Warning: This is going to be one of those soapbox posts. So if you don't want to read a rant about food that can harm your kids, it's time to click elsewhere.

Whew! I feel better already.

Last week, the eminent British medical journal The Lancet published a study by British researchers that linked a very common food preservative to hyperactivity in children. They found that, when combined with certain common artificial colorings, the preservative, sodium benzoate caused children to lose focus and become hyperactive.

Why am I writing about this in a blog about adopting from Russia? I've written before that I worry that the nutrition that my kids had early in their lives or before birth was probably less than optimal. If I want to help my boys reach their full potential, I've got to close that nutrition gap. That means lots of fruits and vegetables--and no junk food. It also means, in my house, no meat, poultry or dairy produced with hormones or antibiotics, and lots of organic produce. My kids get antibiotics from the pediatrician when they have a bacterial infection; they don't need it in their burgers. And they definitely don't need food additives that will compromise their performance in school.

The sodium benzoate study was funded by a grant from Britain's Food Standards Agency (the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Researchers at the University of Southampton studied the behavior of 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight-year-olds from the city of Southampton. According to a press release from the university, the researchers did not pick children solely because they had a previous behavioral problem or food sensitivities, but instead put together group representative of the city's population.

The kids' families were asked to keep them off the additives being tested. The researchers then gave the kids one drink a day that had either a food coloring and sodium benzoate mixture or just fruit juice. Those who got the former showed what the researchers called a significant increase in movement, impulsivity and inattention.

"We now have clear evidence that mixtures of certain food colours and benzoate preservative can adversely influence the behaviour of children," said Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology who led the research team, in a statement. "There is some previous evidence that some children with behavioural disorders could benefit from the removal of certain food colours from their diet." That last statement may be a reference to the Feingold Diet, which advocated cutting out all artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives as a way to help kids with ADHD. But Stevenson went on to caution that, "parents should not think that simply taking these additives out of food will prevent all hyperactive disorders. We know that many other influences are at work but this at least is one a child can avoid."

And so I scoured my pantry shelves for any of the problem combos. (There's a list of the food coloring used at the bottom of the Wikipedia page on sodium benzoate.) I found only a jar of pickled jalapenos and some Chinese mustard. The kids don't eat either, but I ditched them just in case.

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