FDA Reviews Research Linking Food Colorings and Hyperactivity

Artificial food dyes that enhance the color of processed, kid-friendly foods like Cheetos and Pop-Tarts have been used for decades, and the Food and Drug Administration has said they're safe.

But with some studies tying the colorings to hyperactivity in children, an FDA panel begins two days of hearings today to review the research and decide whether more study is needed or whether foods with the dyes should carry warning labels.

Before the hearing, FDA scientists said in a report that there was no definitive proof that food dye causes hyperactivity in most children, though kids with behavioral disorders might be highly sensitive to them. Their conditions, the report said, might be "exacerbated by exposure to a number of substances in food, including, but not limited to, synthetic color additives," The New York Times reported.

Today's hearing today comes after the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest
filed a petition in 2008 asking regulators to ban Red 40, Yellow 5 and six other colorings, The Associated Press reported.

The center's director, Michael Jacobson, told NPR there is significant evidence indicating that colorings can trigger hyperactivity in children. He said the use of dyes has gone up fivefold in the past five decades.

"Food dyes are added simply for their color to make foods fun. They serve no health purpose whatsoever," Jacobson told NPR.

Some parents have found success in removing foods with dyes from their child's diet. The concept originated in the 1970s, when pediatrician Benjamin Feingold first noted a link between behavior and additives and prescribed a diet that eliminated dyes and other additives, NPR said.

The mother of a 5-year-old boy having behavioral trouble at school two years ago put her son on an elimination diet that took artificial food colorings off his plate.

"I know for sure I found the root cause of this one because you can turn it on and off like a switch," Renee Shutters of Jamestown, N.Y., told the Times.

Still, one expert said there is minimal to no evidence showing that diet pays a major role in behavioral disorders in kids.

"These are urban legends that won't die," Dr. Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., told the Times.

But Dr. Andrew Adesman, head of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, told NPR that more study is needed.

"Some of the studies are difficult or imperfect in that they don't always tease out specific chemicals in isolation," he said. "But there is this body of literature that does suggest that food colorings are not as benign as people have been led to believe."

Some grocery chains, like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, don't sell dye-containing products. But foods with the dyes are widely available. They include popular products like Cheetos, Froot Loops, Hostess Twinkies and Pop-Tarts, the Times said.