Hormel replies

cresponse@hormel.com	7:02 AM (1 hour ago)
to me

Mrs Dollahon,

Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate hearing from you.

The natural flavoring in the Jennie-O Ground Turkey is Rosemary or Black Pepper, depending on which product you purchase.

We value you as a consumer and hope you will continue to enjoy our products.

Cheryl

Consumer Response Representative

Monday - stupid pickles

AM:
Breakfast: Nature's path maple nut oatmeal
Disposition: weepy meltdown when I wouldn't let him play with my iPhone. Easily distracted by tickles and kisses. Demanding, yelling at me when he doesn't get his way.

lunch: saltines & pb, annie's cheddar bunnies, grapefruit juice, carrots, Tribe hummus packs (not approved but seem okay)

Bad day at school. He spit, elbow jabbed other kids, and called out "stupid music" during music. Sigh. Refused to put his car seat on afterwards.

Spent another $260 at Kroger (sheesh) but I think I finally have enough food to last a while.  Envirokids PB cereal was on sale and it is the only new kind that Shep likes so I bought lots, also lots of their granola bars to keep on hand to prevent the Great Snack Meltdown of yesterday from occurring again.

We went to the playground after school. He hit a little boy, then refused to go to time out, then called the park stupid, so I made him come to the car with me. He had a complete screaming crying meltdown. This isn't normal for him - he's not usually a tantrum thrower. I rarely see tears from him, and there were many tears today.

So far, yellow dye #5 and maybe blue dye #1 --> aggression, crying, opposition, 'cursing' (stupid is like the d word for kids, right?)

Making ground turkey tacos with Fritos, avocados, lettuce, cheese, Horizon organic sour cream for dinner.

Gonna be hard to not have salsa....I think it might even be illegal in Texas to have tacos without salsa...but tomatoes are banned in stage 1.


I bought Jennie O's ground turkey, which is not approved, but it is all I can find. The 'natural flavorings' are not specifically listed, so I emailed them to ask what they are. 'Natural flavorings' is often (usually?) code for MSG.


Just realized that Ike can't have chili peppers - so he is getting cereal and bananas for dinner. Yea, we can have salsa!

I found this website where other parents discuss what happens when their kids have dye. One said:

Our son does a complete turn in behavior. He becomes defiant, violent (hitting, kicking, spitting,) cannot concentrate on an activity and extreme mood swings...from crying to laughing w/in a minute of each other. Punishment doesn't phase him. He'd sit in time-out all day and cry but as soon as he was out of time out it's back to the irrational behaviors then back in time-out...a vicious circle.

Sounds very familiar. 

Yellow #5 (tartrazine) & lupus

"Some environmental chemicals such as hydrazine and food dyes such as tartrazine may be environmental triggers of SLE (lupus) in susceptible people."

Our 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with probable lupus this past spring.

Please insert more cursing here.

Coal tar makes me cuss

Yellow #5 is in the pickles which seemed to make my kid act nutty today.

Yellow #5 (among other dyes) is made from coal tar.

So what exactly is coal tar?

Let's ask Wikipedia:

Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal tar is among the by-products when coal is carbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas. Coal tars are complex and variable mixtures of phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heterocyclic compounds, about 200 substances in all. 

SO CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHY THE HELL THEY ARE PUTTING THIS IN FOOD????????????????

Yellow #5 (tartrazine) - Hyperactivity, cancer, and asthma, oh my

From Wikipedia:

Tartrazine appears to cause the most allergic and intolerance reactions of all the azo dyes, particularly among asthmatics and those with an aspirin intolerance. Symptoms from tartrazine sensitivity can occur by either ingestion or cutaneous exposure to a substance containing tartrazine. 

A variety of immunologic responses have been attributed to tartrazine ingestion, including anxiety, migraines, clinical depression, blurred vision, itching, general weakness, heatwaves, feeling of suffocation, purple skin patches, and sleep disturbance.


Certain people who are exposed to the dye experience symptoms of tartrazine sensitivity even at extremely small doses, some for periods up to 72 hours after exposure. In children, asthma attacks and hives have been claimed, as well as supposed links to thyroid tumors, chromosomal damage, and hyperactivity.

The use of tartrazine was banned in Norway , and was also banned in Austria  and Germany until the ban was overturned by a European Union directive. The United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency in April 2008 called for a voluntary phase-out of tartrazine, along with five other colorings, due to a reported link with hyperactivity in children.



From  diet-studies.com:


Controlled Trial of Oligoantigenic Treatment in the Hyperkinetic Syndrome, Egger J, et al, The Lancet March 9, 1985    MedLine || Full Text
"76 selected overactive children were treated with an oligoantigenic diet. 62 improved, and a normal range of behaviour was achieved in 21 of these. Other symptoms such as headaches, abdominal pain, and fits, also often improved…. Artificial colorants (Yellow No. 5) and preservatives were the commonest provoking substances, but no child was sensitive to these alone." 


