The red#40 versus refined sugar debate

Has anyone had this debate before?

My lil guy had 2 or 3 small pieces of candy from his stocking yesterday morning, and was downright scary all day long. He nearly knocked our tree over, tore around the house like a madman, and was literally uncontrollable. He was terribly disruptive at church last night too (he was caught FIGHTING!!!) & was chewed out by at least 4 leaders at different times, and eventually had to be sent to a time-out for awhile. Today he's trashed his bedroom, hit his sister 3 times that I know of for sure, and is now in a time-out on the sofa with a book... and can't sit still there either. He's fidgeting, getting up, yelling & pounding everything he can reach with the book. I'm running a bath for him right now, in hopes that it might calm him at least a little. I feel like asking him where he came from, and if he could please send my son home because this is not at all the mild-mannered boy with occasional meltdowns that I know! Sure he gets into trouble, but never this often in such a short period of time.

Now *I* think it's Red#40. Moms have believed at least since I was in high school that it causes hyperactivity in some kids, and avoid it like the plague. And yeah, the M&Ms he had were full of it. But DH says it's just that he was on a sugar high. And sure, he could have been yesterday. But 24 hours later?!? I'd have thought it would have left his system by now if it was JUST the sugar affecting him.

The one good thing that's come of this is that DH is now absolutely convinced that something in everyday prepared foods affects our son's behavior. He even suggested that I double-check where I got the a-ok for these candies to be sure he didn't accidentally get anything with gluten in it, and it doesn't look like he did. Before this, he's been a little skeptical of the diet, and going along with it pretty much just to humor me. But we can't seem to agree on whether he simply had too much sugar, or if it's from something else.

Has anyone found any good (preferably by a professional source) articles written on the effects of red#40... or maybe something showing how long a sugar-high ought to last?
love,
mom

 

Maybe it's a combination of the two. I know sugar will turn my son from a complete angel to the devil himself, but eventually his sugar rush will crash, he will sleep a bit and be fine.

 

I definitely believe it's the Red#40. My husband gets super-hyper whenever he eats food with it, and he himself admits he shouldn't be having it. I don't have that problem, but I do think it tends to have that effect on some people for whatever reason. All I know is I see what it does to a grown man (and his admittance that it's done that to him since he was a kid). I don't know much about it, just what my husband has told me and the obnoxious-hyper way he acts when he's had it. He believes it affects him because he has ADD, and may even cause ADD (of course he seems to think everything and it's brother causes ADD). He doesn't even want me eating anything with it while I'm pregnant. I'll have to ask him where he's learned of it.

 

it could be either. I'd suspect the dye, but you just never know. Sounds just like how my kids react to gluten. I have a friend whose kid reacts that way to dairy. The effects of eating sugar stick with me for about a week, it sometimes takes a long time for the body to readjust.


I've seen some articles about it somewhere, probably either the gfcf or food intolerance website I've posted about recently. One major benefit of our diet restrictions is that cooking everything from scratch means we don't ingest dyes and other chemicals that could potentially cause problems.



edit - just because the ingredients don't list any gluten-containing foods, doesn't mean there wasn't the possibility of gluten cross-contamination in packaging or processing. And if there were other kids eating glutenous foods, and then stuck their hands in the food your son ate, or if it was on the same table as food containing wheat, he definitely got exposed.

 

(sigh) Yeah, we did think about fingers, but my kids sit across the table from each other. Still, we just came up with another source of cross-contamination. It's our "butter." We made up two batches of pancakes last night, but we buttered them all from the same tub. We used different knives, but the same darn tub.

Also, even though my husband mixed one batch up at one corner of the kitchen & I mixed the other batch up at the other end & we used different spatulas & pans for cooking them, I think we could have had some airborne contamination. Both batches of flour "poufed" as we poured the liquid ingredients, and it wasn't until this morning as I was buttering toast for my daughter that I realized some of that flying flour could have landed literally anywhere & we'd have never seen it. (sigh) And here we thought we were doing so well, too!

Is there anything else that we could be missing here? As soon as my husband & daughter manage to finish off the pancake batter that's already in the house, all of our from-scratch baking will be gluten-free. And my husband is picking up a second tub of butter on the way home from work. I've been careful to only give him things that were on the celiac-approved lists, but somehow I think we're missing things... like the butter we'd not thought about until this morning.
love,
mom

 

Oh yeah... DH has also finally admitted that maybe my "sugar-nazi" tendencies weren't completely unfounded. He's agreed that perhaps even during the holidays we should steer clear of candies that have artificial colors/flavors.

This is a HUGE step for him! Until now, he's always picked up our holiday candy, because he says I take the "fun" out of it by reading labels & passing up "the fun stuff."
love,
mom

 

I think you found the culprit. It could have been a combination that sent him over the edge, but any wheat products in your kitchen means that anything you cook in there could possibly be cross-contaminated. Even your countertops and pots and pans are source for cross-contamination! Definitely the butter. That exact thing happened at MIL's house once, and we just haven't been back to eat at her place since then. But if it's a tub of butter, check the ingredients too, most of those spreads contain wheat/food starch. Even cottage cheese contains wheat ingredients! And, some food on the approved lists still cause us issues. We can't eat oats of any kind, not even the fancy "gluten-free" oats, for example, not the "gluten-free" cookies and things made with those oats either. It seems like such a pain, but going gluten free has made such a huge difference in our lives I can't imagine ever going back.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if we should try eliminating casein as well. I'd originally said we'd take it 6 months at a time, but something's still affecting him. Still, if I'm not even getting the gluten part right maybe we should just plod on for another few months.

We use the Smart Balance "butter" which is labelled as both gluten-free & vegan. My aunt indroduced it to us a few years ago as a non-butter that can actually be used in baking, and we've never looked back.
love,
mom

 

I haven't had a chance to read this entire article (much less the rest of the website) but this has really struck a chord... http://dogtorj.tripod.com/id26.html oddly enough, my father had ALS, which is mentioned several times. My kids and I cannot tolerate gluten, and while we *are* allergic to dairy, a stuffy nose and dry skin just doesn't seem to warrant total elimination...yet...


had to check on that butter you use... it does contain whey which comes from milk (I was hoping it didn't, so I could cook with it when we visit a friend whose child is galactosemic). It also contains "natural and artificial flavors" which could be anything, we try to avoid mystery ingredients. But at least it has no hydrogenated oils!

 

Organic Smart Balance is completely dairy free, including whey. So is Earth Balance. The regular Smart Balance does have dairy.

 

I use earth balance