In a coincidentally well-timed follow-up to a recent Quick Bite about artificial food dyes, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has met on Wednesday and Thursday of this week to review mounting evidence that artificial food dyes cause hyperactivity in kids and to decide whether the government should restrict their use.  (Wait – do you hear that? Is that the sound of dietitians everywhere cheering?)  Look for news on Friday about the FDA’s decision about warning labels on foods containing artificial dyes.

Perhaps sensing that Elvis is about to leave the building, Frito-Lays almost simultaneously announced that they have replaced an artificial dye, Red No. 40, in many of their snack foods with natural food colorings.  Unfortunately, some of their most popular snacks, such as Doritos and Cheetos, will still have the artificial food dye.  Reportedly, manufacturers felt that the replacement would give a “healthy” snack stigma to these popular snacks and deter their most popular market, kids, from purchasing the snacks.

Both of these events should how distorted things have become in American food culture.  First, artificial food dyes should have long ago been replaced.  These dyes create false ideas of what food should look like and it is always best to err on the side of caution when it comes to health.  Second, having natural food dyes on snack chips instead of artificial dyes does not mean that these are suddenly healthy snacks.  This action by Frito-Lays reminds me of a few years ago when Kellogg’s began promoting Pop-Tarts as a healthy breakfast because the Pop-Tarts were now being made with whole grains.  The small tweak in ingredients is an improvment but not enough to pull these foods up from the nutritional basement.  Let’s demand more than just smoke and mirrors from our food manufacturers!