Assessment of chemical factors in relation to child hyperactivity. Ward NI, Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine (Abingdon); 7 (4). 1997. 333-342.   MedLine || Full Text


"...Only hyperactive children showed a significant reduction in blood serum zinc levels and an increase in urinary zinc output following the consumption of E102 [tartrazine] and E110 [sunset yellow]. . . For the 23 children who consumed a tartrazine beverage there were increased levels of overactivity (n = 18 children), aggressive (n = 16) and/or violent (n = 4) activity, poor speech (n = 2), poor coordination (n = 12), and the development of asthma and/or eczema (n = 8). Most of these were severe or moderate changes. Only one control child showed minor behavioural responses to tartrazine."

Vanillin

I think one of our main culprits, aside from dyes, has been vanillin. Ike loves Nutella and ate it almost every day. Nutella contains vanillin, which is artificial vanilla flavor.


From the Feingold newsletter archives:

While real vanilla extract is made from the vanilla bean and is a mixture of several hundred different compounds in addition to vanillin, the artificial flavoring is methyl vanillin or ethyl vanillin. It is made from Guaiacol, which is an aromatic chemical made from wood creosote (present in smoke from burning wood), from petroleum, or from lignin-containing waste products of the paper pulp industry. Thus, the artificial flavoring has a much higher percentage of a single chemical compound, as well as unknown contaminants resulting from its source.

Whether the reactions seen by our members to the artificial vanillin is due to the concentration of a single chemical in the flavoring, to the contaminants, or to something else entirely, is unknown.

Artificial vanillin has also been shown in research to suppress certain liver enzymes (Bamforth 1993), and according to Aoshima, 1997, it inhibits the GABA receptor response, suggesting that it could modulate the neural transmission in the brain.

Sunday

Walker out of town
Skipped church

breakfast: gluten free Van's waffle & honey
PICKLES
lunch: Rudi's bread, Hormel natural turkey, swiss cheese, French's honey mustard, organic lemonaide
dinner (for Maggie's birthday): Daniel Wong's Healthy Kitchen lemon chicken: fried without the sauce, small amount of lo mein; two dumplings, water

I had left a jar of pickles on the counter to give to my brother and Ike got in them and ate all that was left. They have yellow dye in them - Ike was spazzy and bratty in the morning, he did okay at the Best Christmas Pageant Ever play, better than I thought he would - but toward the end got very loud and hyper and defiant. Damn pickles.

He got hungry at the play. They were selling cookies, but they all had TBHQ in them (a preservative made from crude oil that is banned on the Feingold) so I couldn't buy them. That ticked him off - I have got to get in the habit of always having some Annie's crackers or something in my purse. It is very inconvenient to not be able to buy stuff. 

His language is still increasing tho. More complex syntax - much more. I think I've heard 3 or 4 new vocab words just this weekend.

Frustrated - but now I have removed ALL bad food from the house. I thought I would be able to keep some banned food for Walker and I to eat (like pickles) - but now I know that won't work. It is SO NOT WORTH IT.

I feel like when your baby sleeps through the night one night and then starts waking up again. Psych!!!

So, starting from scratch tomorrow. Again. Hope it won't take too long for the dye to work out of his system.

Saturday

Bad day.

Very demanding, running circles around the house, hitting the kids (not as bad as before we started, but still) not obeying me, wet his pants. Broke a nativity scene. Had to be sent to his room for hitting Maggie. Saying words like stupid and hate, which he knows aren't allowed. Stealing food.

We were going to go shopping but I won't take him out when he's acting like this.

Pickles? Bread? Crackers?

We made sugar cookies, I left out the almond extract.

Annie's organic Mac & Cheese with ground turkey and grated swiss chesse for dinner.

Friday

Pretty good day. He ran errands with Walker and me this morning and played fine with the kids after school. More cool Lego creations. He is talking a lot more, more complex sentences.

I also wondered if this diet would help Maggie, who had some of the symptoms too. Today I noticed that she was just especially happy and cute. Bouncing and happy. I wonder?

Walker was off today before he headed for Austin. And Ike got some banned food.

I haven't gotten rid of everything yet - it is so hard to throw away or give away 'perfectly good' food. 

He had Kroger club crackers for lunch, which are not approved. I think that have BHT in them.

He also took a DanActive strawberry yogurt drink from the fridge. It contains strawberries, which are banned due to the salicylates,  and "natural ingredients" which are code for artificial crap.

He also took some unapproved rye bread from the Kroger bakery. 

