Dr. Axe EXPOSES This Toxin Poisoning Your Food

If you've been doing everything right, eating clean, exercising, but somehow you're still not feeling your best, your energy's dragging, your memory is slipping, and it's frustrating because you know there's more to your potential. Well, what if the issue isn't just in your routine, but it's deep down inside your cells?

You know, you're investing in the best supplements, working out regularly, and sticking to a clean diet. But if your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response, all the hard work might not be paying off as it should. Think of your cells like a house under renovation.

You can bring in the highest quality materials like the best supplements and clean foods, but if the workers inside the house are on lockdown because of a storm, nothing gets done. The materials just pile up unused. That's what happens when your cells are in CDR. They can't fully use the good stuff you're giving them.

Getting out of CDR, the cell danger response, is the key to unlocking your body's full potential. When your cells are no longer in protective mode, they can finally use the nutrients, hormones, and energy you're working so hard to provide. That's when everything starts to click. Your energy improves, your workouts become more efficient, and you start to feel better. Feel like yourself again.

Go to beyondbloodwork.com to learn how to break free from cell danger response and make the effort pay off. Hey everyone, welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I am your host, Dr. Axe, and each and every week on this show, we dive deep into the science and principles behind how to heal in body, mind, and spirit and take your health and your life to the next level.

I recently got back from a trip to Michigan where myself, Vani Hari, known as the Food Babe, Kallie Means, Jason Karp, Dr. Will Cole, and many others stood outside of Kellogg's headquarters and demanded that they remove the artificial dyes and chemicals from our kids' food supply.

And on this episode, I'll be going through some shocking statistics, going through the foods, including the cereals, that are the highest in food dyes. I'll go through the foods in general that have the most food dyes and chemicals. And the top foods you want to stay away from and give you some natural brand alternatives as well on today's show.

Also, you may be wondering, how do I detoxify these chemicals from my body and from the body of my kids if they've eaten these sort of cereals and chemicals in the past? I'll be sharing that on today's episode as well. Before I dive in though, hey, do me a favor, make sure to subscribe to this podcast and sign up for my weekly newsletter.

Listen, if you want to make a big impact, it's all about educating yourself regularly so you can then educate and be a leader for others. You want to be the thought leader in your family and your community, so make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a single thing there. And you probably know this as well, or maybe you've seen this in the news.

California recently passed a law banning certain synthetic food dyes and preservatives in schools. They looked at the scientific literature and found what many other countries found, which is why these food dyes are banned in many other countries.

So the California law has officially banned red dye number 40, yellow number 5, yellow number 6, blue 1, blue 2, green number 3, thanks to the Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel. He's a Democrat from Encino, California. And they said these dyes have been linked to neurological behavior disorders, particularly in children. I also want to mention that food dyes are a nonpartisan issue.

Republicans, Democrats, Independents should all be fighting in the government for the health of our kids and their future. And here's the reality. Companies like Kellogg's, General Mills, Quaker, Pepsi, and many of the other companies out there, they know better.

Large companies like Kellogg's specifically, did you know that Kellogg's 10 years ago said they were going to remove these from cereal and they never did? Okay? So these companies often promise things in order to receive goodwill from the consumers and they never do it.

So anyways, I want to also encourage you, if you're watching this, ban the companies, stop buying from the companies like Kellogg's and General Mills that are continuing to put food dyes in their kids' products and support natural branded companies instead of these companies.

And you're going to be doing a really good thing by doing that, supporting your kids and other kids and just the nation as a whole. So California has banned these food dyes. So have many other countries, the entire state of the European Union. And we're talking about France, Italy, the UK have all banned food dyes.

Israel, India, Germany, Canada, and even states in the United States have banned these chemicals. And so why has the United States as a whole not completely banned food dyes? Well, the reason has to do with a lot of these organizations and people in government, many of them have ties into the food industry and pharmaceutical industry, and so they would lose money If that happens.

And so that's the sad reality, is it's all about the money. We're, we're, we're focused more on profiting financially than the health of our own children. And that's why we all need to band and stand together against these large companies and vote with our dollars to buy natural branded foods. All right, so here's the reality.

