Seeing Red on Valentine's Day - How to Avoid Red 40

If you are trying to avoid red dye for your children, Valentine's Day can be dreadful...everything is a shade of red! And it's all so pretty and tempting. Schools offer "candy grams" where you can send a bag of artificially colored and flavored candy to your kids. Oh, and their friends can send them one too! Then, at lunch on Valentine's Day well-meaning parents bring in cookies or cupcakes with red frosting. Red frosting has arguably the highest concentration of red dye per tablespoon than any other food. Then they end the day by bringing home cards from one another that appear to be simply a vehicle for more candy.

The Feingold Association is calling for better research in this article published in their blue book which is free to download on their website.

Scientists who study the effects of additives on behavior have traditionally studied only the handful of allowed
synthetic food colorings,  ignoring the other 12,000 food additives now in use but never tested for
behavioral or neurological effects.  Safety studies usually test each additive alone, although we eat lots of
them together, often combined in a single product. A landmark study (Lau 2006), recently found that two
additives commonly used together inhibited developing neurons many times more than they were expected to
do, based on the damage each caused alone.  More studies on such common combinations are urgently needed.

This article explains that the only scientific studies that have been conducted about the effect of food dyes have used levels far below what the average American actually ingests in a day. The Nutrition Foundation, a group of food additive and chemical companies, recommends studies use 27 mg/day in studies about ADHD & diet. This article suggests that back in 1977 (when these studies were conducted) the average American was ingesting more like 327 mg/day! I would imagine that number has only grown and, that it doubles or triples for the average child on a holiday!

So, if you want to keep your family away from problem-causing food colors on Valentine's Day here are a few great candy companies who make wonderful, natural candies and chocolates.

Indie Candy is one of our favorites. Owned by a Feingold mom, this Birmingham, Alabama based company offers allergen free chocolates and candies. Their facility is free of the top 8 most common allergens including peanuts, gluten, milk, soy, and eggs. They have many corn-free options also. We love their big lollipops, gummi candies and cotton candy. Their chocolates are delicious as well.

The Squirrel's Nest is also owned by a Feingold family and is located in Delaware. The Natural Candy Store features lots of additive-free candy as well. All of these websites will list their candy as stage one or stage two of Feingold and usually offer specials around holidays.

There are also locally found candies that are natural. Check your Feingold materials for brandnames!

And if you are in the Atlanta area, check out Sarah Kate's Bakery for Feingold approved cupcakes and sweet treats in a variety of delicious flavors. They also offer gluten and dairy free options!

Spring Cleaning with safer cleaners

This past week I got around to some cleaning projects. I found a great list of natural, safer cleaners that you can make from simple ingredients you probably have at home on a website by Mothers for Clean Air. The only thing I had to buy was Borax, which is a naturally occurring mineral. It is sold at my Wal-mart as 20 Mule Team Borax and was very inexpensive. So, I made the recipe for "all purpose cleaner" from this list (mixed warm water with a tsp vinegar and a half tsp of borax) in a bowl and used it to clean marks on the walls and clean the baseboards. Now I can put this mixture in an empty spray bottle to clean countertops, etc.

I then made this wonderful natural version of soft scrub to clean my bathrooms. I have always hated cleaning the bathroom because the chemicals in the store-bought cleaners hurt my head and smelled awful. Or they didn't work well. So, here is a recipe I adapted from my Feingold friend, Patti's recipe. I washed out an old soft scrub squirt bottle really well with warm water and funneled the mixture into the bottle after mixing it up in a bowl first. Also, since it doesn't include a disinfectant in it, you might want to spray vinegar on bathroom surfaces to disinfect them.

 Homemade Soft Scrub for your Bathroom

1 2/3 cups baking soda

1/2 cup liquid soap (I used a Feingold approved peppermint oil soap)

2 tablespoons vinegar

1/2 cup water

Mix soda and soap. Add water, then add vinegar and mix with a wire whisk until well blended. Store in a squirt-top bottle and shake before using. Rinse thoroughly to avoid leaving a residue.

This cleaner smelled SO GOOD because of the peppermint oil in the soap. I enjoyed cleaning with it! And, without using gloves, my hands felt softer after cleaning!

Feeding our Families: Real Food for Real Kids

Oh, where do I start? First, a confession: When my firstborn was a toddler, you might have found him standing by the back door watching the squirrels while eating directly out of the Cap’n Crunch cereal box. That is where I came from. I didn’t see the point of organic and believed in the ultimate goodness of the food manufacturers – “if they’re selling it in our grocery stores, it must be fine for us to eat, right?!” Unfortunately, I was sorely mistaken! If you need more convincing check out the new movie, "Food, Inc" or the book by Robin O'Brien "The Unhealthy Truth".

My journey into understanding the importance of food started when my youngest was born. He basically screamed for 2 months non-stop. He had a red rash all over his neck and face. He wanted to nurse constantly and in between would just scream. I knew something was wrong. One day at the Coffee Park, my wonderful friend, Chele, suggested that maybe I should try cutting out milk products from my diet…perhaps it was bugging him. I was desperate for relief and immediately read up on milk intolerance in babies and eliminated cow’s milk and soy from my diet. Joshy miraculously stopped screaming and his skin cleared up. Hallelujah! Any tiny infraction would send him into screaming fits of pain for a day.

A few months later, while researching natural treatments for ADHD for my oldest son, I found the Feingold Association and the negative effect that artificial ingredients has on most children, but especially those with ADHD. I now see clearly that what is sold in our grocery stores is often FAR from what nature intended. I am now a picky shopper and we do not eat artificial colors, flavors or preservatives (made from petroleum or crude oil) and I buy as much organic as I can afford. I believe that I am protecting my family from cancer-causing junk as well as helping their brains work more efficiently. There is always more I could do to make healthy choices, but there are only so many hours in a day and so many pennies in the pocketbook:)

So, moms, this is our place to share all our little secrets about how we provide healthy, delicious food for our family. It's easy to get stuck in a rut...so come here and get inspired with a few new recipes and maybe some new ideas for how to shop and cook well. Post your ideas as comments below. Thanks!