Over the past year, I’ve been gradually purging our home of unnaturally dyed foods. This really bothered my kiddos… at first. Most fruity frozen treats include the dreaded Red 40 or 3, Blue 1 or 2, and Yellow 5 or 6. Popsicles, Italian ices, and otter pops are no longer options to be added to our grocery shopping list. Then there’s the candy! Red licorice ropes, sour candies, and even a lot of breath mints and gum have been placed on the chopping block. Don’t even get me started on cereals, breakfast bars, pop-tarts, and fruit snacks. You may wonder about the decision to change what our pantry is stocked with.
I had heard the rumors about the harmful side effects of some of the dyes in our foods and had just kind of shrugged and kept living my life. Then I read a few articles about the benefits of organic vs non-organic. Then I saw another article about FDA approved synthetic dyes in our foods. I decided to look into it a bit more, and what I discovered is kind of scary. This is not the platform for the evils of what is allowed in our foods (or even considered to be food), but suffice it to say, I decided that I could not in good conscience knowingly poison my family any longer in that way.
My son, who is almost 10, protested the most. He loves Nerd gummies and they’re heavily laden with all the approved dyes. He stated that it’s not like it’s the first ingredient or that it’s not like he eats it all the time. True enough. But these dyes are in most of our foods, drinks, and even medicines (cough drops, people!). Most are derived from coal tar and petroleum, often contain traces of heavy metals, and some can have a carcinogenic effect. I decided it best to walk my son through his typical day before I started the purge:
- berry fruit breakfast bar (Red 40)
- fruity cereal (Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and 2)
- fruit snack (Red 40 and 3, Yellow 5 and 6)
- chips (Red 40, Yellow 5 and 6)
- electrolyte sports drink (Red 40, Blue 1, Yellow 5 and 6)
- boxed mac and cheese (Yellow 5 and 6)
Now he also eats fresh fruits and veggies, yogurts, sandwiches, and we top the day off with a home-cooked family dinner – all without synthetic dyes. But as I showed him the way it all adds up, realization dawned on his face. I asked him if he thought it would be wrong for me to knowingly give him and his sisters poison. He’s now started reading labels at the grocery store. Instead of his former favorite candies, he goes for gummy bears or worms that are dyed with fruits and vegetables. And his typical question is to inquire whether or not a treat or drink has a bad dye in it.
I would love to say that I do this perfectly: no synthetic dyes… ever! But I don’t. There are the occasions that candies are offered, birthday cakes are decorated, they have popsicles with friends, and sports drinks are had. I’ve made myself feel a little better when I tell myself that I didn’t buy it or give it to them. There are actually people out there who avoid the synthetic dyes 100% of the time. The dedication and discipline that lifestyle requires is something I seem to be lacking. I’ve found though that my approach to avoiding synthetic dyes – the discipline to be dye-free in our food – is about the same as how I avoid movies that are directly opposed to my Christian faith and values.
Ouch! Yeah, I just went there. Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the Doberman Brownies? There was a father whose son and daughter wanted to go to a movie. Their friends were going, and they had been invited to go with them. They were able to drive themselves, but they needed his permission. The father did the fatherly thing and asked about the rating of the movie. They gave him the honest answer and explained that there was just a little bit of language and barely any nudity, so it wasn’t that bad… it wasn’t a big deal to go and watch it. The father told them he would think about it.
The time came for the son and daughter to either leave for the movie or to let their friends know they couldn’t go. They walked into the kitchen to the glorious smell of freshly baked brownies. They asked if they could have some… and if they could go watch the movie. The father told them, as they took their first bite of the brownies, that the brownies should be okay to eat… there wasn’t much bad in them. They asked what he meant by that, and the father told them that a little bit of dog poop had gotten in them because of a mess their pet had made. He explained that he wasn’t able to get it all out, but since it was just a little, then it wouldn’t be a big deal.
I’m not sure how the story ends, but since it’s fictional, I would imagine that the son and daughter would gag on the poop-brownies and spend the next few hours sick on the bathroom floor instead of going to the movies. This modern parable, added with the recent purge of the synthetic dyes, continues to convict me even after 12 years since first hearing it. While I’m resolved to no longer offer potentially harmful food to my family, what do I allow and even provide in the areas of their entertainment? What about for myself?
While we don’t have streaming services outside of our Amazon Prime membership, we watch movies that stream for free, that we check out from the library, or that we own. Many of them have a little bit of poop in them. And that’s just what we allow for our kiddos! There are actually mass media and entertainment conglomerates targeting the younger audiences and have determined that they need to desensitize our kiddos to the world. Instead of protecting innocence, they’re after indoctrinating our kiddos into a very worldly (anti-God) ideology.
While there are sicknesses, diseases, and adverse side effects that many avoid even when regularly consuming synthetic dyes, the poison that we ingest into our hearts and minds through what we watch and listen to are even worse and we aren’t impervious to the dangers they bring. Where did we get the idea that the devil is a passive guy? A few cuss words aren’t a big deal as long as it’s not the really bad cuss word, right?
This is not a post intended to pack on guilt, though I must say that I’m feeling more than a bit guilty. My kiddos have had their fair share of poop-laced brownies offered from my hand. I used to think that it was mostly okay as long as we didn’t repeat any cuss words and balanced it out with discussions of what morals were found in the show or movie. Where in scripture does it tell us to balance sin with righteousness? And why would we find what was once killing us to suddenly be entertainment?
I really do struggle with this. No matter what, there always seems to be at least a little bit of poop… it may not be the first ingredient and it might not be all that we consume, but it’s still there… poisoning us. We might understand that what we ingest into our bodies has the ability to make us sick – I’m sure there are people who can relate to having had food poisoning. Our body rejects what is bad for us and continues with a full-on purge. Our body does not need or require Red 40 or any other synthetic dye in order to be healthy. And we don’t need to fill our minds with anything that does not edify God in order to be better people, but it’s actually the opposite (Romans 6:12-23, Philippians 4:8-9).
The devil is out to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) and he does it right in front of us – we even pay our hard-earned money for it! If we fill our minds with infidelity, violence, and the portrayal of godliness being vilified, we’re opening the door for the devil to mess with us. He wants to steal our joy, kill our families, and destroy our faith in God. So, with this realization, what do we do? Like so many out there reading this, I’m far from perfect. I crave entertainment! And as a mother with 4 kiddos at home, I admit that allowing them to watch a movie offers me a welcome break.
With knowledge comes power and the responsibility to make necessary changes. In good conscience, I can no longer bring myself to provide hazardous foods when there are healthier alternatives. In the same way, I cannot, in good conscience, financially support companies that sexualize children, vilify God, and applaud the worship of Satan. It’s a step that I can take with this knowledge. What will you do with the poop-laced brownies?