When you look at the medical literature, there are today over 40 studies that have been conducted on the neurological behavioral impacts of synthetic food dyes on our children. And these studies show significant evidence that these dyes contribute to behavioral problems like hyperactivity and worsen ADHD symptoms in children.

They've also been linked to allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal issues, rashes, and mental health disorders. Another thing we're finding is not just food dyes in our food supply. And by the way, the reason they use food dyes is it makes things very bright. Think about Froot Loops or Skittles, the brightness, the vibrancy of colors that attracts little kids, right?

Little kids, like I have a 4-year-old daughter, she loves rainbows. She loves things that are hot pink and hot purple and very bright and vibrant. And so that's why they use them. However, there are major side effects. The other reality is this, You know, you can brighten up foods; they're just not as bright when you're when they're not laden with chemicals.

You know, the better brands they will use watermelon juice, they'll use turmeric, they'll use blueberry, they'll use beet. They will use these natural ingredients to brighten things up, though they don't get as bright as the chemically laden food dyes. Now, another chemical that's added to our food supply and especially cereals today is called BHT. That's butylated.

And there are over 30 studies on what's known as BHT. It's a preservative commonly found in a lot of food products, including cereals for kids. And BHT is linked to cancer risks, hormone disruption, and organ toxicity. And while BHT is banned in all of Europe, Japan, Israel, and Australia, it's still permitted in the United States today.

And that's another thing we've got to get out of our food supply that's in brands like Kellogg's and Pepsi and General Mills. One other big thing we see on the rise in connection with food dyes is ADHD. There is data and evidence from a study that was conducted on over 186,000 children, and it showed that ADHD has risen from 6.1% in around 1998 to around 11.3% in 2023.

That's around, as I said, over a 40% increase in ADHD. And also we see this can connect in connection to the growing number of food dyes found in our food supply.

Now, there's also a report in 2021, and this is in the state of California, and they wanted to do their own assessment, a set of a sort of meta-analysis where they took many studies together and they wanted to see what the evidence was for Synthetic food dyes linked to behavioral issues. What they found was around 64% of the studies conducted showed significant associations.

Okay, so we're not talking about when they do a study, okay, maybe, okay, it looks like there is a positive correlation. No, they said it had a statistically significant impact on kids in a negative way with ADHD and other sort of health disorders like allergies. There's another 2012 study done. This was a meta-analysis done.

And they found— and a meta-analysis is where you take many studies together and see what they all say together in terms of the quality studies. And of course, that's more accurate than taking a single study. And they found that food dyes increased ADHD symptoms. Another study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found the exact same thing— artificial colors increased hyperactivity in children.

And another one published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found the exact same thing. So we're seeing multiple studies, meta-analysis, where there is no doubt that food dyes increase ADHD in kids. And by the way, I was the kid that grew up with ADHD. I was the kid that was told I had a learning disability and had trouble learning in school.

And it wasn't until I changed my diet really significantly where I started to notice I could focus better, I could study better. I mean, I barely graduated high school with around a 2.0 GPA until later on I stopped— started eating healthy. Wow. Then my GPA went up to a 3.0, and much later on as I got healthier, nearly a 4.0 when I graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

I share that all to say I experienced this in my own life. I've worked with tens of thousands of patients and kids helping them overcome issues like ADHD, helping children with autistic spectrum disorders, helping kids with major allergies and food sensitivities, GI problems, and weak immunity.

And I found that when I get them off food dyes, when I get them off BHT, and of course other things like added sugar, Incredible things happen. They can learn better. They have better health, better immunity, better gut health. They perform better at school. And so all of us should be on this fight together to remove food dyes and BHT from our food supply.

Now listen to how much food dye consumption has increased. And this is something I did when I was doing my lecture and speaking at Kellogg's headquarters. There has been a 400% increase in food dye consumption over the last 50 years. Think about that, 400% increase. And most of it is due to marketing towards our children, our most vulnerable and innocent.

