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Areas › Your body › Food, caffeine and fuel
Nine artificial colours are approved in the US, and the volume approved for use rose roughly fivefold between 1950 and 2012. One of them, Red No. 3, was withdrawn over health concerns. The practical use of knowing this is not outrage. It is that alternatives already exist, so cutting down means looking for products made without them rather than hunting for something exotic.
From the fruits of date palms and grapes you take sweet juice and wholesome provisions (Quran 16:67). Sweetness that needs nothing added to it is named among the good things.
النحل
وَمِن ثَمَرَٰتِ ٱلنَّخِيلِ وَٱلۡأَعۡنَٰبِ تَتَّخِذُونَ مِنۡهُ سَكَرࣰ ا وَرِزۡقًا حَسَنًاۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَأٓيَةࣰ لِّقَوۡمࣲ يَعۡقِلُونَ
From the fruits of date palms and grapes you take sweet juice and wholesome provisions. There truly is a sign in this for people who use their reason
Qur’an 16:67read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Expert panels have done this sort of work for caffeine in children's drinks, reviewing trials and observational studies and setting out intake levels considered safe, with effects on sleep and reported anxiety appearing at higher intakes. It is a reminder that thresholds for children get set deliberately and are worth looking up rather than guessed at. The same care is reasonable with colourings.
Ruxton CH. (2014). The suitability of caffeinated drinks for children: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials, observational studies and expert panel guidelines.. Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
If a version without the additive is already on a shelf somewhere, avoiding it is a matter of choosing rather than going without.
St John's wort can cut the effectiveness of the contraceptive pill by around a third. If you take both, that is worth knowing today rather than finding out later.
Where ADHD and disordered eating meet, the pattern is more often bingeing, or bingeing and purging, than strict restriction. Restriction tends to travel with over-control, while bingeing travels with impulse and reward seeking.
Some of these do have real evidence behind them. St John's wort has repeated support in mild to moderate depression, SAMe and methylfolate have reasonable backing as additions to treatment, and omega-3 has looked weaker in the larger and better run trials.