November 12, 2024 • 45 mins
Join me, Nika Lawrie, and my dear friend Kelley DeLong as we uncover the hidden dangers of artificial dyes like Red 40 and Yellow 5 in kids’ foods and their potential link to behavioral issues like ADHD. Kelley shares her journey as a mother navigating the food industry to support her son, while we spotlight the financial motives behind synthetic additives and the need for vigilant label-reading. Plus, we explore Vani Hari’s (The Food Babe) campaign against Kellogg’s use of artificial dyes in the U.S., practical tips for healthier shopping, and ways to involve your kids in making better food choices.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nika Lawrie (00:17):
Hey everybody, welcome back to Inspired with
Nika Larie.
I, of course, am your host,Nika Laurie, and today I am
joined again by one of my verybest friends.
Her name is Kelly DeLong.
I almost called you Stout.
You're no longer Stout, you area DeLong.
But anyways, welcome to theshow.
I'm so excited to have you heretoday.
Kelley DeLong (00:38):
Thank you, I'm excited to be with you.
Nika Lawrie (00:39):
Yeah, so this is.
I think I asked you to be oneof my very first guests on the
podcast when I started it, likefour years ago, and so I'm so
excited that I've actuallyfinally convinced you to come on
the show and have aconversation with me.
So we are going to talk aboutfood additives like artificial
(00:59):
dyes, preservatives, differentthings like that, and some of
their health impacts on kids,especially relating to ADHD.
I think that's a really bigtopic that's going on now and I
know you have some connection tothat.
Do you mind just sharing alittle bit about your connection
and then I will hand it over toyou to be my host and ask away?
Ask different questions.
Kelley DeLong (01:20):
Yeah, sounds good .
So I have a wonderfulnine-year-old son questions.
Yeah, sounds good.
So I have a wonderfulnine-year-old son and he has
been diagnosed with ADHD, and so, as a mom, I just want to find
out ways to help him and be mostsuccessful, and I have just
heard so much about foodadditives and dyes and different
things like that that make suchan impact on kids' behavior, so
(01:41):
the more I can find out aboutthat, the better.
Nika Lawrie (01:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's such an importanttopic and I think I want to
preface this too, because somany of the listeners are women
not just mothers, but women whohaven't had children yet and the
thing to know is that a lot ofthese additives can really
impact women's health as well.
So it's kind of a broaderconversation.
It's really all people can beaffected by these additives.
(02:05):
So keep that in mind for thelistener while you're listening,
that you know we're going totalk a lot about how it impacts
children, but I'll add in piecesabout how it will impact
women's health as well.
So with that, kelly, take itaway, be my host.
Ask the first question.
Kelley DeLong (02:19):
Sure, so we'll start pretty basic.
So can you explain to us kindof what food dyes are and why
they are so commonly used infoods today?
It?
Nika Lawrie (02:29):
from turmeric.
There's paprika spirulina,which is like a seaweed.
You can get it from spinachcarrot juice.
There's all kinds of naturaldyes that companies can use to
(02:52):
put in food.
Those pretty much are all okayand safe and they really don't
impact people because they comefrom natural ingredients.
On the flip side of that, themuch more dangerous or
concerning side of that, isartificial dyes.
So artificial dyes are productsthat come from manufactured
ingredients.
So chemicals were used toactually create these dyes and
(03:14):
then these dyes were put intodifferent types of food to make
them look more appealing,especially to children,
especially to children.
A lot of food diets are used inproducts marketed specifically
to children because it's likebright and colorful, it's
engaging for the kids and so itreally kind of sucks them in.
Those artificial diets can havea lot of different health
(03:35):
impacts that are really reallyconcerning, and the research is
growing over and over.
It's getting a much larger viewon how it's impacting our
health and children's healththan ever before.
The conversation is reallystarting to grow.
One of the reasons whymanufacturers use this is
because it's also cheaper to usethe artificial dyes than it is
(03:57):
to use the naturally produceddyes.
Kelley DeLong (04:01):
My next question is when there is a natural
option, why use the chemicals?
Nika Lawrie (04:07):
Yeah, because it's cheaper.
That's the biggest thing.
Pretty much anything thathappens in the food industry is
going to be driven by profits.
So anything that they can do tomanufacture the product as
cheaply as possible and thensell it at the highest possible
dollar amount that they can sellit at, they're going to do so.
They can increase profit.
(04:28):
The thing is with that is thatmany food companies that make
their products and sell them inthe US have artificial dyes, but
they have the exact same recipein other countries like Europe
or India or Germany differentthings like that that don't use
these artificial dyes.
(04:49):
So we know that they are ableto make and manufacture the same
foods without using theartificial dyes.
Kelley DeLong (04:57):
So are there specific additives?
So there's food dyes and alsoprobably some additives too.
Can you kind of go over what weshould look out for, what those
are specifically?
Nika Lawrie (05:11):
Yeah.
So the big three food dyes likethere's a whole section of food
dyes, but the big three thatyou really want to be concerned
about is red 40, blue two andyellow 5.
And especially relating to ADHD, the biggest two would be red
40 and yellow 5.
Those you'll see in almost allcolorful foods.
(05:33):
So thinking about cereals,thinking about candies, a lot of
fruit bars or different thingsthat look healthy but actually
include those dyes.
The dyes are in them, they'reincluded as well, and so you
really have to flip over the boxand read the ingredients to
make sure those dyes aren't inthe box.
(05:54):
Those are kind of the biggestones.
Some of the other additives aregoing to be preservatives, and
sweeteners are a big one.
Also, emulsifiers can beanother big thing, so I'll give
you a couple examples forsweeteners.
So high fructose corn syrup isa huge one.
You want to avoid that, nomatter who you are, at all costs
(06:14):
.
It's just one of the worstthings that you can ingest.
But it can also reallyexaggerate hyperactivity and
mood swings in kids, and so it'sa big issue and it's in a lot
of products sold to kids.
Aspartame, which is anotherartificial sweetener, that can
cause behavioral issues andinflammation in the body and so
(06:36):
you really want to try to avoidaspartame.
And then, talking about theemulsifiers, you're going to
have things like, um, uh,carrageenan.
I always have a hard timesaying that that's a really
common emulsifier.
You'll see it in things like,um, almond milk or alternative
(06:56):
milks, um, like nut milks tohelp it stay creamy, to help it
stay kind of mixed together.
Sometimes you'll see it inthings like yogurts or salad
dressings.
It basically helps all theingredients stay mixed together
so it doesn't drop down, likethe heavy ingredients don't drop
(07:17):
down and the oils sit on top orsomething.
It makes it look more appealingand it keeps it all cohesive
and mixed together.
Makes it look more appealingand it keeps it all cohesive and
mixed together.
And then, thinking about some ofthe preservatives you're going
to have BHA, bht and TBHQ.
I remember I did a post,probably like two years ago,
(07:39):
about TBHQ and no longer eatingReese's peanut butter cups
because oh, yes, yeah, and thewhole thing went viral.
It's kind of crazy.
It's my first viral post.
It was exciting.
But those can causehyperactivity and kids are
especially sensitive to thosespecific preservatives.
And preservatives are used toextend shelf life, basically.
(08:03):
So help products stay.
I'm going to say stay good,stay usable longer on the shelf
so they don't go bad.
Basically.
Kelley DeLong (08:15):
Okay, so we know that there's a correlation
between the additives and thefood dyes and behavior, but can
you go into a little more depthon how those chemicals work in a
kid's brain and even, like yousaid, extending it out to
women's health, how thosechemicals react in our body to
have this poor outcome?
Can you kind of explain that alittle bit more?
Nika Lawrie (08:37):
Yeah, so there's in the kids.
I mean, for all people there'skind of two big factors Women.
There's a third factor that'snot quite as prevalent in kids,
so I'll go into that one in aminute.
But the two biggest things tounderstand is that a lot of
these additives, the dyes, thepreservatives, so on they
disrupt neurological function,and so what that means is the
(08:59):
way your neurons in your brainare communicating with each
other, interacting.
These chemicals can disruptthat function so that your
neurons aren't triggeringcorrectly, they're not
communicating, the message isn'tgetting sent all the way across
.
So different things can happen,but that's one of the biggest
ones is it disrupts neurologicalfunction, and so, especially
(09:23):
with a kid who has ADHD, who'salready kind of their brain is
functioning a little bitdifferent than what you would
say kind of the average person,having more neurological
disruption can cause, canexaggerate, the behavioral
issues or the mood swings andthings that they're already
dealing with.
On the other side of that too,things that they're already
(09:47):
dealing with On the other sideof that too, there's the
gut-brain connection, and so ourguts can be impacted by these
additives.
