FDA says it has seen no evidence that food dyes can cause harm. I believe the FDA would tell a lie if the truth would do. They not only know that it can cause harm but their own FDA toxicologist, Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, wrote a book and exposed the FDA calling attention to these dyes.

Jacqueline Verrett, Ph.D., is the FDA toxicologist, who told Congress that all aspartame studies were built on a foundation of sand and should be thrown out. She wrote a book in l974 called "Eating May Be Hazardous To Your Health". Used copies are still available on the Internet. At that time she had worked 15 years for the FDA. Ralph Nader wrote about the book, "This is a soberly gripping book by a courageous FDA scientist and a lucid consumer writer. The story they tell about the silent violence in your food - how it got there and the FDA's abysmal lack of courage to make the food companies obey the law - makes you want to do something about it. As "Eating May Be Hazardous To Your Health" points out, you can help do it as a tough and active citizen."

Dr. Verrett's book is about additives. She discusses the colors which are simply cosmetic and lets you know there is no reason for them to be on the market. Let's take RED 2 in Chapter 5 titled: The Abortion Pill You May Not Want. "You might have thought the FDA had no forewarning that FD&C Red No. 2, the official name for our most widely used food dye, which gets into practically everything, could possibly be dangerous. That was the official "reaction" when it was learned in 1970 that Russian Scientists had published two new studies incriminating amaranth, another name for the dye. One Russian study showed that the red dye caused cancer in rats; the other was the first to show that the dye caused birth defects, stillbirths, sterility and early fetal deaths in rats given the dye in exceedingly small amounts. In fact, the Russians found a danger to rat fetuses that were fed only 1.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, which is the exact dose established by the World Health organization as the "safe dose" for humans - the acceptable daily intake, or ADI, as it is called. In other words, there was no margin of safety at all."

Consider how long this has been known. Dr. Verrett writes a lot about the food dyes. She says on page 17: "First, the good news: The federal government, mainly the FDA of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and to a lesser extent the US Department of Agriculture, is empowered to keep your food safe for consumption and free of dangerous chemicals. Now the bad news: They do nothing of the kind. As a result our food supply is permeated with chemicals of dubious safety."

Dr. Verrett says MSG is still widely used in all kinds of processed foods, though it has been shown to cause brain damage in infant animals. Of interest is the Liverpool study. http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/msg010306.cfm

The researchers at the University of Liverpool examined the toxic effects on nerve cells in the laboratory of using a combination of four common food additives - aspartame, MSG and the artificial colourings brilliant blue and quinoline yellow. Findings were published in Toxicological Sciences. This study showed that when mouse nerve cells were exposed to MSG and brilliant blue or aspartame and quinoline yellow the additives stopped the nerve cells growing and interfered with proper signalling systems. So why aren't they all banned? This is how they are consumed in the average diet, in combination.

Dr. Verrett said to imagine how much easier it would be if the government would just out with the truth. It would end all that intrigue, all the time-consuming hard work trying to cover up mistakes, juggling scientific data to make it come out right, always assuming a defensive posture, evading responsibility, playing footsie with the industry, assuring everyone that no matter what a few die-hard scientists say and do, there is no need for concern, that our food is the safest in the world and there's not a shred of evidence that anyone has ever been harmed by eating an additive. Verrett said if some food additives were regulated as drugs they would be forbidden - except by prescription, and then forced to carry warnings - especially to pregnant women.

We have deadly aspartame on the market which in reality is a drug masquerading as an additive. It's addictive because of the methanol which is classified as a narcotic and causes chronic methanol poisoning which effects the dopamine system of the brain. This causes the addiction. Because it damages the mitochondria or life of the cell it interacts with virtually all drugs and vaccines. It is literally a chemical poison which causes polychemical sensitivity syndrome. That's why Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon, says the reactions to aspartame are not allergic but toxic like arsenic and cyanide. Do we really need all those additives? Verrett said its surprising that at the turn of the century - a time of little refrigeration, heat sterilization or freezing, and of slow transportation - when you would have thought we needed additives, at least as preservatives, they were soundly rejected by both government and industry. H. W. Wiley, chief of the USDA's Bureau of Chemistry, the predecessor of the present FDA, wrote in his annual report for 1908: "A large number of prominent manufacturers during the year entirely abandoned the use of any kind of preservatives and openly announced their adhesion to the doctrine that drugs should not be placed in foods. Although there have been no suits brought so far involving the addition of chemical preservatives to food, the practice has been so openly discredited by so many first class manufacturers as to warrant the statement that the cause of pure food, in so far as chemical preservatives are concerned, has been firmly established."

