Dear Feingold Association Members & Friends,

In case you haven't seen it in the newspapers or on the Today Show, I
wanted to be sure to share some exciting news!

Dr. Jim Stevenson and his team of researchers at Southampton
University have just completed and published their much-anticipated
research on normal children in England given drinks with a mix of
coloring plus preservatives.

The study was published online in The Lancet on September 6, 2007,
and is called:

Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and
8/9-year-old children in the
community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-
controlled trial

STUDY CONCLUSION:
===================
ARTIFICIAL COLORS OR A SODIUM BENZOATE PRESERVATIVE (or both) IN THE
DIET RESULT IN INCREASED HYPERACTIVITY IN 3-YEAR-OLD AND 8/9-YEAR-OLD
CHILDREN IN THE GENERAL POPULATION.
======================================================================
=============

We are happy that the study is getting so much press attention -- it
is certainly time to stop ignoring good research showing the link
between additives and behavior. I have provided links to articles
in online magazines and newspapers near the bottom of this
email. However, if you are like me, you also want to know what the
study itself says, so here it is, in a (somewhat long) nutshell:

153 3-year-old and 144 8/9-year-old children were included in the
study.

Artificial coloring and the preservative to be tested were removed
from their diet during the time of the study.

The challenge drink contained a preservative and artificial colors in
a fruit juice mix. The placebo drink was just a fruit juice mix that
looked and tasted the same.

The researchers delivered the juice mixes to the family each week,
and neither the children, the parents, or the researchers knew which
was which at that time, making it a double-blind-placebo-control
study.

Salicylates were not considered and were obviously included in the
juice mix since two children could not be included in the study
because of an allergy to blackberry juice.

The main outcome measure was called a global hyperactivity aggregate
(GHA), and it was based on recorded behaviors and ratings of the
children by teachers and parents, plus a computer test of attention
for the older group.

There were two kinds of challenge drinks: MIX A and MIX B

MIX A contained the following food dyes:

Sunset Yellow -- FD&C Yellow #6
Carmoisine -- a red dye not allowed in the US
Tartrazine -- FD&C Yellow #5
Ponceau 4R -- FD&C Red #4, not allowed in US

MIX A given to the 3-year-olds contained 20 mg of the
mixed artificial colors.
MIX A given to the 8/9 year-olds contained 24.98 mg of
mixed artificial colors.

MIX B contained the following food dyes:

Sunset Yellow -- FD&C Yellow #6
Carmoisine -- a red food dye not allowed in US
Quinoline Yellow -- a yellow food dye not allowed in US
Allura Red -- FD&C Red #40

MIX B given to the 3-year-olds contained 30 mg of mixed
colors.
MIX B given to the 8/9 year-olds contained 62.4 mg of
mixed colors.

Both mixes contained 45 mg of sodium benzoate as the preservative to
be tested.

20, 30, even 62 mg of food dye may be - as they say - the amount of
dye in a few sweets, but remember that children also consume food dye
in their toothpaste, their shampoo (through the scalp), their hand
lotion (through their skin), their cereal, their juice drinks, their
mac 'n cheese, etc. In fact, in 1977 the National Academy of
Sciences did a huge study on 12,000 people and determined that most
people in the United States eat up to an average of 317 mg of food
dyes per day. The amount children in the UK consume is likely to be
close to that.

As far as we know, the reason that they did not use BHA, BHT, or
TBHQ, is that these preservatives have already been removed from most
food for children in the UK. Possibly, therefore, the children
consume much more sodium benzoate than American children. Although
this preservative is not eliminated on the Feingold Program, products
containing it are marked in the Foodlist so that people beginning the
diet may avoid it, and so that people who are sensitive to it may
continue to avoid it.

Most children who completed the study drank more than 2/3 of the
drinks.

64% of the younger children reported 2 or fewer infractions per week.
66% of the older children reported 2 or fewer infractions per week
Very few children had more than 4 infractions per week.

In recruiting the children, the researchers were careful to find
children from all socioeconomic backgrounds, and to make sure that
they were a random sample including some hyperactive children and
some non-hyperactive children, as is found in the general
population. The researchers also used additional controls to avoid
placebo effects.

Parents completed a daily diary of juice consumption and compliance,
and any bottles of juice not consumed were returned and contents
measured to validate parent reports.

Parents rated the children's behavior each week for the seven weeks
of the study, and the children were also observed by psychology
graduate students given special training. The children were observed
3 times a week for 8 minutes each.

The Conners continuous performance test was used for the older
children. It is a computerized test of attention.

RESULTS:

For the younger children, both MIX A and MIX B both had a significant
effect, but the calculation of MIX B versus placebo was not
significant for them because their response to it varied very widely.

For the older children, MIX A did not have a significant effect (not
surprising - look at the small dose of coloring) but MIX B did.

The researchers concluded that artificial colors or a sodium benzoate
preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity
in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the general population.

Before starting this study, the researchers also took DNA samples of
the children, intending to find out whether certain genes make the
children more likely to respond to the additives. The results of the
genetic analysis will be published in the future.

@@@@

There has been quite a lot of press coverage about the study, and you
can see a number of articles that have been sent me just today at the
links below. Some of these newspapers will be transferring their
articles into archives, so these links may not be permanent, but
surely at least some of them will work for a week or so.

Major Study Indicates a Link Between Hyperactivity in Children and
Certain Food Additives
(This is a press release from the University of Southampton where the
study was done.)
http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2007/sep/07_99.shtml

Study ties hyperactivity in kids to food additives
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20612862/

Food alert as every additive comes under new suspicion
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article2395623.ece

Children who eat junk food 'worst behaved'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/children-who-eat-junk-food-worst-
behaved/2007/09/05/1188783287866.html

Imagine-Did You Know That Food Additives Cause Hyperactivity?
http://jingjiad.com/reenazaia/2007/09/05/imagine-did-you-know-that-
food-additives-cause-hyperactivity/

After 30 years of debate, fears over children's food confirmed
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2163218,00.html

Danger to children from food and drink additives is exposed
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2163224,00.html

Food Colorings and Hyperactivity
http://www.myomancy.com/2007/09/food-colorings-and-hyperactivity


Shula Edelkind
Feingold Association of the United States
http://www.feingold.org
http://www.ADDdiet.com
http://www.diet-studies.com
http://www.school-lunch.org
554 E. Main Street, Suite #301
Riverhead, NY 11901
1-631-369-9340
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