Our gut is one of the biggestcontrolling factors of how we
feel, how our body functions,how healthy we are.
If our gut is out of whack, ourwhole body is going to be out
of whack, and so these additivescan impact our gut in different
(10:12):
ways.
They can block hormones thatare produced in the gut and then
sent throughout the body, andyour hormones are your messenger
system of the body.
It tells your body what to doat different times.
So if those hormones are notbeing produced correctly in your
gut, that's going to causeissues throughout your body.
The other thing that happens isthat the gut sends different
messages to your brain, and ifthose messages aren't being sent
(10:34):
correctly or being disrupted,your brain's going to have more,
it's going to struggle more,and then you're going to have
those dysfunctions like wetalked about a moment ago with
neurological dysfunction.
On the women's side, the otherthing that can happen, which I
kind of talked about with thegut and the hormones, is some of
these chemicals not all, butsome of them can also be
(10:56):
endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
So again, your endocrine systemis your hormone system.
Most of the time, this happensto women who have hormonal
issues or hormonal imbalances.
But you'd be surprised thepopulation in the United States
how many women actually havehormonal dysfunction.
It's a large population,especially women who are
(11:19):
starting to move intoperimetopause or menopause.
So any woman that's probably 30through 60 can be especially
sensitive to these differentadditives and really need to be
considerate about how muchthey're ingesting and see if
it's giving you issues or you'rehaving side effects from these
(11:40):
different additives.
Kelley DeLong (11:42):
So I know I kind of asked the question earlier
about why they use theartificial dyes as opposed to
natural, and you said a lot hasto do with profits, of course.
But I want to touch onsomething else.
I know I've heard a lot aboutKellogg's and things going on
with them, and so could you gointo specifically the issue with
(12:02):
Kellogg's right now and whythey continue to use these dyes?
Nika Lawrie (12:06):
Yeah, absolutely so .
This is a crazy story that'shappening right now.
So, for those of you listening,we are recording on November
2nd.
I know this will come out in acouple weeks, so things may have
changed in the time since we'verecorded when you're listening,
but the Kellogg's issue hasbeen going on for the last
(12:28):
really couple of years, but it'skind of really blown up in the
last about three weeks.
So in 2015,.
Kellogg's the company thatmakes a lot of the cereals that
children eat.
They are the parent company ofa lot of other products as well.
If you want to see the products, I have a bunch of them listed
on my social media account soyou can go look at all the
(12:49):
different brands that catalogsis the parent company of, but
just to give a couple examples.
So they they're like the parentcompany of Fruit Loops.
Fruit Loops is the kind of thebiggest one that everyone keeps
talking about.
Yeah, so catalogs, in 2015, cameout and said that they were
going to remove artificial dyesand BHT from their cereals by
(13:11):
2018.
As of 2024, they still have notdone that.
They have, however, removed allof those chemicals from Froot
Loops and other cereals aroundthe world, so they don't have
them in India, they don't havethem in Germany, they don't have
them in Europe in any of othercereals around the world.
So they don't have them inIndia, they don't have them in
Germany, they don't have them inEurope in any of those cereals.
So, like I said earlier, weknow that they can manufacture
(13:34):
these foods without these dyesbecause they're doing it in
other countries that have morerestrictive rules and laws than
the US does.
So we know they can do it, butthey're choosing not to do it in
the United States, even thoughmore and more research is coming
out showing that this really iscausing issues, especially in
(13:54):
children.
Children are the most sensitivepopulation to these dyes and
additives, and children withADHD are even more sensitive
than the average child.
Regular children are beingaffected by it too, and they can
have mood swings and behavioralissues and cognitive
dysfunction issues, but ADHD areeven more impacted by it.
(14:17):
They're more sensitive to it.
So Kellogg's said they weregoing to remove it.
They got all of the media andpraise because they said they
were going to remove it.
They got all of the media andpraise because they said they
were going to remove it and thenthey never did.
And so there's a community ofactivists primarily led by a
woman named Vani Hari.
She's known as the food babe inthe influencer world, but Vani
(14:38):
Hari has spent the last probablydecade, maybe even 15 years
being a food advocate, and shedoes tons of research and
studies and puts out a lot ofwork about how these different
ingredients are impacting ourhealth, especially for children.
She's really big on protectingchildren and so she started to
(15:02):
put together a petition,probably a year or two ago, to
petition Kellogg's to removethese artificial dyes and BHT
from their cereals.
She started reaching out toKellogg's asking them to remove
this a couple, probably about ayear ago, and it's been an
ongoing journey.
About three weeks ago let mejust preface before she shows up
(15:27):
at Kellogg's office she reachedout to them multiple, multiple
times asking for meetings,asking to have conversations.
Lots of other activists,including myself, sent letters
and emails asking them toconsider removing this, and it
was radio silence from Kellogg's.
I did actually get a letterresponse, but it was basically a
(15:49):
BS like.
We're so grateful for yourfeedback.
Thanks so much.
Yeah, I was I sent it to Kellybecause it was so funny and so
Kellogg's basically just wantednothing to do with it.
So then about three weeks ago,vani Hari and probably about a
thousand, maybe even 1500 moms,children and other food
(16:14):
activists, local legislaturesfrom the area showed up, media
showed up.
They showed up on Kellogg'scampus and asked for a meeting
and by that time Vani Hari hadcollected 417,000 signed
(16:34):
petitions from everydayAmericans asking them to remove
these harmful chemicals from thefood that they're selling to
children in the United States,because, again, they've already
removed them from the foodproducts the exact same products
in other countries.
When they showed up there,kellogg's informed their staff
(16:55):
not to show up to work that day,so they basically shut down the
Kellogg's office.
There were a handful ofleadership still at the
Kellogg's office.
They were up on the fourthfloor or the top floor of the
building.
There's videotapes all oversocial media of them looking out
the windows and like smirkingand making kind of nasty faces
(17:15):
at these families.
I mean when I say it was momsand children, like it was kids
on the lawn asking them toremove these products.
And Kellogg's responded withholding a sign up through the
window that said get off my lawn.
And then they sent out asecurity guard who the security
(17:37):
guard was like a third partysecurity, like he didn't even
work for Kellogg's he was justsome security guard company guy
and asked that guy wasresponsible for asking the
people to leave the Kellogg'scampus.
They did not let him in.
They did not accept thepetitions.
Kellogg's just said get off mylawn.
Since then, kellogg's has notdone anything to remove the
(18:01):
foods.
They have not done anything toaddress the matters.
There's several othercelebrities that have been
joining the movement.
Eva Mendes is a good example ofthat.
There's a bunch of them whohave also asked Kellogg's to
remove these chemicals andKellogg's has instead done a PR
campaign to basically make allthese celebrities look like
(18:27):
horrible people or uneducatedpeople or people that don't know
the research, when the researchis very clear.
These chemicals are impactingchildren and they impact
children in different ways, butwe know for sure that they are
impacting children.
So there's a large campaigncalled Cancel Kellogg's or
(18:48):
Boycott Kellogg's.
It's all over social media, butit's been picked up by the
media across the country, allover the place.
So there's a large movement toboycott Kellogg's right now.
(19:36):
You were talking about how, inother countries, same company
however, these additives havebeen eliminated Now, yes, the
company should.
Countries.
The reason that it's not intheir food is because they're.
I guess maybe their version ofthe FDA or regulatory bodies are
(19:57):
mostly run by individualswho've either worked in big food
, big agriculture or big pharmabig agriculture or big pharma
and they come over and they runthe industry or the regulative
organization for a while andthen they go back to big food or
big pharma and they come back,so they're interchangeable
people, basically, and so thereisn't a clear divide between the
(20:18):
regulatory agency and theindustry, right Like the big
food industry or the big pharmaindustry, and so there's a lot
of um conflict of interestsgoing on right there.
There's also a ton of money umthat come from lobbyists, um
from big food, big pharma, bigagriculture and so on, that um
(20:39):
influence how things areregulated, how bills are passed
in Congress, Um and lots ofother campaigns happen to help
control how things are regulatedin this country, and so there's
a lot of conflict of interest.
There is that the way ourregulatory bodies work here in
(21:10):
the United States is thatthere's not enough money in the
government to actually test andverify that all of these
products are safe, and so you'llsee this not just in food I
know we're talking about foodtoday but you'll see it in the
makeup industry, the personalcare industry, in like the
agriculture, so thinking about,like glyphosate and all these
pesticides and herbicides, thosekinds of things.
So there's not enough money inour government put towards these
(21:33):
regulatory agencies to actuallytest to make sure all of these
products are safe and notharmful to citizens and not
harmful to animals and theenvironment.
So we, as in the US, Americans,are dependent on these
companies to produce tests thatshow results that say that these
(21:56):
products are not harmful for us.