17 Million pounds of food dyes were created and consumed in 2015 alone. Think about that, 17 million pounds of food dyes. I want to go through now the top-ranking cereals and food dyes.

Now, when I went to Kellogg there with Vani Hari and Jason Karp and Alex Clark and Courtney Swan and so many other amazing leaders in this health and food industry, we were standing up to Kellogg's and specifically talking about their cereals like Froot Loops. However, there are actually other brands in cereals that have even more food dye than Froot Loops. Froot Loops ranks number 3.

The number 1 worst cereal when it comes to food dyes is Captain Crunch Berries cereal. Okay? Captain Crunch Berries cereal by Quaker has food dyes Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1. It contains 41 milligrams of artificial dyes per serving. Okay? By the way, something I want you to keep in mind is in these studies they found anything over 10 milligrams caused ADHD in kids.

We're talking about Captain Crunch here, 4 times that amount. Trix, this is General Mills, food dyes Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Blue Number 1. 36 Milligrams of food dyes per serving. Next up is Froot Loops. It's one of the 3 worst offenders here. It contains Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, sometimes Blue 1. The amount is 33 milligrams of artificial dyes per serving. Wow.

That's triple the amount of food dyes that they found to be in the studies to have a negative impact on your kids with ADHD and these other medical conditions. Number 4, Lucky Charms. That has 30 milligrams of artificial food dyes. Number 5, Fruity Pebbles. That's from Post. 27 Milligrams of artificial food dyes. Apple Jacks, 27 milligrams. There's another Kellogg's brand.

Number 7, Honey Smacks, there's another Kellogg's brand. Number 8, Reese's Puffs from General Mills. Number 9, Cocoa Pebbles. And number 10, Kellogg's Corn Pops has Yellow 5, Yellow 6, 10 milligrams of artificial dyes per serving. And again, according to a medical study, they've shown that doses as low as 10 milligrams of Yellow 5, that one artificial dye, can lead to behavioral issues.

And again, for context, Froot Loops has more than triple that amount, 3 times the amount that can trigger behavioral problems in our kids. And so we've got to stand up to these food companies and demand that they remove it from our foods.

Now, here's another chemical that's found in our food supply known as BHT, and it's found in high levels in Kellogg's Froot Loops, Captain Crunch, and Apple Jacks. It's known as butylated hydroxytoluene, okay, and it's known as BHT, and it is a food preservative. It keeps foods fresher longer from going bad, but at what cost? Here are the health risks.

A 1990 study published in the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal showed that high doses of BHT caused tumor growth in the lungs and liver of mice. A 2018 study published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal linked BHT to hormone disruption impacting reproductive health and thyroid function.

How many young girls today are hitting puberty early and hitting their menstrual cycle early? How many boys now are having more feminine-like characteristics and low testosterone levels? How many women are struggling with infertility? All of this starts with our kids. All of it starts in youth.

And these chemicals, you might— listen, your kids might be able to eat it one time and not have an issue, but what about day after day after day along with all the other chemicals, how those build up in the body? What happens?

Then you get in your 20s and then it's infertility, it's hypothyroidism, it's low testosterone, it's adrenal fatigue, it's autoimmune disease, it's— allergies, it's food sensitivities, it's GI issues. That's where these conditions come from. And cancer later on in life is when you start having these chemicals as kids and they accumulate over time.

So when it comes to our kids' health, the way that Europe's FDA looks at this is they tend to say, okay, if there's some evidence and if it could put our kids at risk, we're going to head to and remove it from the foods. Okay, we're going to ban it.

Now, the United States, what they do is they believe that you have to have many, many studies that are proven in human double-blind placebo studies over time, and it needs to be proven for many years before they adopt and ban something. Now, I want to say, is that really a smart idea when it comes to our kids? Do you know how long it took to show that smoking and tobacco was bad for our health?

Do you know how long it took for us to ban things like asbestos in buildings? Do you know how long it took for us to remove lead-based paint? From kids' toys. And yet we're going to allow in the United States, one of the most advanced countries in the entire world, we're going to wait until there's, you know, for another 20, 30 years before we decide to finally ban it.

