Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - To Dye For: The Impact Of Artificial Food Dyes On Kids | Filmmakers Whitney and Brandon Cawood

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

After discovering that their child has a life-altering sensitivity to synthetic dyes, parents and first-time filmmakers Brandon and Whitney Cawood decided to document their investigation looking into this mysterious ingredient the American government allows in our food and expose the horrific impacts of synthetic dyes on the human body. Watch “To Dye For: The Documentary," out now on Prime Video and Apple TV.Whitney and Brandon CawoodInstagram | @todyeforthedocumentaryWatch “To Dye For: The Documentary” Thank you to our sponsors!⁠Geviti⁠ | Use code "ALEX" for 20% OFF your first monthA’del Natural Cosmetics | Use code "ALEX" for 25% ” for 15% OFF Masa Chips⁠⁠ | Use code "REALALEXCLARK" for 20% OFF Cowboy Colostrum | Use code “ALEX” for 15% OFF Garnuu | Use code “ALEX” for 15% OFF ⁠Zebra⁠ | Use code "ALEX for 10% OFF any order Alex ClarkInstagram | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cultureapothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@yoalexrapz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠New 'Culture Apothecary' Merch OUT NOW! Glass tumblers, weekly wellness planners, hats, crewnecks and more. Use code "Alex Clark" for 10% OFF at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tpusamerch.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Cuteservatives Facebook group to connect with likeminded friends who love America and all things health and wellness! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the CUTEservative Facebook Group!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.This show is made possible with generous donations from listeners who believe in our mission to heal a sick culture.You can support our show by leaving a tax deductible donation ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or by subscribing to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube for FREE! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#cultureapothecary #alexclark #podcast  #health  #wellness

You guys are regular parents and your lives were completely turned upside down by food dyes. Most days we had a child that was just really, really struggling to keep his hands to himself, impulsivity, hitting and biting. It really kind of came to a head when his daycare asked us to leave. So I came across an article that suggested eliminating wheat and dairy and synthetic dyes. And within about 48 hours, we saw a child that we had only seen glimpses of. There are a lot of cancer links to a lot of the dyes. When you start looking into Red 3, Red 3 is crazy.

After discovering that their child has a life-altering sensitivity to synthetic food dyes, parents and first-time filmmakers Brandon and Whitney Kewood decided to document their investigation looking into this mysterious ingredient the American government allows in our food and the impacts of synthetic dyes on the human body. Their brand-new documentary, to die for The Documentary, follows Brandon and Whitney as they embark on a journey to meet with the world's leading synthetic dye experts conducting in-person interviews with scientists and researchers, which ends up leading to an unexpected series of shocking stories and surprising discoveries. Their mission is to spread science-based information to the public

so that those affected by synthetic dyes can begin healing and real policy change can occur for our food. You can watch this stunning multi-shot high definition podcast on YouTube by subscribing to real Alex Clark. Did you know that this entire podcast is funded by donations from listeners like you who believe in our mission to Heel us at Culture? It's true. Support this mission with a tax-ded donation with the link in the show notes. If you don't have it in the budget right now, no worries. A free five-star review wherever you listen is another way to support the success of the show. Please welcome the filmmakers of To Die For the documentary Brandon and Whitney Kewood on Culture Apothecary. People think that artificial food diet is

only in junk food like candy, but what other common things is it hiding in that people would never think about? So it's oftentimes hidden in foods that you wouldn't expect. Like we found it in a mashed potato product, spinach wrap, vanilla icing, chocolate icing, fortune cookies, marshmallows. Marshallows. So like white foods, brown foods, like it really has permeated lots of foods and not just the colorful foods. And even household products like toothpaste, right? Yeah. Is it true that there is artificial food dye in ADHD medications?

For sure. And that's kind of a, it's one of those things. Like you're treating something. A lot of times artificial dies or synthetic dyes can cause ADHD type symptoms. And some people are misdiagnosed within that medication has dye in it. So you're treating it and also, you know, compounding on top of it. at the same time. How much has the use of food dyes increased in our food since they first came on the scene?

They've been using food dye for decades. And then, yeah, I think you started seeing commercials like bright food, food that changes your mouth colors. Like, I think the 80s and the 90s is kind of when it really exploded. Because the 80s is when we took these people, these scientists from the cigarette companies, put them in charge of processed food and said, hey, we need you to make our food as addictive as possible. do what you did to cigarettes to our food, get the next generation of kids addicted. And then remember growing up,

we had all these, like, it was like green ketchup and like weird, crazy food dice stuff. Yeah, and even, do you remember that sunscreen? It goes on purple and then, like, soaks into your skin. Well, and if you think about it, processed food uses a lot of things like artificial flavors. And so if you're going to make a product strawberry flavored

but not use actual strawberries, you're going to need something to color it to look like. strawberries. And so, you know, the more processed food we had, obviously, like, the more food is used to make those processed foods. And you guys are regular parents. You have two kids, and your lives were completely turned upside down by food dyes. What happened to your family? So between the ages of, like, one and three, our son was just really honestly, like a mystery. It was kind of like Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, we weren't sure, like what kid we were going to get. most days we had a child that was just really, really struggling to keep his hands to himself,

struggling with impulsivity, struggling with hitting and biting. And so parents listening, they might hear that and be like, okay, that's completely normal. But what was not normal was the amount of times it happened per day, the amount of times it happened per week. Honestly, his behavior was putting like such a stress on our family because everywhere we went from his mother's morning out to church to just like play dates. It was happening. all of the time. So we were doing behavior therapy, we were consulting doctors, we were trying to help him. It really kind of came to a head when his daycare asked us to leave. And so we were like, we've got to help him. So I started researching foods that could cause hyperactivity in kids.