So the people making theproduct, the people using the
product, are the people that aretesting and creating the tests
that say these products are notharmful.
If that's not a conflict ofinterest, I don't know what is
right.
So in Europe or some of theother countries that I mentioned
(22:16):
, this is not the case.
The regulatory bodies are much,much stricter than we are here
in the United States, and manyof them either test and regulate
themselves through thegovernment, or they use third
party testers to verify thesafety of these different
chemical ingredients, and sothey have found over and over
(22:38):
and over again that many ofthese products or these
chemicals, these additives, areharmful in different manners to
people's health, and so they'vechose to ban them.
For food dyes, for example, somefood dyes are still allowed in
food in the European Union, butthey're required to have warning
(23:00):
labels on the food so thatpeople are aware that if you're
eating this, it could impactyour health.
Where we don't have thosewarning labels, there are
thousands and thousands ofchemicals that have never even
been tested for safety, Whereasin the US, if you talk about the
big grand scheme of chemicals,this is not just food ads, this
(23:22):
is all the chemicals that areused in different products.
We've only ever banned fivehere in the United States, where
the EU has banned about 1,500.
Many of those 1,500 are stillused in products in the US every
single day, and so reallyunderstanding that we have a
very skewed, very biasedregulatory system that is really
(23:47):
not regulating anything, and soit's now up to the consumer to
get educated and to be aware ofthese issues and to do whatever
they can to protect themselvesand their families.
Kelley DeLong (23:59):
Unfortunately, that's what I was going to say.
Next, it sounds like we have totake control of our own health
and what we're putting into ourbodies.
Unfortunately, we can't trustthe companies to give us the
right things.
We can't really trust theregulatory agencies to regulate
those chemicals.
So I guess the next thing wouldbe you know how?
(24:22):
What are our additive free orhealthier alternatives?
And I think, like I said, as amother, for both my child and
for myself, can you give somereal basic examples of how to
cut those out and what we shouldbe buying?
Because you know, we know it'seasy to buy, but what should I
(24:45):
be looking for when I go to thestore?
Nika Lawrie (24:47):
Yeah.
So the first thing is tounderstand that this is a
journey, right Like you can'tfor most people.
You can't just switcheverything you eat all at once
because, one, your kids aren'tgoing to like that you know kids
can be really picky.
Two, you have your things thatyou love and have been your
favorite things, and you're justaccustomed to eating it and
(25:09):
you're accustomed to certainbrands.
So what I suggest is, you know,starting kind of small, picking
a few things to remove or tofind healthier replacements for.
So if there are things thatyou're eating really regularly,
like you know, a daily orseveral times a week that have
these potentially harmfulingredients, let's start looking
(25:30):
for replacements for thosespecific things first, so that
at least we can remove whereyour most common exposure is.
And one thing I want to addwith that too is that this is a
cumulative issue.
So being exposed to theseartificial dyes or additives
(25:50):
it's not a one-time issue.
You're just exposed and thenthere's a behavioral issue or a
mood swing or whatever, and thenyou're fine.
This builds up in the body andover time, creates more and more
issues, and so it's reallyimportant that we start detoxing
our body from these things byremoving them and understand
(26:12):
that it takes time for our bodyto recover after we've removed
them too.
And so you know when I saidthat's a journey, it's really
starting to understand like it'sgoing to take time to remove
this from your environment andit's going to take time to
remove this from yourenvironment and it's going to
take time for your body toadjust, but it is so, so worth
it.
On the flip side, it can be sobeneficial to your health
(26:34):
overall, let alone just the.
You know the ADHD symptoms, thebehavioral issues, those kinds
of things.
So first is figuring out whatthose top products are that
you're using regularly andunderstanding what those
additives are and then removingthose first.
That would be the first thing Iwould say.
Second thing then I would sayis get curious when you go to
(26:56):
the grocery store and you know,see if you can spend a little
bit more time there and startreading the food labels.
I know when I first startedgoing through this I usually get
through the grocery store inlike 20, 30 minutes I just had
my things, that I, my list andthe things we always bought and
I went and got them in and outright.
When I first startedtransitioning this, I would
(27:17):
spend like an hour at thegrocery store and read the
labels on all the products andthen I would find the product
that didn't have all the garbagein it.
And when you go to traditionalgrocery stores, this is going to
you'll be surprised.
It's going to be harder thanyou think to find these products
.
There'll be one out of like 20options, right, so you have like
25 yogurts.
(27:38):
There's going to be one that'snot going to have dyes or high
fructose corn syrup or you knowa crazy amount of sugar in it.
So it's going to take a littlewhile to figure out what those
are.
But give yourself a little bitof time.
I actually found it really funto start to kind of navigate
this and figure out what theproducts were, because you're
(27:59):
like, oh, that one's crappy andthat one's good, and then you
start to know what the newbrands are and you'll figure
them out.
If you aren't interested indoing that, there's a couple
apps that you can download thathelp you.
Just scan.
It scans the barcode and it'llgive you either a red, yellow or
green, kind of a stoplightoption of good, bad, sort of
okay, or it'll give you a rangeof like 1 to 10, 10 being bad,
(28:24):
one being good or something likethat.
So Yuka is a good one.
Y-u-k-a and the EnvironmentalWorking Group has one specific
for foods.
I haven't used it in a coupleof years.
It wasn't quite as robust as itneeded to be a couple of years
ago, but I think they've addedto it.
Yuka has tons of products.
(28:44):
Yuka you can also use forbeauty and personal care
products as well.
Kelley DeLong (28:49):
So I have seen it for beauty products.
I didn't know they had one forfood.
Nika Lawrie (28:52):
So that's yeah, a lot of food ingredients have
been added to that as well.
And then Think Dirty also works, but last I checked, think
Dirty was just beauty andpersonal care products.
So Yuka and the EnvironmentalWorking Group food app are the
two big ones that you want touse there.
But give yourself a month offiguring this out as you shop
(29:15):
and then you'll get used tothose new brands.
You'll just know which onesthey are and then it's back to
your regular shopping routine.
You just know you have to buythose brands instead of the old
brands, but it's really takingthe time to read the ingredient
labels, which is key.
Kelley DeLong (29:33):
And I liked the advice that you gave by starting
small and really just lookingat the things that you eat every
day, because it can be veryoverwhelming when you are used
to buying what you buy and to gointo a store and, like you said
, almost every label that youread is going to have something
on it that you know isn't good.
Yeah, I think that's a reallygood tip is to start with what
(30:00):
you eat every day.
So maybe, looking at my son'sdiet, he has yogurt every
morning for breakfast.
He absolutely loves his yogurt.
So maybe we start somewherelike that where it's an everyday
item and we don't worry so muchabout maybe the candy, because
he doesn't eat candy, yeah, youknow.
So we already have cut that out.
But taking a look at what heeats every single day and trying
(30:20):
to make those small changesfirst.
Nika Lawrie (30:23):
Yeah, you know, and the thing I'll add to that too
is like this is not aperfectionism game.
This is a reduction game whereyou don't want it to negatively
impact your life.
Like you know, I have adaughter same age as your son
and you know me like she stilleats candy from time to time.
(30:44):
We don't bring it in the housevery often but, like you know, I
let her eat candy here andthere.
Or, you know, there aredifferent things here and there
that I will let her have, oreven that I eat from time to
time, but the idea is limitingthose exposures as much as
possible.
I will tell you, I do not bringany, any food into my house that
(31:06):
has like that we're going toeat regularly.
Like we don't even buy cerealanymore, we just don't buy it,
period.
Um.
But like you know, for thingsthat I'm making her for lunch, I
figured out what those brandsare.
I no longer buy the brands thathave, um, a lot of those
different additives or differentdyes in them.
(31:27):
So I know what I'm feeding mykids, so that I know if she eats
a piece of candy at school orif we're at a birthday party and
there's cake with that horrificicing on it.
You know it's not going tocompletely derail us, right, and
so you know it's reallyunderstanding that you're doing
the very best you can to limitthose exposures.
(31:49):
There's some people that takeit to the total extreme and
remove everything.
You can be that person if youwant.
I find that really difficult.
I find it better to just limitit as much as possible and
balance out your lifestyle withbeing healthy.
Kelley DeLong (32:05):
All right, so I know we were talking about
shopping and stuff.
What are some of the additiveswe should be looking out for
specifically, and can you give alittle more information on all
of those?
Nika Lawrie (32:15):
Yeah.
So to prepare for this, Ipulled a whole list because a
lot of it's in my head, but Iwanted to make sure that I
really hit on a lot of them.
And the thing that I'll add tothis too is actually I'm going
to create a downloadable guide,like a cheat sheet, that you can
get.
