Take a look at the two packages for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain cereal bars. One is made here for us. The other is made in the UK for Europeans. Both use food coloring to achieve a more “strawberry-ish” color.

In the UK, the coloring is achieved using beetroot. But in the US, the coloring is Red No. 40, a dye that has been associated with hyperactivity, and some types of cancer.

Why not use the beetroot? The answer is that Kellogg’s probably saves half a penny on each bar using an artificial dye rather than using a natural one.

So why does Kellogg’s use the beets in Europe? Because in Europe the regulator has required WARNING LABELS on products with Red 40. Just like cigarettes. Kellogg’s did the bottom line calculation and decided the loss in sales would cause much more damage than the savings on the food dye.

But in the US, the FDA has given red 40 a GRAS status (Generally recognized as Safe). The reason is one of approach:

In Europe manufacturers need to prove an ingredient is SAFE beyond a shadow of a doubt for it to be approved for use.

In the US researchers need to prove an ingredient is DANGEROUS beyond a shadow of a doubt for it to be banned.

Bummer. But as CSPI reports, the FDA is planning to review the matter:

The news that the Food and Drug Administration, in response to CSPI’s 2008 petition, will convene an advisory committee meeting to discuss the link between food dyes and children’s behavior is welcome and overdue.  Yellow 5, Red 40, and other commonly used food dyes have long been shown in numerous clinical studies to impair children’s behavior.  But for years, FDA—which actually commissioned one of the first controlled studies—dismissed the mounting evidence against the dyes.

Maybe there is hope for change. After all, our kids deserve better.

What you need to know:

Since we’re talking about a product many families have in their pantry, we thought you’d like to know what else is lurking inside. Here’s how Fooducate’s iphone app rates Nutri-Grain:

This is the ingredient list:

Filling (High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Strawberry Puree Concentrate, Glycerin, Sugar, Water, Sodium Alginate, Modified Corn Starch, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Sodium Citrate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Methylcellulose, Caramel Color, Malic Acid, Red No. 40), Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Whole Wheat Flour, Sunflower and/or Soybean Oil with TBHQ for Freshness, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Contains Two Percent or Less of Honey, Dextrose, Calcium Carbonate, Soluble Corn Fiber, Nonfat Dry Milk, Wheat Bran, Salt, Cellulose, Potassium Bicarbonate (Leavening), Natural and Artificial Flavor, Mono- and Diglycerides, Propylene Glycol Esters of Fatty Acids, Soy Lecithin, Wheat Gluten, Niacinamide, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Carrageenan, Zinc Oxide, Reduced Iron, Guar Gum, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid.

Mostly sugar and fillers, questionable preservatives, and artificial flavors. Sounds more like a candy bar than a cereal bar.

Even if Kellogg’s gets around to changing the coloring to beets, consider this a snack, just like Snickers, not wholesome way to start off the day.

What to do at the supermarket:

Don’t buy candy masquerading as a healthy food. If a bar starts off with sugars as the first ingredients, put it back and choose something else.

What if I told you that 90% of the foods you eat are FAKE? I bet even those of you who think you are eating healthy are actually consuming a ton of artificial, processed and preserved foods.

Breakfast – frozen waffle made up high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors? Top it off with a fake syrup.

Lunch deli meat on processed bread?

Dinner – Pasta filled with preservatives and jarred sauce with high fructose corn syrup?

I have been preaching eating whole foods for a long time. But I don’t think you are getting what that means. Today, 90% of the foods Americans eat are processed!

You need to eat foods that are grown, fished or killed (sorry to be brutal here).

Here’s another way to think about it. Are the foods you are eating something you could make in your home? You wouldn’t bake yourself a bread with transfats, artificial colors and additives would you?

Let’s face it. Food companies are in business. They make $ by making foods cheap and making them last and last on the shelves of the grocery store.

It’s tricky. For instance, you think when you get sliced turkey from the deli that this is a healthy low fat protein. MOST deli turkeys are totally processed. They take the scraps of meat that are left over from cutting up the premium meat cuts, grind or dice them up and form them into a “consistent” product. Most are filled with sodium nitrate, artificial colors and flavors. Why? You can buy a good quality turkey from markets like Trader Joe’s and Whole foods and the ingredients will read Turkey (and maybe salt or honey or another natural flavor). It’s true it won’t last as long and it may be more expensive but it will be REAL food!