So I came across an article that suggested eliminating wheat and dairy and synthetic dyes. He was kind of like Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde where we were having like these really, really rough days. where he was struggling to control his impulsivity, the biting, the hitting. And then we would have some days where he was a completely different kid. Like, he was very easy to reason with. It was, there was no hitting. It was just, he was just such an easy kid to parent.

And so we eliminated the wheat, we eliminated the dairy, we eliminated the synthetic dyes. Within 48 hours, that kid that we had seen glimpses of on those good days. We had that kid for 30 days straight. Whoa. That is incredible that you even thought to start goo-we. you know, what foods could cause hyperactivity. Yeah, it was crazy.

Well, she has a lot of dietary issues and allergies and stuff. So she had done elimination diets in the past. And so we're like, maybe, you know, she thought maybe it could be something he's eating. I was much more skeptical. I was like, there's no way that these things could have anything to do with what's going on. And how soon when you started consulting with behavior specialists and doctors, were they trying to push medication on your child? They had asked us to have him evaluated several times.

And so we weren't really keen on that because we had those days that were so good. It kind of felt like a diagnosis doesn't really like turn on and off. And he was only three at the time. So we were going to give it until he was six and just try to help him as best we could. So when we reintroduced the wheat, we saw no effect. When we reintroduced the dairy, we saw no effect. But when we reintroduced synthetic dyes within 15 minutes, the behaviors that we had been seeing came flooding.

back. So he went from having 30 days straight of just this child was very easy to reason with. The hitting stopped. The fit stopped. And then when we reintroduced synthetic dyes within 15 minutes, all of that behavior came flooding back. In 15 minutes, you can notice effects in your child from food die? Massive, yeah. And so not every child is that sensitive, but our child is. It was crazy. And Brandon was obviously a skeptic. And so when we reintroduce those foods, we were like, I mean, it was crazy. We really, it really, like, won him over. Well, like, it completely changed our household. You know, we had peace that we hadn't had in, and, you know, months. She was really stressed out. She felt like she was feeling as a mother. And so, like, to just take this teeny little tiny thing out of his, like, diet to make such a big impact was huge.

How vindicated did you feel when you realized, okay, it's not me feeling as a mom. I am a great mom. It was this food the entire time. Like, was that just, a huge burden lifted off your shoulders. Oh, for sure. I mean, that, that, the way that I felt, it was like such a dark place as a mom. And then when we were able to uncover who our child really was, like this is who God made our child to be. And dyes were creating a child that, I mean, he was not created to be that child. Synthetic dyes were, were giving him sadness. It was affecting his ability to connect with his friends, affecting his ability to connect with teachers, affecting his ability, you know, to feel good about himself. I mean, even at three, like, he felt bad. He knew that he was, you know, not doing things that he was supposed to do. So the most

surprising part about about our journey is that he was not regularly getting synthetic dives in, like, the sugary cereals and the sugary pastries, like on, on the daily, like, he was only consuming synthetic dyes from his daily allergy medicine. And so we were shocked that, you know, when we did the elimination diet, I would assume that the wheat and the dairy would have more of an effect because he consumes that so much of that. So when we uncovered that, you know, daily, he's just getting it through his daily allergy medicine or if he was on a prescription medication or like the occasional birthday party, but like he was not consuming that much die regularly to help my child go from, you know, a child that we thought we maybe needed to homeschool

for him and for other children to like he is thriving. And when I mean thriving, like it's honestly almost like an unbelievable story. Like he's had two years in public school. How do you handle the food that they're served? Because even milk and stuff in public school at the cafeteria has food dyes. So what do you do? You just pack all his lunches? I think it's different at every school.

At our school, we haven't come across a ton of dyes in the lunchroom. But it is great. It does creep in at breakfast. Like lunch is not as. big of deal at our school, but breakfast it does creep in. So we do, we pack lunch. We send birthday swaps. So I send frozen cupcakes that are die-free that we make together. So it's just a sweet moment with us. And we send that and we, they keep it in the freezer. And then we also send like chip swaps or like whatever they have at birthday parties. So the teachers keep us in the loop.

We send his lunch every day. Honestly, for us, the school has not been an issue. Our school has been on board. Even our school board is, you know, working to try to minimize the amount of dyes in our school. So for us, our school board has been on board and our school system's been on board. But I have heard horror stories about certain schools and about how dyes have really permeated, even like lunch, like the spaghettis, the pizzas, the fruit. And so we know that it's there. Yeah, even fruit cups. Even fruit cups could have artificial dye. Yeah. Could you show? share one of the hardest days that you experienced in the thick of this?

I would say probably the day that his school first told us that there was an issue. Like, we weren't super aware that he was having the issues he was at school until they brought it up. And so to find out that, you know, kids aren't wanting to play with him and that, you know, that he's having issues. That was really hard. It's hard to hear that kind of stuff about your kid because, you know, you see the best in them. and like you see their potential. And so you never want, like, you never want your kid to struggle like that. How can you be sure that it was artificial dyes and not something else?

