ADHD and Food Dye

ADHD has always been an issue within the scientific world. What causes ADHD, how many people have it, what are the symptoms and how do doctors diagnose it? All of these questions seem to have varying answers. In class we discussed how pediatricians diagnose children with having ADHD just in the matter of a short office visit. It seems like everywhere you look every child has “ADHD” and every college student has “ADHD.” The other day the news was on when I was eating breakfast and the topic of ADHD and Food Dye was being discussed. It drew my attention because I wanted to see what else doctors “proved” that causes ADHD. The story was introduced with parents commenting about their daughter saying, “This chaotic amount of energy just bouncing around and you weren’t able to direct” and “Hitting, pinching, hair pulling, kicking, you could see it was an impulse and that she just could not control it.” Does that not sound like every child you have encountered? To me, it sounds like any child after the age of two! The news then talked about how there is a link between food dyes and ADHD but that many experts claim that the studies are flawed because when the children are being observed the people who are observing them do not know if they had food dye or not. This whole ADHD thing seems like bogus to me! http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/30/healthwatch-food-dye-and-adhd/ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/30/healthwatch-food-dye-and-adhd/