Research Findings
Many studies show that 70% or more of hyperactive children respond positively to the removal of synthetic additives, especially when salicylates or allergens are removed. There is controversy, however, over what happens when researchers take children whose behavior has improved on a diet that eliminates several thousand additives, and then challenge them with one or a few additives, usually synthetic colors.
Especially in the early studies, if such a challenge did not produce a change in behavior, researchers often concluded that the diet had not directly caused the initial improvement in behavior. Rather, the assumption was that the improvement had been due to a placebo effect.
There are other possible reasons for the failure of a challenge to evoke a response, however. For example, the amount of additive used as a challenge might have been too small to cause an effect. Rowe & Rowe in 1994 found a dose-related effect; the higher the amount of coloring he used for his double-blind challenge, the stronger (and longer) the reaction of the children. The following chart lists the amount of coloring used in various studies along with the rate of response:
| Name of Researcher
and Year Published |
Amount of Food Dye
Challenge Used in Study |
Percent of Children w/Behavioral
Reactions to Food Dye Challenge |
|---|---|---|
| Levy 1978 | 4 mg in cookies w/1 mg each | 0% of 8 children
1 child was dropped from study when behavior deteriorated on challenge |
| Levy 1978 | 5 mg in cookies w/1 mg each
testing done day AFTER challenge |
0% of 12 children |
| Wilson 1989 | 17 mg | 5% of 19 children |
| Weiss 1980 | 35.26 mg | 9% of 22 children (not ADHD) |
| Williams 1978 | 26 mg | 11% of 26 children |
| Goyette 1978 (a) | 26 mg | 19% of 16 children showed visual tracking problem;
Behavior of all the children was worse after eating food dye, but not significantly so |
| Goyette 1978 (b) | 26 mg, using younger children
This is a higher dose in a younger child |
100% of 8 children were impaired by food dye |
| Rowe 1988 | 50 mg | 25% of 8 children |
| Rowe 1994 | 50 mg | 64.7% of 34 children |
| Boris 1994 | 100 mg or 5 g other provoking food | 81% of 16 children |
| Swanson 1980 | 100 & 150 mg | 85% of 20 children |
| Pollock 1989 | 125 mg | 89.5% of 19 children |
| Egger 1985 | 150 mg | 79% of 34 children |
Considering that in 1976 an FDA scientist estimated that children may be consuming up to 315 mg food dye per day, all the above studies appear to be overly conservative in their choice of challenge amounts. In addition, the effect of an additive might only be seen in synergy with other additives or foods, or the additive used for the challenge may simply not be among those causing the original effect.
Read more about this topic: Feingold Diet
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“Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)