Because there might be some people that are like, that's insane. You know, it could have been anything else that was aggravating his behavior. Yeah. So something we've noticed is, or something that has kind of been affirming to us, is we will have days like Halloween, where we will go trick-or-treating, we'll do all the things. And then we will let him consider. way more sugar and way more like processed foods than we normally would. And like he's completely normal. And if he consumes just a small amount of dyes, like we had an incident where I was, this

was before I knew that dyes could be in like white foods and brown foods. And so, wait, artificial food dye can be in white food and brown food. Yeah, like marshmallows or, um, or some chocolates. Most chocolate is dye free, but there will be, there are some chocolates. There are some chocolates that have dies. There's a muffin mix that we have that it's like a strawberry and blueberry muffins. We bought it when we were shooting the film and like the little actual berries like aren't actually made of fruit. Where are they berries? Like what are they? So, okay, so a good example of how I know it's a dye. So we have dye-free marshmallows and like the ingredients are exactly the same as the marshmallows that have dyes. But if there, we had an incident where he

consumed one mini marshmallow. And this was before I knew that white foods could have dye in it. And so he ate one mini marshmallow and I immediately flipped it over and I looked at the ingredients and I was like, blue one. Why would there be a dye in this? And so like I didn't tell his teacher and it would be over 24 hours later. So I just sent him to school and the teacher met me outside on that day. And she was like, we've never had a day like this. He was defiant. He was throwing things.

He was throwing toys. One marshmallow? One mini marshmallow. And then to contrast that, I mean, we are avid campers. I love being outside. And something that we do is we obviously do s'm moors when we're camping. And so we consume marshmallows and it has almost the exact same ingredients other than, you know, the blue one. And there's no effect there.

So for us, it's pretty obvious. And the fact that we have had so many people reach out to us and so many people that have had the same experience. I mean, that's pretty affirming for us. So when in this journey did you decide we should make a freaking documentary to film our journey and investigate artificial food dies in America? I started becoming really like obsessed with what's going on in the brain. I was digging into research. I was trying to figure it out.

My degree is in education. So I did not have a lot of background knowledge about, you know, the biology of what's happening. So I was really confused. Even reading the abstract of this research, I was confused and I wanted to speak to researchers and ask the questions that I had to try to figure out, like, like what is going on? Like, why is this even a thing? Once I started considering reaching out to researchers,

I asked Brandon if you would document our journey because we really feel like God has given us the talents, the ability to create a film that could get this information out. And there's so many people that have the same questions. So we, obviously, it took some convincing, but here we are. And how long was the filming process? We've been working on it for about two years. And we've just finished up like the final edit.

I think what was really shocking to me watching the movie was we know that synthetic dyes have been proven to have really alarming neurological impacts. I did not realize until your film how harmful they are to the body. Could you talk about that? There's a lot of studies that show that they are, you know, like you said, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, restlessness. I think probably one of the most concerning things is like, you know, there are a lot of cancer links to a lot of the different dyes. And specifically, when you start looking into Red 3, Red 3 is crazy. Yeah, I just learned about Red 3 because this is a food die that the government said,

you know what, this is so dangerous. We know it causes cancer, so it is not allowed in our cosmetics. But it's totally fun. We're just going to keep putting it in our food. What is going on with that? How can the government say we know that this causes cancer not allowed in makeup, but it's okay to eat it? What's even crazier about that is the studies that they did to come to that conclusion came from feeding it to animals. And then, you know, the animals got tumors.

And so they banned it in cosmetics and externally applied drugs. But they didn't ban it in food. And the reason for that is, is because it had already been permanently approved for food and ingested drugs. So why can't we just go back and be like, just kidding, we have new research. we found out it's super harmful to ingest. For whatever reason, the FDA felt like they couldn't ban it at the same time and have been saying for the past 34 years that they're going to take steps to ban it in food and internally ingested drugs.

Which is before we were born to put that into perspective. Well, not before I was born, before she was born. Mean her. But yeah, so they've been saying for the past 34 years that they're going to take steps and they've just kind of drugged their feet. And so I think in 2023, California became the first state to just take the steps on their own and ban red three, along with some other chemicals. Now there's a couple other states that are kind of following suit that have bills on the table

trying to ban three, red three. I think red three is the low-hanging fruit, right? Because there is this thing where the FDA has said it causes cancer. But I think it's going to be kind of like the first step. And I think California right now also has another bill on the table where they're banning it where they're trying to get all synthetic dies banned in schools. 80% of women in America struggle with hormone imbalances. Things like fatigue, weight gain, mood swings,

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That is my favorite soft drink of all time, and now I just cannot drink it. What can you tell us about caramel color specifically? So we've actually focused more on like the nine synthetic dyes that have been a perfect. Carmel color is a little bit different. I did have that question with researchers. and the conclusion that they came to is that caramel color can be made in very different ways and some of them can be cancer-causing. Right.

So I avoid them unless it's organic because the way it's made organically is very different than the way it's made synthetically. Okay, that's good to know that if it says organic caramel color, that's not as bad. I think one thing that would really shock Americans is the lack of testing that goes into additives that are added to our food, you would think, like, oh my gosh, it must go through all these tests and experiments before it's added. But how much testing is really going on with things that are being added to our food? Companies can do their own research, say that this food or this additive falls under the generally recognized as safe protocols, and it can go straight to the market,

and the FDA doesn't have to look at it or anything like that. Luckily, synthetic dyes are not part of that list, and they've never been part of that list. What's crazy about synthetic dyes is are actually extremely regulated. So every single batch of synthetic dye has to send the sample into the FDA to be tested to make sure that it has the allowable amounts of like carcinogens and heavy metals and things like that.

The allowable amounts. That's what I'm stuck on. And how do other countries view foods that are potential carcinogens? I think every country is different. Like if you compare the United States to like Europe, there are different foods that are banned in each country.

