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First-ever study shows alarming amounts of dye in some foods

Feeding a child two cups of boxed macaroni and cheese, a small bag of Skittles, and 8 ounces of orange soda means they will consume nearly 3 times the amount of food dyes known to cause adverse reactions in some people.

That's just one startling finding in a new report cited by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

In fact, the study shows that some of those reactions may include behavioral problems.

Your little lots may not be reacting to the amount of sugar in that snack, but rather the amount of food dye.

Several studies have pointed to those possible adverse side effects, but the new research by Purdue University (published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics) is the first to actually document the amounts of dyes found in several popular foods.

For example, this snippet from the CSPI web article:

General Mills' Trix cereal lists Yellow 6, Blue 1, and Red 40 on its ingredients list. But until now, no one would have known that Trix had 36.4 milligrams of those chemicals. Fruity Cheerios had 31 mg of food dyes, also some combination of Red 40, Yellow 6, and Blue 1. Of all the cereals tested, the one with the most artificial dyes was Cap'n Crunch's Oops! All Berries, with 41 mg.

The Purdue researchers say the amount of artificial food dye certified for use by the FDA increased 500 percent (per capita) in the U.S. between 1950 and 2012.

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