.com revealed that 62% of kid’s biscuits listed contain artificial colours, and 38% of these contain up to 3 of the most harmful colours.
Part of the problem in avoiding these additives is they often have numerous names, and can easily slip past the radar, but with eatingsafe.com this loop-hole is closed off as its database searches for all variants of an additive’s title.
For example Sunset Yellow can be also be listed as Sunset Yellow FCF, Sunset Yellow, Artificial Colour (110), Colour (110), Yellow 6, Yellow #6 Lake, Colour (E110), Colour (Yellow 6), Sunset Yellow (110), Food Colour (110).
It is a daunting task trying to remember this as a concerned parent perusing the supermarket shelves, but eatingsafe.com is here to help by doing the hard work and telling you exactly what products contains these colours, no matter what name they take.
eatingsafe.com lists 220 products containing this Colour (155) that can be found on Australian supermarket shelves, primarily chocolate based ice creams and drinks.
There is now an effective and easy to use solution for parents who are concerned about the presence and effects of artificial colours such as this in their children’s diet and want to do something about it: eatingsafe.com.
View PDFFor more information please contact Dagan Xavier on 1300 654 622 or dxavier@eatingsafe.com
Back to Media Releases