One might think by outlawing dyes that are harmful the food industry is at a disadvantage? Dr. Verrett said in her book in l974 a scientist at the Department of Agriculture has estimated that of the seven hundred chemicals now used for flavoring, about thirty could accomplish the same thing. Think of how many there are today. She continues that even in preservation, the area where most of us would consider additives useful, there's doubt that all are really necessary. Dr. Jacobson noted in testimony in 1972 that some makes of vegetable oils, potato chips, shortening and peanuts add BHA and BHT (preservatives) to their products, while their competitors do not. Consider what Dr. Verrett discussed, "For Whose Benefit - Theirs or Ours?" She said: "Given a choice - which we can exercise only through political power - would we really want all those additives in our food? How much do the chemicals benefit us? And how much do they benefit the foodmakers? If we had to take a dangerous drug, we would want to know its potential benefit compared with the risk. But with food additives we often take risks for little or nothing. The benefit - risk ratio for food chemicals often boils down to a great big health risk to you and a great big economic benefit to industry."

Heroine Dr. Jacqueline Verrett who exposed what the FDA always knew and disregarded died after exposing deadly aspartame in the l987 Congressional Record, but her words live on. The study sponsored by Food Standards in the UK showed additives cause behavioral problems. The FDA, the Fatal Drugs Allowed folks, have ignored 100 independent scientific peer reviewed studies that condemn aspartame as a deadly poison. They also ignore the studies on dyes and lie about it.

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

Aspartame Medical Text: Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, http://www.sunsentpress.com H. J. Roberts, M.D.

Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock,M.D., http://www.russellblaylockmd.com

Aspartame Documentary: Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, http://www.soundandfury.tv

MSG web site, http://www.truthinlabeling.org

FDA urged to ban 8 dyes used in food
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2008/06/04/fda_urged_to_ban_8_dyes_used_in_food

By Bloomberg News
June 4, 2008

WASHINGTON - The United States should ban eight food dyes, used in products including General Mills Inc.'s Lucky Charms cereal, because of links to hyperactivity and other disruptive behavior in children, a health advocacy group said.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest said yesterday it petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to outlaw coloring listed on ingredient labels under names such as Blue 2 and Red 40.

Studies over three decades have shown that some children's behaviors are worsened by the dyes, whose use has been rising, according to the center. The FDA says it hasn't seen evidence the food coloring has caused harm. The dyes can simulate the color of fruits or vegetables and are often used in candy, soda, and snack foods aimed at children.

"The continued use of artificial food dyes is the secret shame of the food industry and the cops in Washington that are supposed to be protecting the public from unhealthy ingredients," said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Washington-based center.

The FDA said in a brochure posted on its website, dated November 2004, that there was no evidence linking food coloring to hyperactivity. The agency is unaware of any information since then to change its position, said a spokeswoman in an e-mail.

"Although this hypothesis was popularized in the 1970s, well-controlled studies conducted since then have produced no evidence that food additives cause hyperactivity or learning disabilities in children," according to the agency's brochure.

Products containing the dyes include Kraft Foods Inc.'s guacamole flavor dip, which gets its "greenish" color from Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Blue 1 rather than from avocados, according to the center, which wants to ban each of those dyes. The "blue bits" in Aunt Jemima blueberry waffles, made by a company owned by Blackstone Group LP, are blue because of Red 40 and Blue 2, not blueberries, according to the center.

The group also wants the FDA to ban Green 3, Orange B, and Red 3. Many of the dyes are produced in China and India, according to the center.

The center's petition urges the FDA to require a warning label on foods with artificial dyes while it considers the request to ban them.