And I want to say this, there's not just a little evidence, there's a lot of evidence today, at least 13 major studies and meta-analysis that have proven that these food dyes and BHT are bad for kids. This is why countries in the European Union, along with Japan, Israel, and Australia, have banned these food dyes due to the overwhelming evidence of harm.

And it's why the state of California also banned it in schools. So I want to share with you what you can do about it. And then I want to go through one more chart that shows you not only the top cereals that have chemicals, but the top foods that are high in food dyes and BHT in general. The first thing you need to do is you need to be able to recognize artificial dyes on labels.

Listen, it's pretty simple. Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, and preservatives like BHT. If you see those on products, do not consume them. Also, I want to encourage you to ban the brands who are adding these chemicals into our kids' cereal. Kellogg's, General Mills, Pepsi, Post, and some of the others that you'll see here in just a minute.

Now, if you want to support some cereal brands that are putting high-quality ingredients in their product that are free of food dyes, free of BHT, and using all-natural ingredients. Here are some of the brands I recommend. One is Purely Elizabeth. She's doing an amazing job. We've had the founder here on the podcast here. She does an amazing job. Lovebird, another amazing brand.

They use cassava, all-natural ingredients. Lovebird is one of my personal favorites. My wife loves the brand. This is one we've given our daughter. Kashi, Nature's Path, Ezekiel 4:9. That's one I've consumed for years. Cascadian Farms. 3 Wishes, I love, they've done a good job.

Theirs are bright, they're vibrant for kids using things like turmeric, watermelon, and blueberry to actually color their cereals. 7 Sundays, Forager, One Degree, and Bare Naked are all great options if you want to swap out, move away from Kellogg's, move away from General Mills, move away from Post and all the food-dyes and chemicals.

Instead, switch to these higher quality cereal brands that are using all natural ingredients. Now, in addition, your kids don't have to have cereal for breakfast. By the way, if you're using milk, I'd recommend coconut milk as the number one, followed by something like almond milk, okay?

A lot of the oat milk, a lot of these cereals, they're adding seed oils, they're adding added sugar to it and other chemicals, so you wanna stay away. I think for the most part, coconut milk is the single best form of milk for kids, though there are some other natural pressed seed milks that can be okay.

You want to stay away from though the sunflower oil, the safflower oil, some of those things added into cereals. You know, there's a brand I love and they do overnight oats. The brand is called Mush. That can be a really, really good option for kids, is giving them something like oats.

Also a superfood smoothie, doing some berries, doing coconut milk, doing collagen or bone broth or a plant-based protein in there, that can be a great option as well. Eggs, sourdough bread, chicken and beef sausage, these are all good options for kids for breakfast. You want to focus on getting your kids more protein and things like fruit there first thing in the morning.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, it's not just cereals that are high in food dyes. There are many other foods you're going to recognize that you'll want to stay away from, some of them even higher in food dyes than cereals. And when I go through my list, and these aren't necessarily in ranking order, but they're, they're very close.

The first one, one of the greatest offenders, is Skittles, created by the Mars Company. It has over 33 milligrams of food dyes per serving, including Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Blue Number 1. The next is M&M's, also by the Mars Company, that has nearly 30 milligrams of food dyes per serving. Number 3, Froot Loops. Number 4, Trix cereal. Number 5, Captain Crunch Berries.

Number 6, Fruity Pebbles. Number 7, Lucky Charms. Number 8, Jolly Ranchers candy by the Hershey Company. Starburst, also from the Mars Company. Red number 40, yellow number 5, yellow number 6, around 20 milligrams per serving. Pop-Tarts from Kellogg's, 14 milligrams of food dyes per serving. Remember, in the study, just 10 milligrams was shown to increase ADHD in kids.

Number 11, Cheetos by Frito-Lay, that's around 11 milligrams, has predominantly Yellow 6. Doritos, also from Frito-Lay. Gatorade from the Pepsi Company has Yellow 5, Blue Number 1, Red 40, and And really, the food dyes depend on the coloring of Gatorade, but that tends to be about 6+ milligrams. And I know when I was a kid, I drank a lot of Gatorade. By the way, these are just one serving sizes.