What's different about Europe is that specifically with synthetic dyes, the government funded a study to look at the neurologic impacts of synthetic dyes. And because they saw an effect there with the general population, so this was many of the studies at that time had been done on children that, like, had ADHD or an underlying condition. So they took students from the general population. They tested them and they saw that synthetic dyes had an effect on their behavior. Europe has a warning label. So foods that have Azo dyes, so that's Rev 40, yellow 5, and yellow 6. Those dyes bear a warning label in Europe. And those are the dyes that are used most often in our food. And so what manufacturers have done is they have decided to opt out of using the warning label. And they have reformulated their products for Europe. But they've left the same formulas for the U.S. So you can have a

American company that has one formula for Europe and a different formula for the U.S. And that's because they have different regulations. So when the United States government sees that Europe has done this, why can't they take that information to say, okay, well, here's the study. We know what it does. We're not going to allow that in our own country. So what's crazy is at the time, around the time that Europe made that decision and the European Union made that decision, the FDA did form.

a food advisory board. And so Lisa, who's in our documentary, and I'm just paraphrasing the things that she told me, so she was part of this food advisory board. And like, so they looked at the studies, they looked at the information. And eventually they, you know, they asked them like a very pointed question at the time. And like they asked, they could reword it. But it was like a very point of question. And they're like, can you say without a shadow of a doubt that food diet is a causal, there's a causal relationship between food diet and hyperactivity. And based off everything at that time, they weren't able to say, like, for sure. But what's crazy is Lisa said, if they had that same food advisory now with like the Oweha report and things like that,

that they would very easily be able to say yes. Well, and they cannot take into consideration what Europe has done. And the problem is they have one chemical that has already been banned in the U.S. in that study. So they've just kind of thrown the baby out with the bathwater. And so they, yeah, they're just relying on the studies that have been done here in the U.S. But also about that food advisory board. So, like, the FDA has a lot of advisory boards when it comes to, like, the pharmaceutical side. They currently have no advisory boards on food.

With the stuff in Europe and the European Union, so when we went to London, this was kind of crazy for us to see. So we went to London to interview Dr. Stevenson, who's the researcher who's kind of responsible for that study in the warning label in the EU. But London is no longer part of the European Union. So while we were in London, we're like, maybe we'll be able to get all these like foods and stuff that we can take home and film that don't have dye in it in Europe, in London. But we started looking, most of the American manufacturers in London have put dies back in. Oh my gosh, you're kidding me. How do food companies pressure the FDA? Lobbyist.

I mean, that's what we've heard. There's any time that they've tried to make any kind of change, there's always companies saying it to they're going to, they're going to, you know, it's going to damage them too much, like monetarily or lobbyists, you know, say that, well, there's no proof that they're bad. They're safe. The FDA says they're safe. Or it's racist if you do it. They make up all kinds of crazy stuff. Yeah. And then the problem is is that then they bring them a stack of studies and say, well, read all these studies. And, you know, these average everyday congressmen are like, okay, I don't know. I'm in the middle of nowhere, Alabama. I don't know how to like look at these studies. And if you're giving them to me,

I guess if it's a study, it must be legit. And they don't even know that, you know, the food companies themselves are funding the studies. So it's just this entire cycle of corruption and confusion for them. Which Americans are suffering the most from these policies? I mean, it's definitely Americans in poverty. The Oweeha report is the best report that we have on synthetic dyes. And it actually states in that report that, you know, women and children, poverty, they are exposed to more dyes than obviously people who are not in poverty, particularly

children of color. So that's definitely who's suffering here. It's the children. And do you think that's because of what is allowed on our food stamps? Because it's people in poverty that are using SNAP, the food stamp program, and all of those items, those processed food items, which are more likely to have artificial dye are subsidized by the government. So we're making it cheaper and more accessible for poor people. What we're going to make affordable for you is the food die food. Yeah, I think there's a lot of reasons. I think that probably plays into it. We've also noticed just anecdotally doing our own research when we go to stores like the dollar tree. It is so much easier to find dyes in places like seasonings and mashed potato packets and places that you

wouldn't find it at like a Kroger. So that has been shocking to us. But also you have children that if they are in an inner city school, and so they have a government-funded program. And they oftentimes most of the food that they consume are foods that they eat at school. So if you have a breakfast that's an option that has dyes, you can't say no to that. Like you need to eat. Obviously, a child needs to be fed. So I think there's less options. I think you have less accessibility to stores that are die-free, like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's. Aldi has a lot of good, like, die-free options. So oftentimes people in poverty don't have those options where they live.

So I think that it's a very complex issue, obviously. But, I mean, that's a big motivation for me. Like, I taught elementary school in an inner-city school. And, I mean, I have children that were really struggling. Synthetic dyes are not on their radar. Reading labels is not on their radar. I had several students that their parents immigrated here and were illiterate in their own language and obviously in English. So, I mean, they don't know.

And so I think that the FDA at one point had said, you know, if you're concerned about dyes, just read labels. And I think that's a really unfair statement for Americans. Because when are we teaching? I mean, the freaking food pyramid that we grew up. with was all a lie. It was all in advertisement propaganda. So then, and then you're, you're expecting people, oh, just we'll read the labels, understand what they mean. But, you know, they'll give sugar, for example, 20 different names, weird, long names that you can't even pronounce them. People are supposed to know that. I mean, it's just unbelievably unfair. That's what I'm trying to do with this

podcast is make this information more accessible to American parents so that they can understand, and just people in general. But not only parents has benefits anybody. If you're eating, then which is everybody, anybody. Now, one thing that I think is interesting, is that you talked about how states like California are making an admission to ban food dyes entirely. And I guess when I first heard that news, I just thought, I mean, that's wonderful if you live in California or you live in whatever state.

