Yellow 5, a synthetic food dye also known as tartrazine, is a USDA-approved food color present in many foods and other products. You might expect to find it in foods such as lemon pudding or soft drinks like Mellow Yellow (tm), and certainly in yellow-colored candy like cotton candy and candy corn. But do you know that Yellow 5 shows up in (among other things) potato and tortilla chips, in jam, mustard, yogurt, and (believe it or not) in pickles?
That’s right, being the fanatic that I am, I am compelled to read labels when I shop (more now than ever, it seems), and on my last shopping trip to replenish my husband’s supply of pickles (of which he goes through in gallon jars every month or two), I decided to check out the label. After inspecting each brand available on the grocery store shelf and finding Yellow #5 in every single one, I walked away without pickles... but the search continues.
So, what’s so bad about a little Yellow #5 food color in your pickles, you might ask? Probably nothing if you ate one pickle a year, or a month, or maybe even a week. But herein lies the problem: saturation. It is conventional wisdom that a little bit of anything probably won’t hurt you. But what happens when that something shows up in nearly everything you eat? How do you know when a substance crosses the threshold of becoming dangerous to your health?
According to several sites I explored (listed below), here are some of the suspected health effects of tartrazine:
- Allergic reactions (mild itching, skin rashes)
- Hypersensitivity
- “Seems to” cause hyperactivity in some children
- Blurred vision
- Migraine
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
- Sleep disturbance
- Purple skin patches
- Cancer
This substance is banned in Austria and Norway, but is legal most everywhere else-- and, of course, our U.S. government has deemed it safe for ingestion (so it MUST be safe, right?) Wikipedia (the expert on everything) cited this result from mammal research: “Tartrazine adversely affects and alters biochemical markers in vital organs, e.g., liver and kidney, not only at higher doses, but also at low doses.”
How much is too much? Who knows? One thing is certain: if you or your child eats primarily processed food, you are probably getting enough in your diet to adversely affect your health.
I know...I'm worrying about nothing. It's just a little food color, right? Easter eggs, frosted birthday cakes loaded with dye...the government wouldn't allow anything in our food supply if it was dangerous. Silly me. I'm probably overreacting....
When I was in high school, I suffered from a lot of headaches and after doing an elimination diet, I determined that yellow #5 was the most likely culprit. I ate a lot of pickles. Now I make my own or buy Bubbies brand. They are more expensive so you might just have to ration them out :-)
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