I made myself a sandwich and left the pickles on the counter. Pickles are banned in stage one due to vinegar. When I wasn't looking, I heard Ike say, "mm mmm pickles." I ran to him and snatched two off his fork and threw them in the sink which resulted in pitiful crying. But he did eat one.

When I looked on the ingredients, it has
cucumbers - banned for salycylates
vinegar - banned
natural flavors - probably means MSG
polysorbate 80:  an emulsifier, "used in canned pickles to disperse flavoring and artificial coloring." Supposedly a safe but very complex chemical.
And - drumroll: Yellow #5 and Blue #1
We'll see what happens.

Thursday

Ike got a sticker today for being good at school!! it's a miracle!

He is so much calmer - just chill. We did not go to PALS because he said he was tired. I think they are all tired from the beach still.

After school we went to Beth's for a playdate. She has known Ike since he was a baby. As he played calmly and quietly with trains on the floor, she said several times, "It's weird...he's so quiet." He's a different kid.

I can tell he is just calmer. Laid back. And his teacher said he is talking more in class.

I think it's working!

Swiss cheese on Rudi's bread for dinner with carrots.

Wednesday

Ike had a 'pretty good' day at school - this is a huge improvement from the daily reports I have been getting since September -

He was pretty good at home too. He has begun making cool trucks and trains with his Legos - he has not really done that before. He's very proud of himself.

Maybe it's working...

Homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner.

Tuesday

Walker is out of town.

Ike did 'okay' at school. He had PALS after school and I forgot they give snack; they gave him Chex mix. His teacher also forgot to give him his Cheeetos at school for snack, he ate pretzels.

We started full on yesterday and today - today teacher said he was 'okay' in school, and I had to take him with me to help with Maggie's computer class at school and he did pretty good - way better than last Friday when I went to read to Shep's class and he was a monster. I was feeling so hopeful.

We have had a problem with him kicking the other kids when I get them from school. We talked about it, and he did great - at first. But then I had to go to the dry cleaners and he started kicking them, in the face, the arms. He is strong so it really hurts. This is all from his car seat. He would NOT stop.

Plans to get a Christmas tree ruined - I put him in his room - I was SO mad. He screamed and kicked a hole in his door.

The kid's FOUR.

Sigh. I'm feeling so defeated.

I wanted this magical instant turnaround. I know that's not realistic but I'm just so weary.


One of the moms on the FAUS board pointed out that he may have reacted to the dry cleaning fumes.

They also told me that often as the kids detox, it gets worse before it gets better.

Maggie's symptoms

Behavior Problems
	Impulsive actions	Excessive or loud talking, interrupts often
	Compulsive actions	Chewing on clothing, other objects (her nails) Scratching, biting & picking at skin
	Emotional concerns	Overreaction to touch, pain, sound, lights (she absolutely panics and gets hysterical over certain noises, like a computer blip) Nervousness, panics easily (not always)
	Learning Problems
	Neuro- muscular involvement	Speech difficulties/delays  Eye muscle disorder (one eye is a little lazy)
	Health Problems         People who have symptoms of ADHD that respond well to dietary         management also frequently have health problems such as:
	Frequent physical complaints	Headaches, migraines Hives, rashes (urticaria) Eczema Congestion
	Sleep problems	Restless / erratic sleep Nightmares, bad dreams

Ike's symptoms

Symptoms listed on the Feingold website that Ike exhibits:

Behavior Problems
	Marked hyperactivity	none - he is not hyperactive.
	Impulsive actions	Poor self-control, unpredictable behavior Disruptive behavior / disturbs others Unresponsive to discipline Abusive behavior, unkindness to pets (not pets, SIBLINGS!) Destructive behaviors: throws, breaks things Inappropriate noises Excessive or loud talking, interrupts often
	Compulsive actions	Aggression Perseveration/repeating of an activity Touching things or people excessively Chewing on clothing, other objects
	Emotional concerns	Low frustration tolerance Demands immediate attention Irritability Mood swings
	Learning Problems
	Short attention span	Impatience Distraction Inability to follow directions
	Neuro- muscular involvement	Difficulty writing, drawing Speech difficulties/delays
	Cognitive and perceptual disturbances	Auditory memory deficits (difficulty remembering what is heard)
	Health Problems         People who have symptoms of ADHD that respond well to dietary         management also frequently have health problems such as:
	Frequent physical complaints	Bedwetting (enuresis) Daytime wetting Headaches, migraines Hives, rashes (urticaria)
	Sleep problems	Restless / erratic sleep

Monday - Day 1

Ike had an okay day at school. No real change. Took Natural Cheetoes for his snack. For lunch he had fruit, Annie's bunnies, and Kashi crackers.

I made the kids beans for dinner (can't figure out how to cook without tomatoes!) but Ike had oatmeal.