Morning Coffee

There is a general adverse effect of artificial food colouring and benzoate preservatives on the behaviour of 3 year old children which is detectable by parents but not by a simple clinic assessment.

[...] Our study has shown that the effect of food additives on behaviour occurs independently of pre-existing hyperactive behaviour or indeed atopic status. This is consistent with other studies which have tended to suggest that if food additives have an effect at all, it is via a pharmacological effect which is best exemplified by the non-IgE dependent histamine release. We believe that this suggests that benefit would accrue for all children if artificial food colours and benzoate preservatives were removed from their diet. These findings are sufficiently strong to warrant attempts at replication in other general population samples and to examine whether similar benefits of the removal of artificial colourings and sodium benzoate from the diet could be identified in community samples at older ages.