AKA - Our Red Food Coloring Story

Even though I shared my MSG story first, I really believe that this story is a more important message.  Why?  I see children every single day that are either out of control and their parents are at their wit's end OR the parents have already lost hope and have put their children on a brain altering drug like Ritalin only to wonder if there's a way out. 

Let me back up for just a minute and say that I don't intend to offend anyone who either is going or has gone the Ritalin (or some other medicine) route.  I'm in no way judging you, I promise.  I am only speaking because of the countless parents who have said to me, " I wish there were a way to get him/her off this medicine.  My baby isn't the same."  I'm also not here to say that Ritalin is a bad drug or no one has true ADHD.  I don't believe either thing for one second.  Again, I'm only telling my story and hoping that it might benefit someone. 

First, let me introduce you to Mahayla.

She is truly one of the sweetest young ladies you will ever meet in your life.  She cares deeply for others, will do anything for anyone, can run a household by herself and gladly takes on most tasks set before her.  She is very bright, a wonderful friend, and generally a quiet and calm person.  She is extemely obedient and wants to please her parents.

Not so when she was three.  I found myself in the pediatrician's office without Mahayla, but with my husband discussing with the doctor our options for my truly wild, loud and uncontrolable child.  Lucky for me, the doctor refused to label her as hyperactive at three.  Even though I could check off a "yes" for every single symptom of a child with ADHD, the doctor said there would be no way to start medicine in a child as young as her and we would have to wait until she were at least five. 

Let me stop here and say that medicine is NOT my first choice for any situation.  It certainly wasn't here either.  We were simply grasping for something, anything that would tame this wild child.

She wasn't a wild baby.  In fact, she was a wonderful baby - happy, a great sleeper, a good eater.  By two, things started changing.  She was getting louder, harder to get to sit still, less obedient.  You might say, "That's normal, Cindy!"  Yes, but by three, it wasn't at all normal.  We would hear her screaming (for the fun of it) from her Sunday School class on a different floor of the church.  We would watch her literally climb walls at out house.  What was most apparent, though, was that she wasn't ALWAYS like this.  Often, yes.  But always, no. 

We would catch glimpses of a "normal" little girl in all her sweetness and then turn around a hour later and her eyes had almost glazed over as she turned into the tasmanian devil and couldn't be stopped. 

After being sent home by the pediatrician and told we would just have to wait it out, I cried out to the Lord telling Him that I knew she needed some sort of help.  Her parents needed help, too!!  Just like with my MSG story, once I cried out to Him, low and behold, the answer was there almost immediately. 

Again, the internet was where I turned.  All of the sudden, every search kept leading me to the same things - artificial food colorings, artificial flavorings, Feingold, artificial preservatives.  I didn't know exactly where the answer was in the midst of everything I was reading, but I knew it was there.  Her problems didn't start until she started eating "real people food" which made complete sense with all I was reading.

The word that kept popping out at me the most was RED food coloring.  So that's where I started.  And, praise the Lord, that turned out to be the culprit.  We got rid of everything red, pink, purple, and orange.  As long as those colors were gone, we had a normal four year old again.  As soon as something "slipped" in, her eyes would glaze over within an hour's time and she would be w-i-l-d, whiny and uncontrollable again.  The effects would last for hours.

Very few people believed that red food coloring was really the answer.  My family raised their eyebrows (until they saw the proof first hand!)  The pediatrician said she seriously doubted food coloring was the culprit and suggested we see and allergist for food allergy testing.  The allergist gave us some vague food allergies she had, but thought there wasn't enough research to suggest food coloring allergies were real.  The Sunday School teachers scoffed when I asked them to run all snacks and drinks by me before feeding her.   But we KNEW it was real.  We lived with the proof daily!!  No red food coloring = a sweet little girl.  Red food coloring = someone else.  Someone else in attitude, stature, facial expression and action.  The scariest part was the change in her eyes - this child wasn't my own.  I've heard other moms mention this change in the eyes, too.

As Mahayla's gotten older, she is actually better able to handle red food coloring.  Mind you, not in large amounts.  If she happens to accidentally ingest a decent amount, she no longer goes wild, but she gets jittery, s-u-p-e-r cranky and v-e-r-y emotional.  And it takes a couple days to wear off completely.  I know you're asking how an 11 year old accidentally eats or drinks red food coloring.  It's really very easy.  Just like MSG, red food coloring is hidden in things you would never expect - blueberry muffin mix, prepared brownies, cereal....

I also ought to mention that it took a long time for Mahayla to understand that she had to make the choice to say no to foods and drinks with red food coloring.  I had to be the food police for several years before she was able to recognize the change in herself when she ingested it.  She prefers to stay as far away as possible now because she knows how awful it makes her feel.

