What a HUGE win for everyone's health. Kudos.
Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
41–50 of 153 posts
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many artificial food dyes have been actually banned? I mean in the time where we actually had some regulations, the old days were quite wild in terms of safety in all areas, so I don't think that would be a useful comparison.
I'm in awe at the number of people that will go to bat for things like artificial dyes in food, only because the policy is coming from the present administration. It's just common sense. We don't need to be ingesting this shit. It's cosmetic and not needed for nutrition. Why are you feeding your child Fruit Loops and not Cheerios? I personally have known people who develop migraines after eating food with artificial…
+1. G.R.A.S. (generally recognized as safe) is long overdue for reform
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#43I participated in some consumer testing when Kellogg's Canada was switching their breakfast cereals to natural colours. Beyond some muted colours, the cereal tasted exactly the same. Seemed like a no brainer, really.
IIRC they switched to natural dyes in 2017, but sales fell because average people are "shiny object" driven. So they reverted it.
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#44Hope this spreads to other countries.
Which other countries?
I'm sure I'm simplifying things, but I think this ban is common practice at this point in most of the EU, Canada.
Where else is hypercouloring cereal common?
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#45Good, there is a reason why just about every other country outlaws these.
Can you clearly state what that reason is? The only reason stated in the article is that this move "is in line with evolving customer preferences and in support of a more transparent food system".
They're mainly petrochemicals and were dubiously granted protected status. Lots of colors are poisions, read "A Rainbow of Risks" - great paper on documented problems with these
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many artificial food dyes have been actually banned? I mean in the time where we actually had some regulations, the old days were quite wild in terms of safety in all areas, so I don't think that would be a useful comparison.
I'm in awe at the number of people that will go to bat for things like artificial dyes in food, only because the policy is coming from the present administration. It's just common sense. We don't need to be ingesting this shit. It's cosmetic and not needed for nutrition. Why are you feeding your child Fruit Loops and not Cheerios? I personally have known people who develop migraines after eating food with artificial…
I want these decisions to be bases on scientific and medical data, not on gut feeling or unfounded personal belief. I have no issue with regulating specific dyes or additives in food, or groups of related chemicals.
And your anecdote is not scientific data. You cannot draw any conclusions from that.
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#47it's already easy to eat and drink things without any dyes or even artificial flavoring
(except OTC medication always has that nonsense, but now my advil is also dye-free)
but Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the life-expectancy of people back when everything was natural and organic
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many artificial food dyes have been actually banned? I mean in the time where we actually had some regulations, the old days were quite wild in terms of safety in all areas, so I don't think that would be a useful comparison.
I'm in awe at the number of people that will go to bat for things like artificial dyes in food, only because the policy is coming from the present administration. It's just common sense. We don't need to be ingesting this shit. It's cosmetic and not needed for nutrition. Why are you feeding your child Fruit Loops and not Cheerios? I personally have known people who develop migraines after eating food with artificial…
Fluoride in communal drinking water is another thing I notice strange ingroup outgroup thinking in ...
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#49Synthetic and “natural” is so hazy. What’s the difference between a dye that’s synthetically made and one where we crush up bugs and extract the same exact chemical (real thing.). Why don’t we just eliminate most dyes overall…
Eh. Being honest with dyes there's a pretty strong distinction between "natural" dyes going through several extraction and purification steps but remaining more or less the same intact molecule found in something alive.
"Synthetic" dyes being the result of a long chain of steps and intermediate molecules which are usually ultimately sourced from things like air, petroleum, and seawater.
Science literacy is bad so people have problems articulating the issue of concern which is "it is fair to have concerns about novel chemicals making their way into the food supply which evolution has not had a chance to address", not that something not found in nature is automatically bad but that such things need to be introduced carefully.
People don't know science though so everything is turning into "if it's not found in nature it is a monster and unclean", which to be honest is fair to a degree for people who don't know being forced to accept things blindly and asked to trust that everything is fine from people who would gladly disregard dangers in exchange for a fraction of a cent in profit margin.
That doesn't mean they're making good decisions just that their fear is justified.
Re: Walmart U.S. moves to eliminate synthetic dyes across all private brand foods
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the kind of nerd-snark that makes normal people not trust anything from the mouths of "experts." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovKw6YjqSfM
The thing is, there are many chemicals which are safe to drink in reasonable amounts, and many chemicals that are not safe to drink in any amount. People deciding not to eat something because "it has chemicals in it" is a pretty ignorant take.
> People deciding not to eat something because "it has chemicals in it" is a pretty ignorant take.
When people say this they are obviously not referring the the definition of "chemical" that a chemist would use. Pretending otherwise is exactly the "nerd-snark" mentioned above which makes people distrust experts because they clearly aren't intending to use the term "chemical" in a sense that would include substances like water.