Food Coloring in birthday Cakes

Every time I go to a birthday party I wonder what a beautiful themed cake it is . Some of the cakes even have pictures of the kid in them. They are gorgeous and cute. But my mind is always racing to find what would have been the process to make it  

How did he get such fantastic colors? So I went to research it out.

Colors in the cakes come from an additive called food color. One can have natural or artificial food color. The natural food color comes from real fruits and vegetables like red from beets, strawberries etc. Natural food color is of course very expensive.

Artificial food colors are cheap. Some of them are permitted colors and some are banned.

In 2011 FDA released an article linking hyperactivity in kids to food coloring. In Europe, a study published says that “There is a general adverse effect of artificial food coloring and benzoate preservatives on the behavior of 3 year old children which is detectable by parents but not by a simple clinic assessment. Subgroups are not made more vulnerable to this effect by their prior levels of hyperactivity or by atopy.”

Which simply means that children who eat this food coloring go through a period of hyperactivity.  I have seen it in my child and used to think it is quite abnormal.

So my next step is to check out what the most popular shops are doing. What additives they are using. (More to follow…)

In the meanwhile “SAY NO” to the artificial colored cakes. Also when you go to a birthday party always ask the host to keep natural colored cakes. Believe me, you are making your kids much happier by giving them a naturally colored cake than putting a theme/Artifical color (carcinogens)  in it.