Dying over dyes.

The timing of this couldn't be more perfect! I have our Easter Egg dye kit out on the desk (after the fact) because I wanted to check the Food Coloring #'s to see if I had just poisoned my children in my pursuit of some hide-n-seek fun...

Healthy Child Healthy World has a fabulous article about the dangers and unknown secrets behind artificial food dyes.

Last Easter I saved lots of links to natural dyes thinking that THIS Easter I would be a better mother. One thing led to another and there we were, friend and her 2 kiddos present, looking for something to entertain the kids. With Daddy unable to join us for Easter this year, I figured that last thing I'd manage was juicing my frozen blueberries so I picked up the PAAS Color Cups kit.

Image courtesy of PAAS


Naturally, I started to second guess myself when the kids' fingers were still green two days later..

Thanks to this article, I can see that the 5 dyes listed on the back of the Food Color Tablets package: Blue #1 and #2, Yellow #5 and #6 along with Red #3 are all bad. Very bad? "Avoid" or "Caution" aren't the terms you like to read after you put Green Fingers and Blue Thumb to bed, are they?

Now that I've scared you, here's the link I saved last year to the Natural Dying we'll be doing for the rest of our short, chemically-shortened lives.

BIG CRUMBS - you have to bookmark this site: The Food and Food Coloring Database! Check it out and see why...