I just read Jillian Michael’s book, Master Your Metabolism. She confirms everything I have been teaching about health but truly helped ME understand why it’s important from a scientific point of view. In her book, you will understand how these processed foods and toxins in our envrionment are destroying our bodies and our world.

It’s a definite MUST READ in my opinion if you value your health and the health of your children!

Dr. Greene’s Answer:

In small amounts, neither diet or regular soda is very harmful. But of course, neither has great benefits.

I have no problems with sugar when it comes naturally with fiber such as with fresh fruits. When it comes to soda, you may not want your child to develop a taste for sugary sodas because the amount he consumes may not stay small. Sugar is loaded with calories and it puts stress on the body’s mechanisms for regulating energy levels.

As for artificial sweeteners, the best research on NutraSweet (aspartame) has not shown any conclusive problems. In the body, it breaks down into two amino acids that are naturally a part of the diet. However, the long term effects of drinking diet soda has yet to be determined. Interestingly, a recent study showed an association between diet soda consumption and an increased risk for heart disease and diabetes (Circulation Feb 12, 2008). Although this finding needs to be confirmed by more research, it’s something to think about.

Personally, I prefer water, milk, and flavored waters (i.e. water with pieces of fruit, vegetables or herbs for flavor).

Dr. Greene’s Answer:

Children do not need to eat large amounts of sugar. In the 1800s, the average American consumed 12 pounds of sugar per year. By 1975, however, after the overwhelming success of the refined-food industry, the 12 pounds had jumped to a world-leading 118 pounds per year, and jumped again to 137.5 pounds per capita (for every man, woman, and child) by 1990. (Food Consumption, Prices and Expenditures, United States Department of Agriculture, 1991).

The effect of sugar intake on children’s behavior is a hotly debated topic in pediatrics. Parents and educators often contend that sugar and other carbohydrate ingestion can dramatically impact children’s behavior, particularly their activity levels. Physicians, on the other hand, have looked at controlled studies of sugar intake and have not found hypoglycemia or other blood sugar abnormalities in children who are consuming large amounts of sugar.

An interesting article appears in the February 1996 edition of the Journal of Pediatrics. In contrast with other research teams, William Tamborlane, MD, et al of Yale University, leaders in child nutrition, reported a more pronounced response to a glucose load in children than in adults.

It is commonly acknowledged that as blood glucose levels fall, a compensatory release of adrenaline occurs. When the blood glucose level falls below normal, the resulting situation is called hypoglycemia. Signs and symptoms that accompany this include shakiness, sweating, and altered thinking and behavior.

Tamborlane and his colleagues demonstrated that this adrenaline release occurs at higher glucose levels in children than it does in adults. In children, it occurs at a blood sugar level that would not be considered hypoglycemic. The peak of this adrenaline surge comes about 4 hours after eating. The authors reason that the problem is not sugar, per se, but highly refined sugars and carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream quickly and produce more rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels.

Giving your child a breakfast that contains fiber (such as oatmeal, shredded wheat, berries, bananas, or whole-grain pancakes) should keep adrenaline levels more constant and make the school day a more wondrous experience. Packing her or his lunch box with delicious, fiber-containing treats (such as whole-grain breads, peaches, grapes, or a myriad of other fresh fruits) may turn afternoons at home into a delight.

Refined sugars also affect insulin control, which decides how much fat they will store for the rest of their lives. As a child, I had HoHos, Twinkies, and Ding Dongs as regular parts of my meals because my mother, like so many of that era, wanted to give her children a nice treat. We both shudder now to think of it.

Sugar is not just found in sweets or junk cereal. It’s in almost everything. When you look at labels, you find sugar, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, sorbitol, or corn syrup on almost every label. The more simple meals from whole foods contain much less sugar.

Fruit juices contain lots of simple sugar without much fiber. Many people think of juices as health foods. This simply isn’t true. In small quantities they are fine, but they are mainly a way to get many of the calories and some of the nutrients from a substance, without getting as full and without getting the needed fiber. And children who drink more than 12 ounces of fruit juice per day are, on average, shorter and fatter than those who don’t.