So check out the show notes andthere'll be a link where you
(32:36):
can download the guide that justa cheat sheet to keep with you
when you go to the store forthings to look out for.
But let me go through some ofthe additives.
So we mentioned high fructosecorn syrup.
So high fructose corn syrup islinked to blood sugar spikes,
which can exaggerate orexaggerate.
You know what I'm trying to sayExacerbate, exacerbate, yes,
(32:59):
hyperactivity, mood swings andimpulsivity.
Impulsivity is a really big onewith sugar spikes, so that's
really important to know.
Msg, so monosodium glutamatethis is a huge one.
This is really important foradults too.
It's a flavor enhancer.
I know it was really big.
People talked about it a lot,probably like 10, 20 years ago,
(33:21):
because it was a big additive inlike Chinese food and stuff.
But it's.
It's really important to knowthat.
So again, this is a flavorenhancer, but it can cause kind
of a toxicity in the body and itcan increase, increase
hyperactivity.
Aggravation is a big one andthen kind of brain overwhelm.
(33:45):
It really overstimulates thebrain.
A lot of people used to getmigraines or headaches from it,
and so kids who are having ahard time focusing or easily get
overstimulated.
Msg is a big one and you want tolook out for that.
Especially in dressings likeranch dressing is really
commonplace to find it.
It can be in all kinds ofthings.
(34:05):
But so monosodium glutamatesometimes you'll just see it
listed as MSG.
We talked about aspartame, butartificial sweeteners impact
neurotransmitter functions, sothat's really important thing to
be aware of.
And then it also canpotentially worsen behavioral
issues.
Artificial preservatives so wewent into these a little bit.
(34:26):
But BHA, bht and TBHQ so againlinked to hyperactivity and kids
are especially sensitive tothese.
We did not talk about nitrates,so these are often found in
processed foods, so like hotdogs, salami, pepperonis, those
(34:47):
kinds of things.
Kelley DeLong (34:49):
You know a lot of that on the research I've done
myself.
Nika Lawrie (34:52):
Treats are a big one.
Yeah, Nitrates are huge, and soone of the things that causes
is oxidative stress, and one ofthe issues that comes that we
didn't really get into.
But one of the issues thatcomes from kind of this issue
within the brain of how thebrain's functioning and how our
(35:13):
neurons are interacting, isinflammation, and oxidative
stress really causesinflammation throughout the
whole body, and so as much as wecan reduce that oxidative
stress the better.
So eating an anti-inflammatorydiet is really key.
That's a really good thing tothink about.
For kids with ADD or ADHD, too,is that anti-inflammatory diet?
(35:36):
So doing whatever we can to cutout inflammatory foods.
So nitrates, again, are kind ofan inflammatory additive, but
it causes oxidative stress.
We talked about emulsifiers.
What else is there?
Sodium benzoate that is apreservative.
So it again helps create longershelf life in these different
(36:02):
foods.
But again, this is directly.
I mean there's directscientific evidence that links
this to hyperactivity andbehavioral issues in children.
So it's really looking at thosepreservatives that cause the
inflammation in the bodylong-term and so whatever we can
do to avoid those Sulfurdioxide and sulfites those are
(36:25):
common one as well, those you'llsee in like dried food or
processed foods, and then whatelse?
We did?
The artificial colors again.
So again yellow five, red 40,blue number one, but the big two
are yellow five and red 40.
Kelley DeLong (36:42):
Right, yeah, so you talked a little bit there
too about there being a lot ofresearch.
Can you explain a little bitmore about the research or where
we can find these tests or whatkind of tests have been done to
make these links?
Nika Lawrie (36:57):
Yeah.
So what I would actuallyrecommend is looking up research
that's done in the EU theEuropean Union because what
you'll see here in the US, thereare a lot of articles and
different things that you'll seethat have conflicting
information.
So you'll see one article herethat says, yes, this is causing
behavioral issues in kids, andthen you'll see a counter
(37:20):
article or research article thatsays no, it's not, there's no
proof that it's actually doingthis.
It's all made up In the US.
What you have to do is thenlook at who paid for the study,
and what is happening is a lotof independent researchers will
do the study and then they'llfind the results that show that
these are causing behavioralissues, and then the food
(37:43):
industry or one of the big foodcompanies will pay to have the
research done, and then the foodindustry or one of the big food
companies will pay to have theresearch done, and then the
research will say, oh, no, itdoesn't cause any issues.
And so that's the conflict ofinterest, and you'll see that
over and over and over againwith different chemicals, not
just in the food industry butacross the beauty and personal
care industry as well.
(38:03):
It's like, oh, there's no proofthat this is causing issues.
So what I really find is that ifyou look for research outside
of the United States, you lookat what the UK, the European
Union, india, there's severalcountries in South America that
are really starting to get a lotstricter on food additives as
(38:24):
well.
So if you look at researchoutside of the US and what it's
showing, you'll start to see amuch more repetitive story about
how this really is impactingour health and impacting
children's health.
So that's kind of the biggestplace you can go to places like
PubMed, which you can just typein.
(38:45):
You can go to places likePubMed which you can just type
in so P-U-B-M-E-D I think it's adot com PubMed where you can
look up different articles.
I believe they have researcharticles from all over the world
Don't quote me on that, itmight just be US but that's a
good place that you can start atleast and then start looking
for articles outside of the US.
Kelley DeLong (39:05):
So one last question for you what advice
would you give to parents, andjust women in general, who are
concerned about food additivesand dyes and artificial stuff in
their food?
Nika Lawrie (39:17):
Yeah.
So the first thing I would sayis understand this is a journey
we kind of went into thatalready and so just start small
and start building from there.
The quicker you move, the moreresults you're going to see.
But also, don't make it sostressful that your life is like
chaos or your kid's not eatingor whatever, because that's just
(39:38):
going to you know that's goingto zero out the benefits that
you would get from changing thefood anyways.
Right.
So understanding that.
Two is keeping a food journalwhen you first start.
So maybe even before you startcutting things out, one of the
things people will do is trackdown what foods either they or
their kids are eating every dayand then looking at those
(40:02):
ingredients and then following akeeping track of how the mood
or activity of that person isafterwards.
So you know this kid had, youknow, yogurt with dyes or
something for breakfast and thenhad a hot dog for lunch and
then had cereal for dinnerHopefully the kid's not eating
(40:24):
that, but right, like that's anexample and then throughout the
day had behavioral issues oraggression or hyperactivity and
had a really hard time.
And then this issue the nextday too, because food's not
going to just impact you fromone meal to the next.
It has a longer life than youwould think.
I mean it can impact you threeto four, even five days after
(40:47):
you've eaten it.
So kind of keeping that journalon having an idea of how the
food's impacting you over timecan be really helpful as well.
When you're starting out that'ssomething you want to do.
And then the last thing I wouldsay specifically for moms or
parents with kids, is get thekids involved.
I have started having theseconversations with my daughter
(41:08):
over the last couple of yearsabout how food can impact them,
how different chemicals canimpact her, and it's hilarious.
We'll go to grocery stores nowso a lot of receipts have BPA on
them, which is an endocrinedisrupting chemical, and so my
daughter won't even touchreceipts now.
(41:28):
Like she refuses to touchreceipts.
It's really funny, you know,and I touch them with like my
nails, like I try not to touchthem.
I pretty much don't even keepthem if I don't have to.
You know, and she knows she'llknow what brands she can have
and which ones she can't, and soshe's.
And it's not to tell her, youknow, start a um like a issue
(41:52):
around food.
It's just educating her tounderstand.
Let's fuel our body with goodfood and let's avoid the
unhealthy foods that are goingto make us feel like crap.
And so it's educating thosekids, and you'd be surprised how
interested they get um whenthey get involved with it.
And so I'd say, definitely havethat conversation with your
kids and get them involved inthe transition too, because they
(42:13):
ultimately want to feel goodand have good energy and be able
to think clearly and have gooddays at school too.
Kelley DeLong (42:19):
And that's important and you said,
educating them about the goodversus bad and not just telling
them this food is good, thisfood is bad, explaining to them
how it's good for you or howthis can be harmful to you.
And I think, yeah, that'ssetting them up for their future
to make as good choices asthey're going along.
Nika Lawrie (42:39):
Yeah, I mean what I find.
You know they're miniatureadults, right, and so they're
going to slip up.
They want the candy, just likewe do, but they also want to
feel good, and so they know oh,if I eat a bunch of this, I'm
going to feel like crap.
Maybe I should eat somethingelse too, and so they really are
a lot better about it than youwould think when you actually
(42:59):
involve them in thedecision-making process.
So it's really key.
Well, kelly, thank you so somuch for going through this with
me and asking all these greatquestions.