But actually in your documentary, you talk about how this is really crucial and this makes a massive difference. Why would a state like California banning food dies just for them actually be beneficial and positively affect all of the other states? Well, if you look at the economy, California has a very big economy.

And it's said that if California were its own country, that it would be the fifth largest economy in the world. So it's about 11% of the U.S. population. So if you look at that, if a company has to make a version of their food just for California, are they going to make that version and sell California version there

and sell something else everywhere else? Most likely, I mean, they can. It's possible. But most likely they're going to change their formula and change it for the whole country. Why would they want to have one version just for California and one version for everywhere else? So I think the hope is like if California, this happens in California, even if the other states don't necessarily do the exact same thing, some companies are going to start taking it out. And we've actually already seen it. I think Pediassure has now

officially like taken Red 3 out of Pediashir. Pediashore had food die. Yeah, Red 3. And that's, doctors are going to tell parents to give that to your kids. We have a, we have a Facebook group that we run and somebody posted a shelf. And this was really weird and random to see, but they had posted a little printout from a printer that said, PD sure no longer has red three in it. Great. Okay, have you guys heard these rumors that they are changing the names of food dyes to be something else to even create more confusion with the consumer so that they don't know it's food dies in the product? So we have seen that and we have reached out to our sources and we don't think that's actual.

Okay. So like the names that they're saying they're changing to, those are names, alternative names of these dyes. So it's not new. It's not new. So a lot of those names are used in other countries, like the Allora Red and the sunset yellow and things like that. Those have been around for a long time and they're used in other countries.

The FDA requires, if it's manufactured in America, that it has to have that, the color and the number system. So like red 40, yellow five. Okay. So it's kind of like internet, they're kind of getting it warped. And so we don't need to be super scare and an alarmed. I think that's good. Some good news finally.

We never give good news. Unless there's something happening under the service that we don't know about. And, you know, I feel like the people that we have been working with with our film, it would be something on their radar. Yeah. Okay, great. Well, that's good then. I mean, you know, I was worried about that. But yeah, it's popped up everywhere.

We run that Facebook page. And so we haven't let the – there's like tons of them posting every single day. So it's crazy. What's the name of your Facebook group? So it's Die Free Family Swaps, Swaps, Recipes, and Resources. Let's talk about. something we all deal with that time of the month. Well, us women anyway. We've all been there out and about when you realize you're not prepared for your period. But Garnu is here to change the

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Did you know that most conventional deodorants are packed with toxic ingredients like aluminum, parabins and artificial fragrances, these chemicals don't just sit on your skin. They're absorbed into your body, and they can have serious health consequences. It's really scary, right? Well, I've personally had my fair share of irritation from deodorants that just don't get it right,

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which is a total game changer for those of us who are super sensitive to it. I am. So, you know, baking soda, it could work for you, and that's fine. It's not bad. It's just some people. It doesn't, you know, sit on their skin well. It can cause redness or itching and discomfort. Well, zebra has you covered with a gentle but powerful option that works without the irritation.

And unlike most natural deodorants that leave you feeling sticky, zebra's deodorant goes on very smooth, keeps you fresh. It won't leave any embarrassing white streaks. It's just pure, clean protection for all skin types. So if you're ready to toss those toxic deodorants and switch to something safe and effective, Zebra is your answer. Head to yayzebra.com and get 10% off your order. That's yayzebra.com and use code Alex for 10% off today. What are your top tips for people shopping at the grocery store on how to avoid artificial dye? I mean, you have to learn how to read a label. And so just memorizing what the dyes are is obviously important.

But you look for a color in a number, like red, 40, yellow, five. yellow six. It's usually located kind of at the bottom of the ingredients. So I always start at the bottom and then go up. And so I just think reading labels is the most important thing you can do. As a rule of them, anything that's organic cannot have synthetic dyes. Synthetic dyes are synthetically made, therefore they cannot be organic. So I would say that that would be my biggest tip is just to learn how to read labels. And then to find swaps that you love, because there's a swap for nearly everything. For snack items that kids love. Like they love fruit rollups and things like that. What are some brands that you really like that are die-free? I really love Trader Joe's brand. Okay. Not everyone has

a Trader Joe's. But Trader Joe like doesn't, their food does not have dye in it. So like, you can go into Trader Joe confidently shop. Your kids can pick out candy. Well, they do have seed oils. So that's another thing. That's good to know about dies. That's good to know about dyes. Are there any other it's just snack brands. You're like, I really like them. I mean, a lot of, a lot of families love like annies. Anies is a good one. Simple Mills. Simple Mills. Whole foods. I love whole foods. They're, they're die free. They're like they're in-house brand, that 365 brand or whatever. How likely is it that Americans will see artificial food die completely banned within our lifetime? In America, I don't know that it's going to be a full ban. I think it'd be more likely that we would

follow Europe and have a warning label, which would, you know, do a lot to protect Americans. I do think that synthetic dyes that are known to be carcinogenic or synthetic dyes that are known to be genotoxic, I think they have a better case to have them completely banned. So I think something that a lot of people who are looking into synthetic dyes may not come across is that some of these dyes can be genotoxic. So if a chemical or an additive is genotoxic, that means that it can damage the DNA, which can lead to a tumor, or it can lead the damage that can be passed from mother to child. So say your child is consuming a synthetic dye that's genotoxic, it could damage their DNA and then could affect them, but then also could be passed to their

child. So that part to me was really shocking because a lot of families, they say, okay, well, my child doesn't. I haven't noticed a neurologic reaction. But really none of us should be consuming synthetic dies daily, especially. So does your child that is sensitive to food diet, does he know when he's in public or he's at a play date or a birthday party? Does he say, oh, I can't have dye? Or like, has he learned that now? He is literally the sweetest child ever. And he's like, he's very much a firstborn.

