Interesting Facts
In 1972 Doctor Ben Feingold put forward a theory that additives in food and drink were triggering acute behavioural disturbances in consumers. Using elimination diets, Feingold restored the health of numerous people who were showing behavioural difficulties. Many of the patients were children on psychotic drugs.
Nearly thirty years on from this, Sue Dengate (an Australian psychologist and food intolerance counsellor) has continued where Feingold left off. She found that, in addition to the 50 or 60 questionable additives, a surprisingly high number of people have an intolerance to naturally occurring substances found in such foods as dairy produce, wheat, and substances called amines and salicylates found in many foods.
Back in the early 70s: media reports gave details of children who became hyperactive after consuming various additives, particularly the yellow/orange colourings and cola. Interesting isn’t it, that thirty years ago, it was recognised that some additives in food and drink were almost certainly responsible for triggering health problems, but what was done about it?
Apparently very little. Here we are, three decades on and we have a whole raft of new additives, which, alongside the old stalwarts such as Tartrazine (E102) and Sunset Yellow (E110), continue to trigger health problems.
We now deal, albeit briefly, with some further common additives.
The artificial sweetener, Aspartame (E951) is found in an estimated 9,000 plus products e.g. fizzy drinks, squashes, chewing gum, yoghurts medicine and multivitamins.
It is recognised as a trigger for migraine in some consumers and widely suspected by many scientists to be a causative factor in many problems from rashes through to joint pain, mood swings and behavioural problems in children. In his book, Excitotoxins – The Taste That Kills, neurosurgeon Russell L Blaylock labels aspartame and the flavour enhancer Monosodium Glutamate as “excitotoxins” because studies have indicated that these substances are can literally excite brain cells to death.