Reflections
Lucas Kuo
I was in elementary school, I had developed ADHD. My parents were very careful and always helped me avoid artificial food dyes. I didn’t know its harm to your health before and that’s the main reason that I chose this research topic. One challenged that I faced was finding reliable resources. I found that many websites were sponsored by food manufactures and their information was biased. However, many people gave me helpful resources in the comments which assisted me hugely throughout my project. This project also changed my perspective on candies and other food with artificial food colouring. After the second research round, I have realized that food dyes exist in a large variety of foods. I now look for signs of artificial food colouring on food packages and try to avoid them as much as I can. Since children and adults are consuming tons of food colouring every week, I would like to raise awareness of the harmful effects of food colouring and impact people’s views on food colouring. Another change that I would like to see is for food manufactures to shift from using artificial food dyes to natural pigments.
Hi Lucas,
ADHD has also affected my family but I have never known about the link between it and food dyes. Do most dyes cause this link or are there specific ones that you try to avoid? I totally understand how the websites you were researching from could’ve been biased. The food companies are basically trying to save themselves from the backlash of using those harmful dyes by saying they understand the problem. Lastly, I think it is great that you want to spread awareness of the harmful effects of these dyes. Hopefully, your research spreads the word and people make more natural choices in the future!
Great job,
Shieva Mokhtarnameh
Hi Lucas,
I think it is so great that you want to spread awareness of the harmfull effects of food colouring , the disadvantages of using colouring outweigh the advantages because the only advantage i know, is that they’re used to make food look more appetizing and when used they can destroy the nutrients in food because of their chemical composition, natural pigments are healthy and they improve the taste of the products but food companies are trying to save themselves from backlash as shieva said.
As an upcoming Chef I promote use of natural pigments because I mainly care about the health of person who eats the food.
Splendid work,
George Gitonga.
Hi Lucas,
this was a very interesting reflection to read.
I also struggled looking for reliable sources, however, I also was able to have the help from the comments for some reliable sources.
Lucas, thank you for telling us your diagnose in ADHD. I did not know food colouring has some sort of link to ADHD. This is great you are trying to raise awareness of the harmful effects of food colouring as well as the impact of people’s views on food colouring.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading your three rounds of research!
Great job, Lucas. Looking forward to your future posts!
– Karina