Feingold eNews - March 2010

Most research on diet and behavior has been done on food dyes. In all these years, I have found only one study done on BHT and BHA and behavior, and it was done on mice back in 1974. You can see a discussion extracted from the full text here, but basically what they found was that the mice eating BHT or BHA "explored" more, slept less, groomed less, learned slower, and were more aggressive. TBHQ did not yet exist at that time, but it is a metabolite of BHA (e.g., BHA will turn into TBHQ after you eat it). Although all three of these preservatives are classified as anti-oxidant, which sounds good, another thing that happens after you eat them is that they go through your liver where they become pro-oxidants which cause oxidative stress. Researchers give them to animals when they want them to grow tumors to study.

In the beginning, Dr. Feingold did not eliminate these preservatives, and he was seeing about 30% to 50% success with the diet. After food additive expert Beatrice Trum Hunter talked him into eliminating the petrochemical preservatives as well, he began to see the 70% and better success rate of the diet which we see today. Please note -- the Feingold Association has nothing against preserving food, but there are safer preservatives available.

In the attached story, Sebastian's mom tells us what these preservatives had been doing to him.

(Shula Edelkind)