I'm super grateful for it and Iappreciate you.
So, thank you.
Kelley DeLong (43:15):
Thanks for having me and thanks for the at the
end there, that advice that youhad is really actionable items
and doable things that make thisnot so overwhelming, so I
appreciate that.
Nika Lawrie (43:26):
Absolutely yeah.
The key is just baby.
Hey everybody, welcome back to Inspired with
Nika Larie.
I, of course, am your host,Nika Laurie, and today I am
joined again by one of my verybest friends.
Her name is Kelly DeLong.
I almost called you Stout.
You're no longer Stout, you area DeLong.
But anyways, welcome to theshow.
I'm so excited to have you heretoday.
Kelley DeLong (00:38):
Thank you, I'm excited to be with you.
Nika Lawrie (00:39):
Yeah, so this is.
I think I asked you to be oneof my very first guests on the
podcast when I started it, likefour years ago, and so I'm so
excited that I've actuallyfinally convinced you to come on
the show and have aconversation with me.
So we are going to talk aboutfood additives like artificial
(00:59):
dyes, preservatives, differentthings like that, and some of
their health impacts on kids,especially relating to ADHD.
I think that's a really bigtopic that's going on now and I
know you have some connection tothat.
Do you mind just sharing alittle bit about your connection
and then I will hand it over toyou to be my host and ask away?
Ask different questions.
Kelley DeLong (01:20):
Yeah, sounds good .
So I have a wonderfulnine-year-old son questions.
Yeah, sounds good.
So I have a wonderfulnine-year-old son and he has
been diagnosed with ADHD, and so, as a mom, I just want to find
out ways to help him and be mostsuccessful, and I have just
heard so much about foodadditives and dyes and different
things like that that make suchan impact on kids' behavior, so
(01:41):
the more I can find out aboutthat, the better.
Nika Lawrie (01:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's such an importanttopic and I think I want to
preface this too, because somany of the listeners are women
not just mothers, but women whohaven't had children yet and the
thing to know is that a lot ofthese additives can really
impact women's health as well.
So it's kind of a broaderconversation.
It's really all people can beaffected by these additives.
(02:05):
So keep that in mind for thelistener while you're listening,
that you know we're going totalk a lot about how it impacts
children, but I'll add in piecesabout how it will impact
women's health as well.
So with that, kelly, take itaway, be my host.
Ask the first question.
Kelley DeLong (02:19):
Sure, so we'll start pretty basic.
So can you explain to us kindof what food dyes are and why
they are so commonly used infoods today?
It?
Nika Lawrie (02:29):
from turmeric.
There's paprika spirulina,which is like a seaweed.
You can get it from spinachcarrot juice.
There's all kinds of naturaldyes that companies can use to
(02:52):
put in food.
Those pretty much are all okayand safe and they really don't
impact people because they comefrom natural ingredients.
On the flip side of that, themuch more dangerous or
concerning side of that, isartificial dyes.
So artificial dyes are productsthat come from manufactured
ingredients.
So chemicals were used toactually create these dyes and
(03:14):
then these dyes were put intodifferent types of food to make
them look more appealing,especially to children,
especially to children.
A lot of food diets are used inproducts marketed specifically
to children because it's likebright and colorful, it's
engaging for the kids and so itreally kind of sucks them in.
Those artificial diets can havea lot of different health
(03:35):
impacts that are really reallyconcerning, and the research is
growing over and over.
It's getting a much larger viewon how it's impacting our
health and children's healththan ever before.
The conversation is reallystarting to grow.
One of the reasons whymanufacturers use this is
because it's also cheaper to usethe artificial dyes than it is
(03:57):
to use the naturally produceddyes.
Kelley DeLong (04:01):
My next question is when there is a natural
option, why use the chemicals?
Nika Lawrie (04:07):
Yeah, because it's cheaper.
That's the biggest thing.
Pretty much anything thathappens in the food industry is
going to be driven by profits.
So anything that they can do tomanufacture the product as
cheaply as possible and thensell it at the highest possible
dollar amount that they can sellit at, they're going to do so.
They can increase profit.
(04:28):
The thing is with that is thatmany food companies that make
their products and sell them inthe US have artificial dyes, but
they have the exact same recipein other countries like Europe
or India or Germany differentthings like that that don't use
these artificial dyes.
(04:49):
So we know that they are ableto make and manufacture the same
foods without using theartificial dyes.
Kelley DeLong (04:57):
So are there specific additives?
So there's food dyes and alsoprobably some additives too.
Can you kind of go over what weshould look out for, what those
are specifically?
Nika Lawrie (05:11):
Yeah.
So the big three food dyes likethere's a whole section of food
dyes, but the big three thatyou really want to be concerned
about is red 40, blue two andyellow 5.
And especially relating to ADHD, the biggest two would be red
40 and yellow 5.
Those you'll see in almost allcolorful foods.
(05:33):
So thinking about cereals,thinking about candies, a lot of
fruit bars or different thingsthat look healthy but actually
include those dyes.
The dyes are in them, they'reincluded as well, and so you
really have to flip over the boxand read the ingredients to
make sure those dyes aren't inthe box.
(05:54):
Those are kind of the biggestones.
Some of the other additives aregoing to be preservatives, and
sweeteners are a big one.
Also, emulsifiers can beanother big thing, so I'll give
you a couple examples forsweeteners.
So high fructose corn syrup isa huge one.
You want to avoid that, nomatter who you are, at all costs
(06:14):
.
It's just one of the worstthings that you can ingest.
But it can also reallyexaggerate hyperactivity and
mood swings in kids, and so it'sa big issue and it's in a lot
of products sold to kids.
Aspartame, which is anotherartificial sweetener, that can
cause behavioral issues andinflammation in the body and so
(06:36):
you really want to try to avoidaspartame.
And then, talking about theemulsifiers, you're going to
have things like, um, uh,carrageenan.
I always have a hard timesaying that that's a really
common emulsifier.
You'll see it in things like,um, almond milk or alternative
(06:56):
milks, um, like nut milks tohelp it stay creamy, to help it
stay kind of mixed together.
Sometimes you'll see it inthings like yogurts or salad
dressings.
It basically helps all theingredients stay mixed together
so it doesn't drop down, likethe heavy ingredients don't drop
(07:17):
down and the oils sit on top orsomething.
It makes it look more appealingand it keeps it all cohesive
and mixed together.
Makes it look more appealingand it keeps it all cohesive and
mixed together.
And then, thinking about some ofthe preservatives you're going
to have BHA, bht and TBHQ.
I remember I did a post,probably like two years ago,
(07:39):
about TBHQ and no longer eatingReese's peanut butter cups
because oh, yes, yeah, and thewhole thing went viral.
It's kind of crazy.
It's my first viral post.
It was exciting.
But those can causehyperactivity and kids are
especially sensitive to thosespecific preservatives.
And preservatives are used toextend shelf life, basically.
(08:03):
So help products stay.
I'm going to say stay good,stay usable longer on the shelf
so they don't go bad.
Basically.
Kelley DeLong (08:15):
Okay, so we know that there's a correlation
between the additives and thefood dyes and behavior, but can
you go into a little more depthon how those chemicals work in a
kid's brain and even, like yousaid, extending it out to
women's health, how thosechemicals react in our body to
have this poor outcome?
Can you kind of explain that alittle bit more?
Nika Lawrie (08:37):
Yeah, so there's in the kids.
I mean, for all people there'skind of two big factors Women.
There's a third factor that'snot quite as prevalent in kids,
so I'll go into that one in aminute.
But the two biggest things tounderstand is that a lot of
these additives, the dyes, thepreservatives, so on they
disrupt neurological function,and so what that means is the
(08:59):
way your neurons in your brainare communicating with each
other, interacting.
These chemicals can disruptthat function so that your
neurons aren't triggeringcorrectly, they're not
communicating, the message isn'tgetting sent all the way across
.
So different things can happen,but that's one of the biggest
ones is it disrupts neurologicalfunction, and so, especially
(09:23):
with a kid who has ADHD, who'salready kind of their brain is
functioning a little bitdifferent than what you would
say kind of the average person,having more neurological
disruption can cause, canexaggerate, the behavioral
issues or the mood swings andthings that they're already
dealing with.
On the other side of that too,things that they're already
(09:47):
dealing with On the other sideof that too, there's the
gut-brain connection, and so ourguts can be impacted by these
additives.
Our gut is one of the biggestcontrolling factors of how we
feel, how our body functions,how healthy we are.
If our gut is out of whack, ourwhole body is going to be out
of whack, and so these additivescan impact our gut in different
(10:12):
ways.
They can block hormones thatare produced in the gut and then
sent throughout the body, andyour hormones are your messenger
system of the body.
