Last Sunday we did the first trip to the grocery store in preparation of our 2 week trial of no artificial food dyes in our foods. I was surprised that the majority of our foods are not effected by the banned ingredient.
What we did eliminate was:
-Sunny D
-Our regular popsicles
-our regular iced cookies
-our regular toothpaste
-our regular candies
-our regular lemonade
-gum
-fruit snacks
-majority of packaged cookies, even basic oatmeal cookies
-syrup: due to preservative
Although that doesn't seem like much, the boys are receiving a daily dose of food dye. Their morning & evening teeth brushing contaminates their little system. The good news is the majority of our foods do not contain the extra coloring. The bad is their "treats" & toothpaste do. Reid asked if Cici's Pizza's Cinnamon rolls had any food coloring. He didn't think they did because they looked "boring." Reid was quick to note that colorful meant food dye.
The hard for for the kids is the special treat part of their day does contain the unwanted chemicals. We have made some substitutes. Instead of Sunny D, the kids drink orange juice. I should say Reid drinks orange juice. Christian has decided he doesn't particularly care for this juice, or apple juice either. Our Country Time lemonade is on the "no-no" list but capri sun & a natural brand isn't. Again, Christian is hesitant to drink these. Do you know marshmallow's contain food coloring? Who knew? How about trying to find a kid toothpaste without a blue dye in it. I found one...kids not so thrilled about it but that is just how it is. So, we are using the natural white toothpaste with a strawberry flavor. Not their beloved Kid Crest. We can't pick & chose our dyes this week. We (especially the kids) are passing up these delicious dye filled foods.
Another shocker is gum. I chew gum constantly! I have all kinds of red dyes in my fave cinnamon flavored, bubble popping, irritatingly cracking gum. It is delicious. It's OUT! So is the kids bubble gum favorite. It is really difficult to find these non dyed gums. I did find one. It is peppermint. It's not my favorite in flavor or packaging. I like the kind that you punch through the back. None of it ever ends up melted and missing its wrapper in the bottom on my purse. I guess that was not my destiny at my last grocery trip. I bought the individually, bound to drift around in my purse, gum.
Reid really likes gum and Christian could easily give it up if needed. Of course Christian won a "free" day at school. He chose to chew gum the entire day. Christian is even pickier about gum flavor than Reid is. I really think this is because Christian isn't truly a gum chewer. He likes gum but he doesn't love gum. Reid is at the other end of spectrum so he's much more willing to sacrifice the specific flavor just to have a little piece to smack on. Since there aren't any acceptable non dye flavors, I got Christian a pack of pink bubble gum for his "free day." That would be red dye #40 that makes it pink. This #40 is for color only and adds nothing to the flavor. It's not a "must have" ingredient. Anyway, was he happy at school today? Yes. Where is this pack of gum now? I have no freak'n clue! It will probably show up in Reid's little hands this weekend.
So, we now have popsicles without dyes. Reid doesn't like them but ate 2. We have cookies from whole foods, since I couldn't find any at our regular grocer without dyes. We have suckers from Whole Foods too, and fruit snacks. The kids haven't tried the fruit snacks. Not so sure these are going to be winner for my kids. I opened a package & was quite surprised by the little, bitty chips of snacks. I ate a few, of course, and I think they are still in my teeth! My spoiled little boys are used to imaginary shapes of fruit snacks, suck as various fruits, Mario Brothers, Angry Birds and Scooby Doo. What are they doing to do with these weird little non cartooned shaped snacks?
Day 3 and all really is going well. Reid is already beginning to count down when this whole thing is over. Then again, he is also my calendar loving time keeper. He'll track almost anything! The dogs birthday is coming up so I'm sure he's planning on when the invitations should go in the mail.
More later...reminder to discuss:
-Monday morning Reid getting ready
-Reid's love of food changes
-Reid's police of food dyes
I'm going to post a picture of Christian playing football just so he's not left out of the comments. Reid is the one with ADHD so obviously this is mostly directed at him but Christian is also a fantastic kid with needs...such as to be included. Will I get any backlash 20 years from now for writing any of this? Will your future wife use it against me? Maybe. But please remember the years of schooling we paid for out of love, which will hopefully include college. So, we love you too Christian & I will post an awesome picture of you doing something cool! Maybe I should also post a pic of our public school...just for good measure:)
As always with love,
Me
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