The effects of food dye have sparked concern in the r/F***eryUniveristy Reddit community, highlighting growing worries about synthetic food dyes and their potential to cause health problems.
One Redditor detailed their troubling journey of discovering multiple sensitivities to artificial food colorings. While it's important to note that one person's experience does not confirm any surefire causation or suggest others would be affected in the same way, they explained how keeping a detailed food diary helped them identify red food dye as their first likely trigger, connecting the dots between consuming maraschino cherries and developing a rash after taking cherry NyQuil.
Not long after, they started experiencing other issues.
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Majorly 😥 "I have been having a problem for about the last month or 2," the Redditor wrote. "I started getting a rash after I ingested 1 thing... Cotton Candy flavored Faygo... which also happens to be blue. About 4 good swigs and I was already in a race for hives." They noted that Blue No. 1 was behind the latest set of problems.
This post comes amid increasing scrutiny of artificial food dyes. A landmark study by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment evaluated the seven most commonly used food dyes across 27 human clinical trials, concluding that ongoing exposure to these petroleum-based colorings can cause behavioral issues in children, including hyperactivity and inattentiveness.
Red 3 has been of particular concern, as Thomas Galligan, principal scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), told The Cool Down it's "been shown to cause [thyroid] cancer in rats."
Despite the Food and Drug Administration classifying Red 3 as an animal carcinogen in 1990, it can be found in over 9,000 food products in the U.S. The FDA has announced it will be banned for use in food and ingested drug products from January 2027.
The Reddit thread has drawn numerous comments from others experiencing similar reactions.
One user shared: "Red 40 did not agree with my son when he was young. He would become violent from it. If you wanted to make our family miserable all you had to do was give him some Swedish fish and red Kool Aid and the reaction would go on for hours."
Another commenter emphasized the importance of tracking consumption: "Food diary's the only way to work it out. I did that working out what triggered my IBS. Cause randomly s***ting yourself isn't a fun way to live."
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A third user offered practical advice, writing: "Critter #2 is sensitive to many of those, as well as most artificial sweeteners and overly processed stuff. For our first aid kit we buy Benadryl in liquid filled ampules for kids, as it absorbs faster for when he has an incident. 2 of those followed by a couple of pills will stop most reactions in their tracks."Experts recommend avoiding ultra-processed foods and looking for natural alternatives, including fruit- and vegetable-based dyes such as turmeric and beet juice, which look visually appealing without the potential health risks.
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