It tells your body what to doat different times.
So if those hormones are notbeing produced correctly in your
gut, that's going to causeissues throughout your body.
The other thing that happens isthat the gut sends different
messages to your brain, and ifthose messages aren't being sent
(10:34):
correctly or being disrupted,your brain's going to have more,
it's going to struggle more,and then you're going to have
those dysfunctions like wetalked about a moment ago with
neurological dysfunction.
On the women's side, the otherthing that can happen, which I
kind of talked about with thegut and the hormones, is some of
these chemicals not all, butsome of them can also be
(10:56):
endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
So again, your endocrine systemis your hormone system.
Most of the time, this happensto women who have hormonal
issues or hormonal imbalances.
But you'd be surprised thepopulation in the United States
how many women actually havehormonal dysfunction.
It's a large population,especially women who are
(11:19):
starting to move intoperimetopause or menopause.
So any woman that's probably 30through 60 can be especially
sensitive to these differentadditives and really need to be
considerate about how muchthey're ingesting and see if
it's giving you issues or you'rehaving side effects from these
(11:40):
different additives.
Kelley DeLong (11:42):
So I know I kind of asked the question earlier
about why they use theartificial dyes as opposed to
natural, and you said a lot hasto do with profits, of course.
But I want to touch onsomething else.
I know I've heard a lot aboutKellogg's and things going on
with them, and so could you gointo specifically the issue with
(12:02):
Kellogg's right now and whythey continue to use these dyes?
Nika Lawrie (12:06):
Yeah, absolutely so .
This is a crazy story that'shappening right now.
So, for those of you listening,we are recording on November
2nd.
I know this will come out in acouple weeks, so things may have
changed in the time since we'verecorded when you're listening,
but the Kellogg's issue hasbeen going on for the last
(12:28):
really couple of years, but it'skind of really blown up in the
last about three weeks.
So in 2015,.
Kellogg's the company thatmakes a lot of the cereals that
children eat.
They are the parent company ofa lot of other products as well.
If you want to see the products, I have a bunch of them listed
on my social media account soyou can go look at all the
(12:49):
different brands that catalogsis the parent company of, but
just to give a couple examples.
So they they're like the parentcompany of Fruit Loops.
Fruit Loops is the kind of thebiggest one that everyone keeps
talking about.
Yeah, so catalogs, in 2015, cameout and said that they were
going to remove artificial dyesand BHT from their cereals by
(13:11):
2018.
As of 2024, they still have notdone that.
They have, however, removed allof those chemicals from Froot
Loops and other cereals aroundthe world, so they don't have
them in India, they don't havethem in Germany, they don't have
them in Europe in any of othercereals around the world.
So they don't have them inIndia, they don't have them in
Germany, they don't have them inEurope in any of those cereals.
So, like I said earlier, weknow that they can manufacture
(13:34):
these foods without these dyesbecause they're doing it in
other countries that have morerestrictive rules and laws than
the US does.
So we know they can do it, butthey're choosing not to do it in
the United States, even thoughmore and more research is coming
out showing that this really iscausing issues, especially in
(13:54):
children.
Children are the most sensitivepopulation to these dyes and
additives, and children withADHD are even more sensitive
than the average child.
Regular children are beingaffected by it too, and they can
have mood swings and behavioralissues and cognitive
dysfunction issues, but ADHD areeven more impacted by it.
(14:17):
They're more sensitive to it.
So Kellogg's said they weregoing to remove it.
They got all of the media andpraise because they said they
were going to remove it.
They got all of the media andpraise because they said they
were going to remove it and thenthey never did.
And so there's a community ofactivists primarily led by a
woman named Vani Hari.
She's known as the food babe inthe influencer world, but Vani
(14:38):
Hari has spent the last probablydecade, maybe even 15 years
being a food advocate, and shedoes tons of research and
studies and puts out a lot ofwork about how these different
ingredients are impacting ourhealth, especially for children.
She's really big on protectingchildren and so she started to
(15:02):
put together a petition,probably a year or two ago, to
petition Kellogg's to removethese artificial dyes and BHT
from their cereals.
She started reaching out toKellogg's asking them to remove
this a couple, probably about ayear ago, and it's been an
ongoing journey.
About three weeks ago let mejust preface before she shows up
(15:27):
at Kellogg's office she reachedout to them multiple, multiple
times asking for meetings,asking to have conversations.
Lots of other activists,including myself, sent letters
and emails asking them toconsider removing this, and it
was radio silence from Kellogg's.
I did actually get a letterresponse, but it was basically a
(15:49):
BS like.
We're so grateful for yourfeedback.
Thanks so much.
Yeah, I was I sent it to Kellybecause it was so funny and so
Kellogg's basically just wantednothing to do with it.
So then about three weeks ago,vani Hari and probably about a
thousand, maybe even 1500 moms,children and other food
(16:14):
activists, local legislaturesfrom the area showed up, media
showed up.
They showed up on Kellogg'scampus and asked for a meeting
and by that time Vani Hari hadcollected 417,000 signed
(16:34):
petitions from everydayAmericans asking them to remove
these harmful chemicals from thefood that they're selling to
children in the United States,because, again, they've already
removed them from the foodproducts the exact same products
in other countries.
When they showed up there,kellogg's informed their staff
(16:55):
not to show up to work that day,so they basically shut down the
Kellogg's office.
There were a handful ofleadership still at the
Kellogg's office.
They were up on the fourthfloor or the top floor of the
building.
There's videotapes all oversocial media of them looking out
the windows and like smirkingand making kind of nasty faces
(17:15):
at these families.
I mean when I say it was momsand children, like it was kids
on the lawn asking them toremove these products.
And Kellogg's responded withholding a sign up through the
window that said get off my lawn.
And then they sent out asecurity guard who the security
(17:37):
guard was like a third partysecurity, like he didn't even
work for Kellogg's he was justsome security guard company guy
and asked that guy wasresponsible for asking the
people to leave the Kellogg'scampus.
They did not let him in.
They did not accept thepetitions.
Kellogg's just said get off mylawn.
Since then, kellogg's has notdone anything to remove the
(18:01):
foods.
They have not done anything toaddress the matters.
There's several othercelebrities that have been
joining the movement.
Eva Mendes is a good example ofthat.
There's a bunch of them whohave also asked Kellogg's to
remove these chemicals andKellogg's has instead done a PR
campaign to basically make allthese celebrities look like
(18:27):
horrible people or uneducatedpeople or people that don't know
the research, when the researchis very clear.
These chemicals are impactingchildren and they impact
children in different ways, butwe know for sure that they are
impacting children.
So there's a large campaigncalled Cancel Kellogg's or
(18:48):
Boycott Kellogg's.
It's all over social media, butit's been picked up by the
media across the country, allover the place.
So there's a large movement toboycott Kellogg's right now.
(19:36):
You were talking about how, inother countries, same company
however, these additives havebeen eliminated Now, yes, the
company should.
Countries.
The reason that it's not intheir food is because they're.
I guess maybe their version ofthe FDA or regulatory bodies are
(19:57):
mostly run by individualswho've either worked in big food
, big agriculture or big pharmabig agriculture or big pharma
and they come over and they runthe industry or the regulative
organization for a while andthen they go back to big food or
big pharma and they come back,so they're interchangeable
people, basically, and so thereisn't a clear divide between the
(20:18):
regulatory agency and theindustry, right Like the big
food industry or the big pharmaindustry, and so there's a lot
of um conflict of interestsgoing on right there.
There's also a ton of money umthat come from lobbyists, um
from big food, big pharma, bigagriculture and so on, that um
(20:39):
influence how things areregulated, how bills are passed
in Congress, Um and lots ofother campaigns happen to help
control how things are regulatedin this country, and so there's
a lot of conflict of interest.
There is that the way ourregulatory bodies work here in
(21:10):
the United States is thatthere's not enough money in the
government to actually test andverify that all of these
products are safe, and so you'llsee this not just in food I
know we're talking about foodtoday but you'll see it in the
makeup industry, the personalcare industry, in like the
agriculture, so thinking about,like glyphosate and all these
pesticides and herbicides, thosekinds of things.
So there's not enough money inour government put towards these
(21:33):
regulatory agencies to actuallytest to make sure all of these
products are safe and notharmful to citizens and not
harmful to animals and theenvironment.
So we, as in the US, Americans,are dependent on these
companies to produce tests thatshow results that say that these
(21:56):
products are not harmful for us.
So the people making theproduct, the people using the
product, are the people that aretesting and creating the tests
that say these products are notharmful.
If that's not a conflict ofinterest, I don't know what is
right.
So in Europe or some of theother countries that I mentioned
(22:16):
, this is not the case.
