What is Chef Marian doing on St. Patrick’s Day? Drinking Green Beer of course!
Green die in clothing was connected to arsenic and could kill you just by wearing a green dress (in earlier years). With that in mind, (and after the fact of course) I decided to dig in, and see if I am actually at risk of anything bad happening to me as a result of drinking Green Beer.
The Daily Meal agrees that Green Beer isn’t going to kill me. Whoo hoo! But that’s not enough research for me.
Most green beer is dyed with the same kind of food dye you can buy at the grocery store, which has been determined safe enough to consume by the US Food and Drug Administration.
However according to Pub Med, “Artificial food coloring and dyes have been linked to cancer and behavioral problems”.
Gulp! Maybe it’s not as good an idea as I thought. Maybe I am ingesting more food coloring than I know….. hmmmm…….
I’ve been reading lots of articles and food coloring starts with Green Beer, but it doesn’t stop there in terms of what we ingest. According to Forbes Magazine, “Many popular candies, drinks, popsicles, puddings, yogurts, gums, boxed mac n’ cheeses, baking mixes, pickles, meats, fruits, sauces and chips contain ingredients such as Yellow #5, Blue #1, and Red #40 – three of the most popular FDA-permitted ones. As if that’s not enough, the dye in our day isn’t limited to food. Chances are, if you take vitamins, use cough syrup, brush your teeth, wash your hands, shampoo your hair, launder your clothing and moisturize your lips on a daily basis — you come into contact with artificial dyes quite frequently.
The link between artificial colors and behavioral problems is a concern, especially for parents of children diagnosed with ADHD. But conflicting results from studies among scientists explains why there are still seven approved colors in the United States”.
I’m always amazed, (but probably shouldn’t be) by the fact that we are not adequately protected by the FDA. But when I think about how our country is run and ‘bought’ by the lobbyists, I guess it’s what I should come to expect. But I don’t. And when I read articles like these telling me certain items are banned worldwide, maybe just in the European Union then I scratch my head and wonder why. When we see a big swirled lollipop, I thing we can tell it’s been colored with chemicals. Again, I dug a little deeper to see what else is colored that we might not expect to be.
So that’s the scoop about about dyes in food, and making better chances. While I don’t think that drinking Green Beer once a year is going to have any major effect, it is chemicals and that’s unwanted in my world. So I think I’m going to skip it next year! lol
Healthy Happy Eating,
