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Health conscious consumers read labels. Not so health conscious consumers read the headlines of the gossip rags during supermarket checkouts. Okay, anyone's eyes can stray there at any given moment, but that's not the point.
Reading labels obviously educates the consumer about levels of nutrients in foods and the laundry list of ingredients included. The list of ingredients will include some not-so-food-sounding ingredients, such as Yellow No. 5, a food additive used to alter or enhance the color of the food product. These additives are not without their side effects. Some people may develop allergies to these food dyes. Even worse, Red No. 2 was banned in 1976 as a suspected carcinogen.
Organic foods want to be pretty, too. Unfortunately not all of these foods have a natural beauty in the supermarket aisles of the beholders. There's a great article about this in the Dallas Morning News. Some strains of organic beets for example are grown strictly for color purposes. And for a food product to be labeled as "100% Organic" then any colorings must be from an organic plant.
Perhaps we'll someday see organic crayons replacing the non-toxic ones on the market. Then when my toddler chews on them I may not stop him, I may just encourage him. The beet red he just pulled out of his crayon box, might be the closest thing to a vegetable I'll get him to eat all day.
Comments
I’d just like to add a link to an article on Red No. 2 that originally appeared in Time magazine in 1976, entitled Death of a Dye. I thought a few of you might find it interesting.