The regulatory bodies are much,much stricter than we are here
in the United States, and manyof them either test and regulate
themselves through thegovernment, or they use third
party testers to verify thesafety of these different
chemical ingredients, and sothey have found over and over
(22:38):
and over again that many ofthese products or these
chemicals, these additives, areharmful in different manners to
people's health, and so they'vechose to ban them.
For food dyes, for example, somefood dyes are still allowed in
food in the European Union, butthey're required to have warning
(23:00):
labels on the food so thatpeople are aware that if you're
eating this, it could impactyour health.
Where we don't have thosewarning labels, there are
thousands and thousands ofchemicals that have never even
been tested for safety, Whereasin the US, if you talk about the
big grand scheme of chemicals,this is not just food ads, this
(23:22):
is all the chemicals that areused in different products.
We've only ever banned fivehere in the United States, where
the EU has banned about 1,500.
Many of those 1,500 are stillused in products in the US every
single day, and so reallyunderstanding that we have a
very skewed, very biasedregulatory system that is really
(23:47):
not regulating anything, and soit's now up to the consumer to
get educated and to be aware ofthese issues and to do whatever
they can to protect themselvesand their families.
Kelley DeLong (23:59):
Unfortunately, that's what I was going to say.
Next, it sounds like we have totake control of our own health
and what we're putting into ourbodies.
Unfortunately, we can't trustthe companies to give us the
right things.
We can't really trust theregulatory agencies to regulate
those chemicals.
So I guess the next thing wouldbe you know how?
(24:22):
What are our additive free orhealthier alternatives?
And I think, like I said, as amother, for both my child and
for myself, can you give somereal basic examples of how to
cut those out and what we shouldbe buying?
Because you know, we know it'seasy to buy, but what should I
(24:45):
be looking for when I go to thestore?
Nika Lawrie (24:47):
Yeah.
So the first thing is tounderstand that this is a
journey, right Like you can'tfor most people.
You can't just switcheverything you eat all at once
because, one, your kids aren'tgoing to like that you know kids
can be really picky.
Two, you have your things thatyou love and have been your
favorite things, and you're justaccustomed to eating it and
(25:09):
you're accustomed to certainbrands.
So what I suggest is, you know,starting kind of small, picking
a few things to remove or tofind healthier replacements for.
So if there are things thatyou're eating really regularly,
like you know, a daily orseveral times a week that have
these potentially harmfulingredients, let's start looking
(25:30):
for replacements for thosespecific things first, so that
at least we can remove whereyour most common exposure is.
And one thing I want to addwith that too is that this is a
cumulative issue.
So being exposed to theseartificial dyes or additives
(25:50):
it's not a one-time issue.
You're just exposed and thenthere's a behavioral issue or a
mood swing or whatever, and thenyou're fine.
This builds up in the body andover time, creates more and more
issues, and so it's reallyimportant that we start detoxing
our body from these things byremoving them and understand
(26:12):
that it takes time for our bodyto recover after we've removed
them too.
And so you know when I saidthat's a journey, it's really
starting to understand like it'sgoing to take time to remove
this from your environment andit's going to take time to
remove this from yourenvironment and it's going to
take time for your body toadjust, but it is so, so worth
it.
On the flip side, it can be sobeneficial to your health
(26:34):
overall, let alone just the.
You know the ADHD symptoms, thebehavioral issues, those kinds
of things.
So first is figuring out whatthose top products are that
you're using regularly andunderstanding what those
additives are and then removingthose first.
That would be the first thing Iwould say.
Second thing then I would sayis get curious when you go to
(26:56):
the grocery store and you know,see if you can spend a little
bit more time there and startreading the food labels.
I know when I first startedgoing through this I usually get
through the grocery store inlike 20, 30 minutes I just had
my things, that I, my list andthe things we always bought and
I went and got them in and outright.
When I first startedtransitioning this, I would
(27:17):
spend like an hour at thegrocery store and read the
labels on all the products andthen I would find the product
that didn't have all the garbagein it.
And when you go to traditionalgrocery stores, this is going to
you'll be surprised.
It's going to be harder thanyou think to find these products
.
There'll be one out of like 20options, right, so you have like
25 yogurts.
(27:38):
There's going to be one that'snot going to have dyes or high
fructose corn syrup or you knowa crazy amount of sugar in it.
So it's going to take a littlewhile to figure out what those
are.
But give yourself a little bitof time.
I actually found it really funto start to kind of navigate
this and figure out what theproducts were, because you're
(27:59):
like, oh, that one's crappy andthat one's good, and then you
start to know what the newbrands are and you'll figure
them out.
If you aren't interested indoing that, there's a couple
apps that you can download thathelp you.
Just scan.
It scans the barcode and it'llgive you either a red, yellow or
green, kind of a stoplightoption of good, bad, sort of
okay, or it'll give you a rangeof like 1 to 10, 10 being bad,
(28:24):
one being good or something likethat.
So Yuka is a good one.
Y-u-k-a and the EnvironmentalWorking Group has one specific
for foods.
I haven't used it in a coupleof years.
It wasn't quite as robust as itneeded to be a couple of years
ago, but I think they've addedto it.
Yuka has tons of products.
(28:44):
Yuka you can also use forbeauty and personal care
products as well.
Kelley DeLong (28:49):
So I have seen it for beauty products.
I didn't know they had one forfood.
Nika Lawrie (28:52):
So that's yeah, a lot of food ingredients have
been added to that as well.
And then Think Dirty also works, but last I checked, think
Dirty was just beauty andpersonal care products.
So Yuka and the EnvironmentalWorking Group food app are the
two big ones that you want touse there.
But give yourself a month offiguring this out as you shop
(29:15):
and then you'll get used tothose new brands.
You'll just know which onesthey are and then it's back to
your regular shopping routine.
You just know you have to buythose brands instead of the old
brands, but it's really takingthe time to read the ingredient
labels, which is key.
Kelley DeLong (29:33):
And I liked the advice that you gave by starting
small and really just lookingat the things that you eat every
day, because it can be veryoverwhelming when you are used
to buying what you buy and to gointo a store and, like you said
, almost every label that youread is going to have something
on it that you know isn't good.
Yeah, I think that's a reallygood tip is to start with what
(30:00):
you eat every day.
So maybe, looking at my son'sdiet, he has yogurt every
morning for breakfast.
He absolutely loves his yogurt.
So maybe we start somewherelike that where it's an everyday
item and we don't worry so muchabout maybe the candy, because
he doesn't eat candy, yeah, youknow.
So we already have cut that out.
But taking a look at what heeats every single day and trying
(30:20):
to make those small changesfirst.
Nika Lawrie (30:23):
Yeah, you know, and the thing I'll add to that too
is like this is not aperfectionism game.
This is a reduction game whereyou don't want it to negatively
impact your life.
Like you know, I have adaughter same age as your son
and you know me like she stilleats candy from time to time.
(30:44):
We don't bring it in the housevery often but, like you know, I
let her eat candy here andthere.
Or, you know, there aredifferent things here and there
that I will let her have, oreven that I eat from time to
time, but the idea is limitingthose exposures as much as
possible.
I will tell you, I do not bringany, any food into my house that
(31:06):
has like that we're going toeat regularly.
Like we don't even buy cerealanymore, we just don't buy it,
period.
Um.
But like you know, for thingsthat I'm making her for lunch, I
figured out what those brandsare.
I no longer buy the brands thathave, um, a lot of those
different additives or differentdyes in them.
(31:27):
So I know what I'm feeding mykids, so that I know if she eats
a piece of candy at school orif we're at a birthday party and
there's cake with that horrificicing on it.
You know it's not going tocompletely derail us, right, and
so you know it's reallyunderstanding that you're doing
the very best you can to limitthose exposures.
(31:49):
There's some people that takeit to the total extreme and
remove everything.
You can be that person if youwant.
I find that really difficult.
I find it better to just limitit as much as possible and
balance out your lifestyle withbeing healthy.
Kelley DeLong (32:05):
All right, so I know we were talking about
shopping and stuff.
What are some of the additiveswe should be looking out for
specifically, and can you give alittle more information on all
of those?
Nika Lawrie (32:15):
Yeah.
So to prepare for this, Ipulled a whole list because a
lot of it's in my head, but Iwanted to make sure that I
really hit on a lot of them.
And the thing that I'll add tothis too is actually I'm going
to create a downloadable guide,like a cheat sheet, that you can
get.
So check out the show notes andthere'll be a link where you
(32:36):
can download the guide that justa cheat sheet to keep with you
when you go to the store forthings to look out for.
But let me go through some ofthe additives.
So we mentioned high fructosecorn syrup.
So high fructose corn syrup islinked to blood sugar spikes,
which can exaggerate orexaggerate.
