Why Eat Real Blueberries When You Can Have Artificial Blueberry Bits with Red 40 and Blue 2?
Ingredients in Martha White Blueberry Muffin Mix
Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Artificial Blueberry Bits (Dextrose, Palm Oil, Pregelatinized Yellow Corn Flour, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Red 40 Lake and Blue 2 Lake), Dextrose, Canola Oil, Contains 2% or less of: Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate) Modified Corn Starch, Calcium Carbonate, Propylene Glycol Esters of Fatty Acids, Distilled Monoglycerides, Salt, Eggs with Sodium Silicoaluminate added as Anticaking Agent, Corn Starch, Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Calcium Sulfate, Citric Acid and BHT (Antioxidants), Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6 Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamin Mononitrate, Vitamin B12
Ingredients in Jet-Puffed Marshmallows
Corn Syrup, Sugar, Dextrose, Modified Cornstarch, Water, Contains Less Than 2% Of Gelatin, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate (Whipping Aid), Natural And Artificial Flavor, Blue 1.
To further complicate matters, a blue drug isn’t always made with blue dye. American Pharmacists Association media liaison Norman Tomaka (BS, MS in Pharmacy) says, “Just because a tablet’s purple, or just because a tablet’s green, doesn’t mean that’s the dye that’s used in it.” For example, Dulcolax, a red laxative, contains FD&C Yellow #10 aluminum lake.
Coloring That Does Double-Duty as a Binding Agent
Then there are coloring agents like cobalt that also double as binding agents, a type of inactive ingredient that manufacturers use to physically “bind,” or hold, a medicine together. Cobalt allergies, according to Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist with Allergy and Asthma Associates of Murray Hill in New York, are common. Cobalt is frequently found in vitamin B12.
While all this is interesting, here’s why it matters: You may be allergic to a color additive, and that allergy could be keeping you from taking medicine you truly need.
Tomaka says approximately 40% of the population thinks they’re allergic to penicillin class drugs, but less than 10% actually are.
Another natural blue dye is made from watermelons and a fruit known as “huito.” It also is close to the color of Blue 2.
Better
Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Canned Wild Blueberries (blueberries, water, liquid sugar), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Palm Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Leavening (baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate), Salt, Corn Starch, Monoglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavor.
Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Canned Wild Blueberries (blueberries, water, liquid sugar), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Palm Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Leavening (baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate), Salt, Corn Starch, Monoglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavor.
Best