Like, he is a leader and he reads his labels. He doesn't want to consume synthetic dyes. And that's not the case for every child. That's just the case with him. He doesn't like the way it makes him feel. So he actually has not eaten synthetic dyes in two years. But yeah, he reads his own labels and he always asks and he's his own best advocate. We have a great story that I think Whitney should share when we were teaching him about stranger danger.

Okay, so we have two children. So I have one child that is two years younger than a trayu, Aslan. And we were going to the park. And I was trying to teach him about stranger danger because I had to kind of stick with my little one more. So I was teaching him, you know, what to do and what not to do if somebody approaches you and comes to talk to you. And so I asked him, I was like, okay, Atre you, like, what would you do if someone came up to you and said, like, I have a puppy and some candy in the car? Like, you want to come see it? And he said, does it have food die in it? That'll keep him away. And I was like, no, yes, but no. Like, it was so cute. That is so precious and so adorable. Oh my gosh. I didn't know either. I thought it was interesting and really helpful.

you interview a lot of other families who have experienced negative effects on their child's behavior because of synthetic food diet. And one common thing that the people that you interview kept saying was that their kids, little little kids would describe, they go, oh, mommy, my brain is buzzing. My brain is buzzing. Or my brain is fuzzy or things like that. Like they feel it like it's cooking their brains. And I thought that was an interesting thing that maybe if your child ever says, oh, mom, my brain is buzzing or things like that. like maybe they have an adverse reaction to food die. It's possible for sure. I feel like, and I think a running theme is like they just didn't, a lot of the times they didn't feel comfortable. You know, it's like a,

you know, just a feeling inside them that they, they didn't feel comfortable in their own body. Whether it was like they're closed. Some people had like problems with like scratching themselves. And it's, you know, that didn't seem to be a common theme.

And I think in our film, we are interviewing, you know, like Whitney said, Atreou, his reaction isn't like the norm. So everything's like a spectrum. So like everybody's on this spectrum where some people might ingest food dies and it might affect them, but it affects them so little that you don't notice. Did you speak to people that had kids with autism and food dies that how it affects autism? Or do you know anything like that? In our group, we have encountered that a lot, but not in that actual documentary.

What have you heard about families that end up getting rid of food dies for? kids with autism and how their symptoms do. So just anecdotally, families have come to us and said they've eliminated dies and their child with ADHD, autism, even Tourette syndrome. Oh. We just anecdotally, they have said removing dies has helped with this area. So we, we know from, there's been so many studies that have, you know, shown that it can make hyperactivity, aggression, sleeplessness, things like that, worse. But these other aspects have not really been studied. So it's my personal opinion that there are probably a lot of areas that this is affecting, like, our mind and our brain that we just haven't like delve into. But the families that we've talked to, we've had several families that have reached out and said, yes, my child with autism reacted in this way.

And so for a lot of families, like Brandon said, it's a sliding scale. And so, like, if your child is already here in kind of the danger zone, adding synthetic dyes is going to push them even more. And for a lot of kids, it kind of adds that level of aggression. irritability. And if you can just remove that, like you can really get to the root of, you know, what issues your child has. And so one of the moms that we interview her child does have ADHD as well. And so that's what she has echoed is that, you know, they eliminated dies first, actually. And then after they eliminated dies, they could really get to the root of how to help her son. So that's been beautiful. But was there anything in the making of this documentary that even surprised

you guys that you learn new. Everything. Really? Yeah. So we went into this. I started the research and I felt very overwhelmed. But once we decided to make a documentary, I was like, okay, no more. Like I just have all these questions and I want to ask the researchers because I didn't want

to go into this knowing more than like the average person would know. Because if you go into an interview and you know more than the average person, you're asking questions that are higher, higher level questions than, you know, the average person would have. And we really want our film to be something that, in. can digest, something that anyone can understand. So every aspect of this documentary has been surprising to me personally. What was most surprising to me is when we sat down in our first interview, we started asking

our questions and the researcher referred to synthetic dyes as a chemical. And that, I mean, for your audience, that may not be surprising to them. But for me, I did not even, I had no idea, never thought about what are synthetic dyes. And so she described how some of the things. them are made. And some of them are made as a byproduct of petroleum, which is insane. And so the fact that we have chemicals in our food, and especially chemicals like synthetic dyes, that we have so many studies and we know that it's causing issues, that was surprising to me. Well, and we don't talk about grass in our documentary, but that was learning about the grass loophole. Which, what does that stand

for again? Generally recognized as safe. Okay. Generally recognize as safe. And you can go to the FDA website and there's a list of things that fall in the grass list. And it's crazy. And that's shocking. And what's, I I think one that was initially brought to the market on the grass list was like the brominated vegetable oil. Yes, that just got banned. And it just got banned. Yeah. So it originally came onto the market under that list. And I do think the FDA removed it from the grass list at some point.

And then they, the California, like the band that banned red three, that was also on there for California. And I think that caused it to be looked at again. I mean, I always just what I, and this is really what started me on this journey. in the first place of like investigating what's allowed in our food. But I always go back to people that are skeptical and they think like, oh my gosh, you guys are woo-woo weirdos because I get that all the time. Like this is insane. It's just food, you know?

