Hello, my name is...

Hello,
My name is Sarah.

About one year ago, while pregnant with my second daughter I ran into some articles showcasing the cons of food dyes. At the time my oldest was two and we were knee deep in tantrums and defiance. These studies indicated that certain food dyes could enhance the symptoms of ADHD in children. Although I did not and do not believe that my daughter has this disorder, I thought it was something to look into.

My husband and I went through our cupboards and had a wake up call of all the processed and unhealthy foods we were feeding her. It was then that we decided to make a change. At first it was to see if a dye-free diet would make a difference in her behavior. It has sense become a lifestyle change because we realized that this made us more aware of what we were feeding her.

Lifestyle you say? Yes, lifestyle. EVERY package has to be read. I am still finding things that I assumed (you know what they say about assuming, right?) were not an issue that do in fact contain food dye. We live in a day and age where everything has to be pretty and aesthetically pleasing. I wish this diet were as easy as eliminating the obvious like Kool-aid and Fruit Loops.

It's not. Period.

So in conclusion, I'm writing this to maybe answer some questions as to WHY I choose to "deprive" my daughter of M&Ms, Icee pops, and all other fun treats. Here, I also hope to keep a diary of sorts regarding when those sneak in so maybe I can better analyze her behavior and our progress. Things happen, people mean well and offer snacks that we don't normally allow, we don't carefully look at packages and very often assume (yup, I know), that things are dye-free because there's no obvious colors in them. I will also use this as a means to share ideas and alternatives for a dye-free lifestyle.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
Sarah