Think about something like what we talked about with Froot Loops. I mean, I would eat sometimes as a kid, this is an exaggeration, definitely double a bowl, sometimes another one in the afternoon. I mean, I would have a few bowls of cereal a day. And when you look at the serving size, it might be a single cup, and most kids are putting at least a cup and a half or 2 cups in for breakfast.

Number 14, Kool-Aid from the Kraft Heinz Company. That has around 6 milligrams of food dye per serving of Kool-Aid. Jell-O, also from Kraft Heinz, that's high in food dyes. Mountain Dew, of course, right? Mountain Dew, that vibrant yellow-green color, those are all food dyes that give it its coloring.

Fruit Roll-Ups from General Mills, it's not good enough just to have fruit, they're adding in food dyes. Nerds candy, number 18. Number 19, Lifesavers. And number 20, Tropicana Twister drinks from the Pepsi Company. So you'll see here, it's a mixture of foods, candy, and soft drinks are the absolute worst things your kids can consume that are going to cause ADHD.

Digestive issues, learning disorders, allergies, and so much more. Stay away from these brands, stay away from these foods. And then if you're a parent and you want to support your children in their detoxification channels, here's what I'd recommend. I don't recommend heavy detoxes for kids.

You know, our bodies are created to detoxify themselves if we give it light support, especially for children. So I'd say number one, make sure your kids are drinking plenty of water so that they're staying hydrated. Number 2, have them consume a whole food diet and really focusing on getting more vegetables and more fruits in their diet.

Apples, pears, berries, steamed vegetables, baked vegetables, these are very cleansing to the body. So get more whole foods, especially fiber via fruits and vegetables to naturally detoxify. Next, have them consume more probiotic and fermented foods.

Have them get a little bit of sauerkraut if they're willing to eat it or yogurt, whether it be coconut yogurt, or yogurt or kefir you get from your local farmer's market is great. And then take a probiotic supplement. If there's one supplement that supports detoxification the most in children, it is a probiotic supplement. And the next would be a little bit of chlorella and spirulina.

You could do just a little bit, like less than like an 8th of a teaspoon supporting your kids. You can add that to a smoothie. It hardly tastes like anything, especially spirulina. That would be the next one. And I think those are the top Supplements for kids if you want to detoxify, a probiotic and some algae like spirulina.

And then, you know, I would also say limiting their exposure to further toxins, right? Reducing sugar intake, just staying away from those packaged foods. And then activity. When kids sweat, when they're physically active, that helps. And here's another one, Epsom salts bath. Epsom salts bath is high in magnesium. Magnesium helps support liver detoxification, so that's good as well.

But basically it's make sure your kids drink more water, make sure your kids are physically active, have them eat more fruits and vegetables, have them get some probiotic-rich foods and supplements. If they do that, it's going to help your kids detoxify the food dyes, detoxify the BHT, and help them be as healthy as possible.

Hey, I want to encourage you to please stand with myself, Vani Hari, Jason Karp, Kali Means, Dr. Will Cole, Alex Clark, Courtney from Foodology, Courtney Swan, and many others who really believe that we need to take back the health of our country and make this country healthy again. I want to encourage you, if you enjoyed this episode, hey, please share this.

There are millions of parents out there that don't know what food dyes are doing to their kids. So if you would share this on social media, if you would text it to a friend group and say, hey, we got to get the message out there.

And we had nearly 1,000 people people show up in Michigan, the people that were flying in from all over the country to stand with myself and the other parents who want to demand companies like Kellogg's get the food dyes and BHT out of our food supply. So thank you to all of you that are on mission with me. Also, hey, make sure to subscribe. When you subscribe, it allows me to have a louder voice.

It allows me to bring on better guests on the show and get more of this message out there. So thanks for subscribing. Thanks for commenting. I'd love to hear from you. On your views on food dyes. And, um, and, and, and, and hey, are you going to vote with your dollars to help with this mission? And hey, thanks so much for sharing. I'll be back next week with another episode.