Anyway, in trying to wrap this up....WE HAD A NEW CHILD!  A child that was set on the path to Ritalin and a lifetime label of ADHD was "cured".  Of course, she never really had ADHD, but that's where her path was headed if we hadn't found the truth. 

I read all I could from the Feingold site and in trying to get rid of red food coloring, we actually attempted to get rid of as much of the artificial colorings, flavorings and preservative as possible.  We're not fanatical about this, but do our best.  If they (Caleb struggles with red coloring, too) are offered colored things at a church function or a party, I allow it as long as it isn't red.  We typically don't buy much with those ingredients at our house, though. 

I'm passionate about sharing this info with parents who care to hear.  I'll be happy to answer questions or tell more detail to our story if anyone is interested.  Just ask.

Here are some websites that might be helpful:

About.com

Allergic Child

All Natural

Nature Moms

Why am I sharing this?  I come across so many people who share the same struggles that I used to have and I want to be sure they understand that getting MSG out of their diet can potentially be life changing.  It was for me.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's.  Eating Little Debbies, Big Macs, Doritoes and ranch dressing was just a normal part of life.  It still is for most people, in fact.  I never struggled with those foods until I reached my early twenties.  I really have no idea why something "snapped" at that point, but it certainly did.  Maybe it was years of ingesting a dangerous food ingredient and my body finally said. "No more!"  Maybe it was four years of college when I probably ate WAY worse than I should have.  Maybe it was being under a ton of stress planning a wedding and trying to find a job.  

Whatever the case, my body began going a bit crazy.  Not all of me, just my bowels, but it effected my entire being.  It started with horrible stomach and bowel pains after I'd eat at a restaurant.  Usually, I'd either have to run to the bathroom with explosive diarrhea before leaving the resaurant, or I'd be in horrible pain hoping I could "hold it" until I got home. 

Before long, it started happening even at home.  Often, I'd wake up in the middle of the night with cramps and spend an hour or more in the bathroom praying that I'd figure out why in the world this kept happening.  Many times, the pain would be so bad that I'd have a trash can in front of me ready to throw up at a moment's notice.  Of course, the next day left me feeling sore in my bowels and extrememly tired after the "episode".

I lost close to 20 pounds over time.  Eventually, I had a colonoscopy.  Irritable bowel possibly, colitis maybe.  Vague.  Unacceptable.  I set out to find real answers.  I simply couldn't live with just a "title" - I wanted help.  Where to start?  Prayer, of course.  "God, please show me the reason!  I know it has to be something I'm putting in my body.  Please help me!" 

In a matter of days, I had found my answer.  I "stumbled" upon www.msgmyth.com.  (I say stumbled, but we all know I was led there purposely!)  I simply couldn't get enough of the information I was reading.  I knew this was my answer.  I hadn't even tried removing it from my diet yet, but I knew this was it.

It didn't take long to realize I was right.  After removing all the MSG from my diet, I literally STOPPED any and all episodes of painful diarrhea.  The only time it would return was after mistakenly ingesting MSG.  When I say it was life changing, I really mean that.  Both in good and bad ways.

Good changes:  I was healed!  The pain, explosions, middle of the night trips to the bathroom, lethargy the following day and everything going along with my problem competely disappeared.  Completely.

Bad changes:  Finding the source of my problem came with a huge price.  MSG is in many, many, many products.  Not only in products that say MSG or monosodium glutamate, but in hidden ingredients like textured vegetable protein, spices, broth, and so much more.  I found myself, by necessity, in the middle of a complete dietary change.  If I wanted to be healthy, no longer could I shop for just anything.  In fact, for a diligent few months, I read the ingredient list on each and every product I bought.  I had to begin learning to cook from scratch, something I hadn't done much of previously.  I had to learn how to question restaurants, something they still don't appreciate this many years later.  And worst of all, I often had to learn by trial and error the products that are safe for me to eat.  Oh, and maybe even worse than that, I had to learn how to politely say no to food offered to me by friends or family when visiting their homes.

But let me say this very loudly:  The effort it took to make changes was (and is) completely worth it as opposed to being sick and unhealthy.

And let me say also as loudly:  Once the intial work was done and I got used to the new lifestyle, IT'S NOT THAT HARD anymore.   

Do I have to cook everything from scratch?  No way.  But even the things I do cook from scratch don't take nearly as long as you'd think. 