You know what I'm trying to sayExacerbate, exacerbate, yes,
(32:59):
hyperactivity, mood swings andimpulsivity.
Impulsivity is a really big onewith sugar spikes, so that's
really important to know.
Msg, so monosodium glutamatethis is a huge one.
This is really important foradults too.
It's a flavor enhancer.
I know it was really big.
People talked about it a lot,probably like 10, 20 years ago,
(33:21):
because it was a big additive inlike Chinese food and stuff.
But it's.
It's really important to knowthat.
So again, this is a flavorenhancer, but it can cause kind
of a toxicity in the body and itcan increase, increase
hyperactivity.
Aggravation is a big one andthen kind of brain overwhelm.
(33:45):
It really overstimulates thebrain.
A lot of people used to getmigraines or headaches from it,
and so kids who are having ahard time focusing or easily get
overstimulated.
Msg is a big one and you want tolook out for that.
Especially in dressings likeranch dressing is really
commonplace to find it.
It can be in all kinds ofthings.
(34:05):
But so monosodium glutamatesometimes you'll just see it
listed as MSG.
We talked about aspartame, butartificial sweeteners impact
neurotransmitter functions, sothat's really important thing to
be aware of.
And then it also canpotentially worsen behavioral
issues.
Artificial preservatives so wewent into these a little bit.
(34:26):
But BHA, bht and TBHQ so againlinked to hyperactivity and kids
are especially sensitive tothese.
We did not talk about nitrates,so these are often found in
processed foods, so like hotdogs, salami, pepperonis, those
(34:47):
kinds of things.
Kelley DeLong (34:49):
You know a lot of that on the research I've done
myself.
Nika Lawrie (34:52):
Treats are a big one.
Yeah, Nitrates are huge, and soone of the things that causes
is oxidative stress, and one ofthe issues that comes that we
didn't really get into.
But one of the issues thatcomes from kind of this issue
within the brain of how thebrain's functioning and how our
(35:13):
neurons are interacting, isinflammation, and oxidative
stress really causesinflammation throughout the
whole body, and so as much as wecan reduce that oxidative
stress the better.
So eating an anti-inflammatorydiet is really key.
That's a really good thing tothink about.
For kids with ADD or ADHD, too,is that anti-inflammatory diet?
(35:36):
So doing whatever we can to cutout inflammatory foods.
So nitrates, again, are kind ofan inflammatory additive, but
it causes oxidative stress.
We talked about emulsifiers.
What else is there?
Sodium benzoate that is apreservative.
So it again helps create longershelf life in these different
(36:02):
foods.
But again, this is directly.
I mean there's directscientific evidence that links
this to hyperactivity andbehavioral issues in children.
So it's really looking at thosepreservatives that cause the
inflammation in the bodylong-term and so whatever we can
do to avoid those Sulfurdioxide and sulfites those are
(36:25):
common one as well, those you'llsee in like dried food or
processed foods, and then whatelse?
We did?
The artificial colors again.
So again yellow five, red 40,blue number one, but the big two
are yellow five and red 40.
Kelley DeLong (36:42):
Right, yeah, so you talked a little bit there
too about there being a lot ofresearch.
Can you explain a little bitmore about the research or where
we can find these tests or whatkind of tests have been done to
make these links?
Nika Lawrie (36:57):
Yeah.
So what I would actuallyrecommend is looking up research
that's done in the EU theEuropean Union because what
you'll see here in the US, thereare a lot of articles and
different things that you'll seethat have conflicting
information.
So you'll see one article herethat says, yes, this is causing
behavioral issues in kids, andthen you'll see a counter
(37:20):
article or research article thatsays no, it's not, there's no
proof that it's actually doingthis.
It's all made up In the US.
What you have to do is thenlook at who paid for the study,
and what is happening is a lotof independent researchers will
do the study and then they'llfind the results that show that
these are causing behavioralissues, and then the food
(37:43):
industry or one of the big foodcompanies will pay to have the
research done, and then the foodindustry or one of the big food
companies will pay to have theresearch done, and then the
research will say, oh, no, itdoesn't cause any issues.
And so that's the conflict ofinterest, and you'll see that
over and over and over againwith different chemicals, not
just in the food industry butacross the beauty and personal
care industry as well.
(38:03):
It's like, oh, there's no proofthat this is causing issues.
So what I really find is that ifyou look for research outside
of the United States, you lookat what the UK, the European
Union, india, there's severalcountries in South America that
are really starting to get a lotstricter on food additives as
(38:24):
well.
So if you look at researchoutside of the US and what it's
showing, you'll start to see amuch more repetitive story about
how this really is impactingour health and impacting
children's health.
So that's kind of the biggestplace you can go to places like
PubMed, which you can just typein.
(38:45):
You can go to places likePubMed which you can just type
in so P-U-B-M-E-D I think it's adot com PubMed where you can
look up different articles.
I believe they have researcharticles from all over the world
Don't quote me on that, itmight just be US but that's a
good place that you can start atleast and then start looking
for articles outside of the US.
Kelley DeLong (39:05):
So one last question for you what advice
would you give to parents, andjust women in general, who are
concerned about food additivesand dyes and artificial stuff in
their food?
Nika Lawrie (39:17):
Yeah.
So the first thing I would sayis understand this is a journey
we kind of went into thatalready and so just start small
and start building from there.
The quicker you move, the moreresults you're going to see.
But also, don't make it sostressful that your life is like
chaos or your kid's not eatingor whatever, because that's just
(39:38):
going to you know that's goingto zero out the benefits that
you would get from changing thefood anyways.
Right.
So understanding that.
Two is keeping a food journalwhen you first start.
So maybe even before you startcutting things out, one of the
things people will do is trackdown what foods either they or
their kids are eating every dayand then looking at those
(40:02):
ingredients and then following akeeping track of how the mood
or activity of that person isafterwards.
So you know this kid had, youknow, yogurt with dyes or
something for breakfast and thenhad a hot dog for lunch and
then had cereal for dinnerHopefully the kid's not eating
(40:24):
that, but right, like that's anexample and then throughout the
day had behavioral issues oraggression or hyperactivity and
had a really hard time.
And then this issue the nextday too, because food's not
going to just impact you fromone meal to the next.
It has a longer life than youwould think.
I mean it can impact you threeto four, even five days after
(40:47):
you've eaten it.
So kind of keeping that journalon having an idea of how the
food's impacting you over timecan be really helpful as well.
When you're starting out that'ssomething you want to do.
And then the last thing I wouldsay specifically for moms or
parents with kids, is get thekids involved.
I have started having theseconversations with my daughter
(41:08):
over the last couple of yearsabout how food can impact them,
how different chemicals canimpact her, and it's hilarious.
We'll go to grocery stores nowso a lot of receipts have BPA on
them, which is an endocrinedisrupting chemical, and so my
daughter won't even touchreceipts now.
(41:28):
Like she refuses to touchreceipts.
It's really funny, you know,and I touch them with like my
nails, like I try not to touchthem.
I pretty much don't even keepthem if I don't have to.
You know, and she knows she'llknow what brands she can have
and which ones she can't, and soshe's.
And it's not to tell her, youknow, start a um like a issue
(41:52):
around food.
It's just educating her tounderstand.
Let's fuel our body with goodfood and let's avoid the
unhealthy foods that are goingto make us feel like crap.
And so it's educating thosekids, and you'd be surprised how
interested they get um whenthey get involved with it.
And so I'd say, definitely havethat conversation with your
kids and get them involved inthe transition too, because they
(42:13):
ultimately want to feel goodand have good energy and be able
to think clearly and have gooddays at school too.
Kelley DeLong (42:19):
And that's important and you said,
educating them about the goodversus bad and not just telling
them this food is good, thisfood is bad, explaining to them
how it's good for you or howthis can be harmful to you.
And I think, yeah, that'ssetting them up for their future
to make as good choices asthey're going along.
Nika Lawrie (42:39):
Yeah, I mean what I find.
You know they're miniatureadults, right, and so they're
going to slip up.
They want the candy, just likewe do, but they also want to
feel good, and so they know oh,if I eat a bunch of this, I'm
going to feel like crap.
Maybe I should eat somethingelse too, and so they really are
a lot better about it than youwould think when you actually
(42:59):
involve them in thedecision-making process.
So it's really key.
Well, kelly, thank you so somuch for going through this with
me and asking all these greatquestions.
I'm super grateful for it and Iappreciate you.
So, thank you.
Kelley DeLong (43:15):
Thanks for having me and thanks for the at the
end there, that advice that youhad is really actionable items
and doable things that make thisnot so overwhelming, so I
appreciate that.
Nika Lawrie (43:26):
Absolutely yeah.
The key is just baby.
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