Here's a clip that aired on WBAL-TV in Baltimore (an affiliate of ABC).
ABC news also interviewed Kim at her home yesterday, but when the panel voted to not recommend warning labels on foods with dyes the network dropped the segment.
It's been quite a ride for the past few days and it's a relief of sorts that the media can now get back to reporting on Charlie Sheen. ;o)
But the outcome of this is truly amazing. Six months ago the FDA was still saying that food dyes had no effect on ADHD and now they admit that some of these kids are bothered by them. That's huge!
The panel also said that the studies are not conclusive, and I agree. The designs of nearly all of the studies were poor, especially those that used 27 mg or less of dye as a challenge. Now that Shula has taught the scientists how the studies were flawed, and the agency is calling for new studies, perhaps the new research will use a realistic amount of dye...which would be at least 10 times the 27 mg used in the past.
Shula also taught them that virtually all of the studies showed that removing the additives (putting the children on the Feingold Diet) led to calmer kids. Then when a small amount of dye was used as a challenge many of the kids did not react. This shows that the diet worked; it was the challenge that failed.
But regardless of what happened in the meeting, the Association has been given an amazing gift -- enormous publicity! Any time the words "food dye" and "ADHD" appear in the same sentence, we benefit and so do the parents who will start to watch for tell-tale signs that the "Kool-Aid mouth" is likely to be followed by a major behavior issue.
Change will come from parents and consumers, not from any bureaucracy.
Looks like we aren't finished with our work yet.
Jane
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