And I'm like, okay, you know what else? Doctors were saying cigarettes were safe. They also said oxy-cotton was not addictive. We have a history of the FDA in our government approving things that are so damaging and harmful to our health when it comes to our food products or other, you know, chemicals or things allowed in personal care products. This is a documented thing that they say yes and give a thumbs up to a lot of things that end up getting pulled later.

Trans fats. Trans fats. Also another thing, you know, now they make sure on every label says no trans fats in this. Well, that was allowed at one point. Then everybody started dropping dead from heart attacks. So everybody's like, well, the FDA says that they're safe. Like you're saying, there's this history of something being labeled as safe. and then years later, oh, we were wrong, let's ban it.

So, like, I don't think you can all, you can't just look at a government agency and say, well, they say it's safe, we should be able to eat it. By the way, the rule of thumb on this podcast is that you never look at the government and trust everything they say is good. If the government says we're here to help, then you turn the other way, you slam the door

because it's basically never the case. So what are the steps a parent can take today to determine if food dies are causing bad behavior in their children? The best way to determine if your child is having, and neurologic reaction to synthetic dyes would be to obviously eliminate all the synthetic dyes. So I would go through your pantry,

go through your refrigerator. Even seasoning. Check that. Like every single item in your house basically. There's a lot of lemon pepper seasoning that have the yellow dyes in it. Okay, see, I didn't even know that and check the toothpaste and floss maybe,

I don't know, colored floss, possibly. Yeah, and even like the toothpaste. I mean, if you eliminate it in food, you're going to see like a massive change if your child is reactive. I mean, there's two ways you can do it. What we did is we just, I mean, we went through everything. We really didn't find it very many things, but our intention was to throw out everything that had synthetic dyes. But you could also do it slowly. And as you run out, you can find swaps that are similar to what your children and what you already love. But just eliminate it. I would say give it 30 days. And I would keep a journal and see how your child's doing. Honestly, I would say feel good and then keep moving forward. but if you wanted to test it like we did, you can test it.

But even if your child doesn't react neurologically, like there's so many benefits. Benefits of getting rid of them. Yeah. And another benefit of eliminating synthetic dyes is the swaps oftentimes have less chemicals in it in general. So it's normally a safer swap, even going farther than synthetic dyes. So I would say just start to read labels. You can do it. It's really overwhelming at first.

Even for us, it was overwhelming because everywhere you go, restaurants, birthday party. you have to think about your next move. But the reality is, things start off hard and then you find your rhythm and it's not hard. And you can do it. And just like step by step, you can figure it out. And if you like have a slip up, like it's totally okay. Like just keep moving forward. Yeah, what do you do? You just have to like wait it out for the behavior to subside if he accidentally has a marshmallow again or what? Yeah. So he doesn't consume synthetic dyes in two years, but what he does sometimes react to is like Plato or markers being on a his hands. And so we obviously just wash them off and we do like an ebb's and salt bath.

Plato and markers, that's another thing. I would not think. Well, if you think about it, skin is the largest organ on your body and your skin absorbs things. And so like, and the way we, the way we realized that was we were on vacation in Florida. We were at a restaurant and like the waiter gave us like a little temporary tattoo. And so we put it on them right there at the table. No way. And then he went like Tasmania devil. He like in the restaurant. So he had, we had eliminated dyes for about a year at that point. And he had not had a reaction like that in any year. And at the table, he had a massive fit over something so trivial. It was he wanted to go to the boys' bathroom instead of the girls' bathroom with me. And so he just like lost it. And we were like,

what is going on? You know, everybody has bad days. So we were like, maybe he's just like having a rough day. He's overstimulated. But it continued. And then we were, we finally looked down and we like, oh my gosh, can dies be absorbed through your skin? And I do want to preface this by saying there have not been any studies on if dyes can be absorbed through the skin, but just that is what we have noticed in our child. So if you guys could give any remedy to heal a sick culture, and that could be physically, mentally, spiritually, whatever you want, what would it be? I think what has been transformative in my life as a Christian is like being in the word daily. that is the most powerful and most beautiful place that you can set yourself. And even in being in the Word, I would say go through one book of the Bible at a time. And I spend a week on an entire chapter. And I really think about the cultural context, what God is saying about what God is asking me to do in my life, but also what is this saying about God. So I would say be in the Word, that's the best thing you can absolutely do to heal your soul. And like even even in the

the Bible, like, it tells us, you know, how to conduct our life, how to have a healthy life, how to get outside and to our body as a temple and how to have gratitude and all of that, everything that will heal your life is right there, like in the Bible. So I would say just like dig in. And I would say just the importance of moving, walking, running, getting out daily. like shooting this film I ended up sitting a lot yeah to edit yeah I mean this film is literally made by just me and Whitney

we're the only people like obviously the people that we filmed and they're on the camera but as far as making the film we've done it all and a lot is so incredible you guys and a lot of that has fallen on me and so I've spent the past two years having to sit a lot and so now that we're you know towards the end of it I'm finally getting to get out and run again and like and move around and not have so much on my plate all the time

and like I just feel so much better like my sleep's better like everything's better. So yeah, it's like, it's crazy, like the amount of like the small amount that your body needs, you know, if you get up, get out and walk every day for 30 minutes, how much that can add to your life. How can people watch your movie and follow you for more info on artificial dyes? So if you go to our website to die for the documentary, and that's d-y-e, to die for the documentary.com, you can see there'll be links to all the platforms that we're on and hopefully we're on one that you you like to watch. And also we have resources and things on the website

that you can use that will help you with eliminating dyes, with writing politicians, with writing your school boards, all that sort of stuff. So that's all at to die for the documentary.com. Is there a way for us to change laws and do, and make sure that our state bans artificial digest like California did? When we started making the film, our main driving factor was the fact that We don't think that this information is well known. Like, people just don't know about the impacts of synthetic dyes. There's like Pop-Tarts, right? They have a Simply version and a regular version.

