Don't eat that, it'll give you cancer!

I'm sure some of you have heard about how people think that there's toxic/carcinogenic junk in food, right?
Well, I've done some research. Apparently a "diet" that guides you away from artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives exists. I actually have a friend who follows it because of having ADHD, among other things. It claims that the symptoms of ADHD are aggravated by these ingredients. What do you guys think? Is it a hoax, or real?

I also found these online with google's help, so of course there's potential that the websites aren't accurate.

The three most widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are contaminated with known carcinogens, says CSPI. Another dye, Red 3, has been acknowledged for years by the Food and Drug Administration to be a carcinogen, yet is still in the food supply.

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( http://www.cspinet.org/new/201006291.html )

Basically synthetic food coloring is a mixture of lab chemicals combined with petro-chemicals. Four dyes - Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 - contain cancer-causing substances. And many of the other approved nine have been linked to allergic reactions.

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(http://www.inspirationgreen.com/index.php?q=food-dyes-linked-to-behavior-problems.html)

Share your opinion.

Also, check this out.
It's kind of interesting:
http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/dyes-problem-table.pdf

I agree. I mean, I think it's ok to have junk food once in a while, but definitely not good for you in copious amounts. I think you also need to watch out what's in "regular" foods. Moderation is key, and obviously you gotta have your leafy greens, everyone! :3
Fresh is best! :3

I changed my eating habits sometime last year because my mom's words finally sunk in. I'll eat junk food every now and then, but that's about it. I try my hardest to stay away from anything that has anything artificial in it too. I think that's why I haven't gotten fatter even though all I do is sit on my computer all day haha.

Pretty sure I'm allergic to Yellow 6 or something along those lines. I can eat Cheerios. I can eat nuts. I can eat bananas. Put'em together and my mouth breaks out with sores!

Yusshin, perhaps I'm misunderstanding- how does that imply that you're allergic to a dye?

I do feel the need to point out, though, that the bags Cheerios are sold in are sprayed with a petroleum-based, carcinogenic preservative, which leeches into the cereal. (:

Icky.

And I did a bunch of research on it already. Even asked on rightdiagnosis.com to see if anyone else had similar issues. A lot of people said that certain dyes used in food products can have adverse effects on people, including allergic reactions a.k.a. mouth full of canker sores.

So after all that, I'm easing towards the idea of it being a dye allergy.

Yeah. x:

Ah, okay. Makes sense.

Someone I know used to have pretty severe asthma attacks, and they ended after he stopped eating that stuff.

It's really hard to know when/if something in your food is affecting you so I take all information with a grain of salt. So maybe this is true. If someone I knew was having some kind of reaction to their food I'd bring it up as a possible reason.

@Scarf
Apparently a lot of people do react to their food, but they aren't aware of it, because they see it as normal.

There is a lot of preservatives and stuff in food, it's hard to know what exactly you are eating. I try not to eat too much junk food but a habit of mine is that I always think a nice bowl of instant ramen is really good for lunch, even though it has a ton of salt and other stuff and isnt good for you. I really should eat more healthy foods. I havent generally had many adverse reactions to foods, though my stomach sometimes gets a bit upset if I eat a lot of cheese, that's about it though.

Yeah. Literally it's only the banana-nut flavoured Cheerios that do it! Other Cheerios are OK, although I don't lik'em too much (I love banana-nut though T_T)

But'cha know, I did some tests.

A few years ago, I ate a bowl. I got six cankers. Figured it was a spoof.

A week later, cankers gone, I ate another bowl. Again, five or so cankers in my mouth.

Figured three was the money number. A week later, again canker-free, I ate another bowl of banana-nut Cheerios. I shouldn't have done that lol 'cause I got twelve cankers as a result.

Thus why I figured it was a dye or something inside the Cheerios: normal Cheerios don't give me cankers, nor do nuts or bananas themselves.

Now a more recent telling of this story, I bought a box of banana-nut Cheerios at 50% off. I told myself it's been a few years; maybe it was all just a fluke. Had a bowl. Felt OK. About 30min later, my mouth got sore and I had "painful points" on the roof of my mouth. It made it feel cottony and weird.

So at this point... Pretty sure it's not a fluke T>T by why! Why banana-nut Cheerios! Why not something I don't like i.e. apples. I wouldn't care 'cause I'd never eat'em anyway!

Oh! That makes sense, Yusshin. I misunderstood and thought you meant that eating bananas, nuts, and cheerios caused it. I was really confused haha. x;

I was curious and looked up the ingredients- there isn't any dye, just BHT (which is a petroleum-based preservative). That's not the same preservative that the packaging is sprayed with, so perhaps the BHT causes it?

I actually discovered my own sort of allergy because of researching. I'm grateful that I have it figured out, for the most part, because the reaction would otherwise have confused me. I probably would have assumed that it was just something that happened randomly, and not because of certain foods. T:

But isn't BHT in a lot of other things? It's just banana-nut Cheerios that do it to me after all.

So it hasn't happened with any other food?
Yeah, it's a pretty common preservative. Perhaps you could look up the ingredients and see if there's anything unfamiliar there, and try eating something else with those ingredient(s)?

If it were something unprocessed, like a certain fruit/vegetable/meat, then this would make more sense. For example, I can't eat *anything* containing turkey without my throat swelling shut. Is it even possible for a person to be allergic to only a combination of things, and not the individual ingredients?

That's what I was thinking lol maybe together there's a chemical reaction that hightens something in either nuts or bananas that makes my mouth go



Wonder Woman says it better.

Haha. X]
But yeah, that's the only logical thing I can think of.
Perhaps you could look into the ingredients for both cheerios and banana nut cheerios, and check out the differences?

If you do look more into it, you'll have to let me know? {: I'm curious.


Edit:
Heck yes. I've never had this many posts on a blog. The most before was 14 or so on my first one. This one has passed that.