What are some examples of things I can never ever buy again?  Campbell's soups (most soups, really); flavored or seasoned food like chips,  stuffing, rice mixes, prepared seasoning packets (taco); many salad dressings;  prepared or pre-seasoned meats;  anything in a gravy or sauce; dry roasted peanuts; and bottled bbq sauce.  These are just examples, the list is long.

I have to be very careful at restaurants to make sure they don't pre-season meats or sprinkle seasonings other than plain old salt and pepper on my food.  Of course, all special sauces and gravies are out, too.  Chinese restaurants aren't the only MSG culprits, believe me!

What can I eat?  Almost anything I want as long as I prepare it (or someone else) with MSG-free ingredients.  In other words, I can still eat casseroles that call for a can of cream of mushroom soup, I just have to make my own white sauce with mushrooms.  I can still eat tacos, I just have to prepare my own taco seasoning.  And talk about saving money!  I can make about ten packet's worth of taco seasoning for the cost of one that I might buy in the store.  I can still eat stuffing at Thanksgiving dinner.  It just has to be old-fashioned homemade stuffing.  By the way, the taste of prepackaged stuffing doesn't come close in comparison!

As far as prepackaged things, there are some companies putting food out there without any hidden MSG.  It's simply a matter of reading the ingredients on every package that goes into the cart.  For instance, we don't buy the name brand french-fried onions, but Walmart's brand is MSG-free.  We can't buy just any sour cream, but the Daisy brand is natural (and much yummier.) 

Have I found acceptable replacements for anything?  Like I mentioned before, I have been able to make all my own seasoning mixes for packets that I normally would have bought.  Making my own salad dressing is simple, but there are several organic companies that put out yummy MSG-free dressings, too.  And I believe the tide might be changing for some of the major companies lately.  I've been finding more and more products that are safe to eat.  :o)

Does eating MSG-free cost more?  No.  In fact, it usually costs less because I'm not buying nearly as much "convenience food".

This is just my story.  Not everyone reacts to MSG the same way, which you can read about at the MSGmyth website.  Either way, whether you react visibly or not, MSG is a nasty little filler that's only included in your food to enhance the taste so that the manufacturers don't have to include as much of the real ingredients for taste.  That's pretty sad. 

I hope this story helps someone in some way.  I'm always happy to answer any questions you have, so bring them on.  If you have an MSG story, I'd love to hear it.

For the record, I bought the cookbook from the msgmyth website and it was SUPER helpful when I first began sorting out how to live my "new" life.  Also, I plan to post some of my most favorite mix recipes soon since a couple people have asked. 

This entry may be TMI (too much information), but I have spoken to way too many moms like me who are struggling with fairly severe PMS  - and I'd like to find some answers for myself and them. 

After recently finding myself back on "schedule" after two years of no cycle, I've found my PMS has come back roaring like a lion.  I've struggled with it before, but this time around seems to be much worse.  Maybe it's my body just getting used to the hormones again?  Maybe it's my age (36)?  Maybe it's the stress of a very busy life?  Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been able to eat dairy or citrus products for over a year?  (Eli is allergic/intolerant to dairy and citrus.)

We have a wonderful resource of natural healing through a mom at co-op.  She has given some great advice:

- Avoid sugar.  (What??  How hard is this one??)

-Avoid caffeine.  (No problem for me - woohoo - I have at least one thing licked!)

-Eat a healthy fat and protein when craving sugar.

-Bump up calcium and magnesium intake, possibly B vitamins, too.

-Exercise!

-Get outside everyday.

-Avoid stress.  (Hmmm, when do my active boys - little ones and hubby - help me with this one?)

-Try herbal teas made specifically for particular symptoms.

-She's been very kind to give me a few "concoctions" of essential oils.  I'm trying them now and will be sure to let you know which ones work and the company they come from.

-I'm not sure if she mentioned this to me or not.  My mind was swimming the day we talked, but someone suggested looking into a natural progesterone cream.  I have actually used a cream from Arbonne before with very good results.  After about six-months, though, I started having a reaction that caused me to stop. 

-After my second child, I suffered from some pretty serious post partum depression.  Once the third child rolled around, I was able to recognize the symptoms pretty early and read up on the advice from When Your Body Gets the Blues.  I took the vitamin supplements with great success.  I stopped taking them about two months ago, though, because of some stomach pain.  I have no idea if the pain was related to too many vitamins, but the pains are almost completely gone.  Anyway, since stopping, my co-op friend told me that too many B vitamins can cause sleeplessness and that I ought to watch that since I still nurse.  You won't believe this - Eli started sleeping better (finally) about two months ago!  Coincidence? 

Anyhoo, there's what I've learned so far.  I'm hoping that something in this post helps someone suffering.  I'm also hoping some of you who have found relief will share what you did to help.