I don't think you can buy the Simply version anymore in the stores. I think that's what they send to schools and stuff. But then also, like, fruit by the foot, the only place that we've ever seen that you can buy dye-free fruit by the foot is at Costco. But on that packaging, they highlight it, they praise it. They praise that there's no artificial dyes, that there's no, like, it's so weird that they're... Well, you know what, I bet it is?

I bet shoppers said to Costco, I don't want this product in your store. Now, if we're talking about, if you can't, as a consumer, you can't get through to the company themselves, if we all put pressure on places like Target, Walmart, Kroger, fries, you know, Publix, Costco, and we say, we do not want to shop with you.

If you guys are, you know, selling these items, they're huge distributors. If they go to Kellogg's, if they go to General Mills and say, stop putting this stuff in or we're not putting in our stores, they would wield a lot of power. Well, you see that with Walmart, right? You see Walmart's a great value brand. Like a lot of that has taken a lot of stuff out. And they have like a whole organic like selection now because they were losing customers to organic brands. They have dye-free sprinkles, die-free medication.

Like Walmart listened. Walmart at one point, you know, it was not the healthy place to go. So their customers went elsewhere, and they've responded to that. So we've seen like a massive shift with Walmart in like a good way. Just changing what you're buying. If all of us decided to shop this way, they're going to have to shift the products because they want to make money. So we really do have a lot of control. It's crazy to see a brand that typically has tons of dyes and their main product have a version and like highlight that there's no artificial color.

Like that's, they know it that like they know that it's not. good. They know that that's something they should be doing so that they highlight no artificial colors, no artificial, like it's crazy. These manufacturers are in it to make money. And so if they hear us say, okay, we want a die-free version. They're

listening. And we've seen that. You can find a die-free alternative to so many food products and also like over-the-counter medications. Where it gets tricky is prescription medications because so many of them contain synthetic dyes and there's no other option. So I had a mom that wrote me

She was sharing her story. Her child is epileptic. And so she actually has an allergy to Red 40. So she either breaks out in hives or a throat swell, something like that. Like it's a true allergy. So she could not take this medication. The only other option had Red 3. We know it's so bad for our health. And then we know that it causes tumors in animals. And so she's taking it every single day. But she can't not take her epilepsy medication. Epilepsy is something that you have to be medicated for. And so I think that's where it gets really tricky. Wow, that's terrible. Okay, so there's a lot of work we got to do. We got to make sure that the pharmaceutical companies also are not including these dies. And so our goal with the film was let's get this information in front of the general public because I think what's going to cause change are enough people saying, we don't want this in our food, you know, riding their senators, writing their legislators and like reaching out the companies.

because why would companies eliminate dyes if nobody's asking them to? You know, we've seen in the past, like with tricks in like the 2015-2016, they did take dyes out. People were saying, you know, they were hearing a lot about healthier options and things like that. And there was some backlash on the internet with people talking about how they were ruining their childhood and all this crazy stuff. And they put the dyes back in. So like, if we, you can, you know, if enough people make enough noise, maybe something. things done, but they can always put it back in. If they see their profits starting to drop, then what we have changed is the artificial color. Let's put it back in. Whereas if we can get

laws, warning labels or bans, then it's gone for good. So writing the companies is important, but I think the most important thing is to, you know, we got to talk to our legislators. In our film, our call to action is write your senators, write these companies, and let's make some noise, because that's what's going to make some change. Well, just speaking of making noise, the fact that you guys, you know, funding this film yourself and taking all of these years

to put this together, to get your story out there, to help other parents. I mean, it really is, I can't thank you enough for just all of the labor of love that you've put into this and how important this is

to have this information and nobody has done a documentary on this subject like this. So thank you guys so much for everything. and go watch to die for. It's so good. I know that my audience will love it. And they're always asking me,

they always like, give me some homework, Alex, what can I be watching? So this is something for you to watch. Go watch to die for. Thank you guys for coming on Culture Apothecary. Thank you for having us. Did anyone notice that I have on my very little kid-looking,

colorful outfit today for the theme of this episode? That was on purpose. I personally found this interview so educational, fascinating also, because explaining why artificial dies are dangerous for human health can seem crazy to somebody who's never heard this before. I thought that Brandon Whitney broke it down in a really simple way that makes it easier for us to explain to other people why it's important. We avoid those in our food. And I also want to highlight that their story can hopefully make a parent struggling with behavior issues

and their child know that maybe they aren't crazy. Maybe you're not a bad mom, right? Maybe it is as simple as a food item that your child has been eating or drinking regularly, that is causing these problems. So I hope this conversation brought some solace to someone today. We drop two new episodes a week with different guests and their remedy to heal us at culture, physically, mentally, and spiritually on Monday nights and Thursday nights at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. You can watch every episode live as it premieres and later on the Real Alex Clark YouTube channel. Don't forget your five-star review as a free way to support the show.

In the description of each episode is every coupon code link and social. handle for the guest featured. I'm Alex Clark and thank you for listening to Culture Apothecary.