The Food Dye Spies - a new fun game for kids!

I am always thinking of ways to encourage my children to make smart food choices and trying to keep them as informed as possible on why certain foods are good for you and not so good. They get it for the most part but are presented with so many temptations it must be difficult to say no.

For example, this morning following swim practice they were immediately presented with a Popsicle. After eating them, one of the boys looked at me and said "Mom, oh no! I just ate red 40!!". I had to laugh - its not something you hear many 7 year old boys say.

The reason he knows about red 40 is because of the new game I invented called "FADDS - The Food and Drink Dye Spies". My three boys love pretending to be spies and going on secret missions and so in this game, their task is to find hidden food dyes in food and report back to headquarters with their findings. They are allowed to go through cupboards and put foods into categories. Any foods containing dyes will be carefully investigated and banned if they are found to be particularly unhealthy - they will be labeled quite simply, 'the baddies'.

Before I go any further, let me just say that I am no expert on Food dyes but I do know that foods containing them are generally less healthy than their more natural counterparts. In 2006 Nestle, manufacturers of the popular candy called Smarties (I call them the UK equivalent to M&M's) removed all artificial colorings from this particular candy due to consumer concerns over the effects of food dyes on children's behavioral health.

Unfortunately, others have been slow to follow but I think, at least I hope that as more parents become aware of the connection between food color and their children's behaviour they will begin to put pressure on our food Manufacturers and just like trans fats, bad food dyes will become a thing of the past.