There’s No Synthetic Dyes Dilemma If You Eat Right

By Kevin Kolodziejski 

That a cyclist whom I had never seen before absolutely smoked me in the three-up sprint to end a crit didn’t really bother me at the time he did the smoking. Hate to say it, but I expected it.

I’ve admitted before that even in my prime I was a poor sprinter. And from my vantage point (or should it be disadvantage point?) as he sat up and threw up his arms in victory, this dude clearly looked more like a Keirin rider than a criterium competitor. But 40 minutes after that — when he was clad in cargo shorts and a baggy T-shirt and walking towards me and the podium — he looked less like a muscular trackie and more like a corpulent daddy.

That I didn’t expect, and that irked me a bit. Nor did I expect my irk to next grow tenfold.  But then again, there’s no way I could’ve ever anticipated what triggered it. The cyclist who smoked me, albeit in jest, offered me a piece of gum.

More About the Rider Who Won

After we stepped off the podium, we got to talking. He said he only came up to race in PA because there were no flat races in VA on this Sunday. That bridging up to me and my breakaway partner nearly killed him.  That he had to get more serious about his training. Which meant, first and foremost, he had to give up a habit he had taken up the last time he took time off the bicycle.

He had to stop smoking.

Then he reached into a side pocket of his cargo shorts. For a moment, I thought he was going to pull out a pack of Marlboros and light up right there. But the pack he pulled said Nicorette, and he offered me a piece in jest. I said no thanks and felt my anger grow.

Smoked By a Smoker

I had been smoked by a smoker — an overweight one at that — and that bothered me for days.  I eventually got over it by recognizing something that self-help books incessantly harp on because it’s undeniably true. That it’s foolish to fret about things out of your control.

While that hardly qualifies as news, recent announcements by the government and food manufacturers about synthetic dyes are. And depending upon the dietary habits you’ve taken up, whether or not you’ve ever taken time away from the bicycle, they could be as troubling to you as getting smoked by a smoker was to me.

The News About Synthetic Dyes

On April 22, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. convened a press conference and announced that the HHS and the Food and Drug Administration have begun the process required to ban two synthetic dyes used by the food industry, Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B. At that time, Kennedy also revealed the food industry “has voluntarily agreed” to eliminate the use of six other “poisonous compounds” by the end of 2026: FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2. 

On the same day, Thomas Galligan, principal scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told National Public Radio it was“strange” for Kennedy to be boasting about getting rid of those two dyes (“and then every [harmful] ingredient and additive in food that we can legally address”) because both are currently “very, very rarely used.” Even more perplexing is why the government doesn’t also ban the other six synthetic dyes since the FDA has the authority to do so. Especially since food companies “have consistently reneged” on voluntary agreements in the past. “They’ve claimed they’re going to get rid of these food dyes or other additives within a certain timeframe, and then they have consistently reneged on those promises.”

One Reneged Promise . . . and Why

Since Galligan supplied no specific example that day, allow me.  Nearly a decade ago, the WK Kellogg Company announced it would rid the cereals it sold in the United States of synthetic dyes by 2018, but it never happened. So in 2024 and in possession of a petition signed by more than 400,000 people, activists protested at the company’s Battle Creek, Michigan headquarters. When they did, it brought to light something just as frustrating as the broken promise. That for years the Froot Loops cereal distributed in Canada contained carrot and watermelon juice instead of artificial dyes at the behest of the Canadian government.

To further assess the odds of the aforementioned voluntary phase out and its degree of effectiveness if it does indeed occur, consider the following.

Synthetic dyes have no health benefits, could quite possibly be a detriment to it, but natural dyes cost up to 10 times more than synthetic ones. The only purpose they serve, according to a former FDA official and current president of the CSPI Dr. Peter Lurie in a BBC article about the phase out, is to “make food companies money.” And they do so in part because synthetic dyes are vibrant, and you — to a far greater extent than you might imagine — eat with your eyes. A study cited in a 2019 Scientific American article attests to that.

Surprise: You Eat With Your Eyes

In the study, participants dined on a meal of steak and french fries in a dimly lit setting. Midway through the meal, the participants were asked to assess it, and all gave the meal two thumbs up. Moments later, though, the lights were turned up.

Some participants upchucked. Others refused to keep eating. That’s because the brighter light shed additional light on the steaks and fries. They were artificially dyed blue and green.

A similar, though not nearly as dramatic, example is General Mills’ return to using synthetic dyes in Trix cereal in 2017 — a return based on consumer feedback. Yet only one year before, consumer feedback had caused General Mills to switch from synthetic dyes to natural ones. What changed? The cereal lost much of its appeal when it lost its vibrant color.

Why Today’s Title Is What It Is

A 2024 Science News article by Sophie Hartley on the ways in which synthetic dyes may affect behavior provides a bulleted list of artificially colored “grocery store staples.” It includes both Froot Loops and Trix, Lucky Charms, cake mixes, baked goods, Pop-Tarts, Cheetos, M&M’s, Skittles, Nerds, and “specialty drinks,” such as Powerade. I cite Hartley’s list because I’m a word nerd, and a “staple” in this context is “a main or important element of something, especially of a diet.”

Are any of the items in Hartley’s list truly staples? Or healthy? Or are they just suitable examples of ultra-processed foods?

Which is why the title of today’s article is what it is. And why it will end with a summary of the situation made by Susan Mayne, PhD, an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Public Health, in Fran Kriz’s article for Very Well Health.

That you’d get more bang for the buck by reducing sodium and added sugars in the typical American diet instead of spending money on reformulating foods to remove the synthetic dyes.

---

Kevin Kolodziejski began his writing career in earnest in 1989. Since then he’s written a weekly health and fitness column and his articles have appeared in magazines such as “MuscleMag,” “Ironman,” “Vegetarian Times,” and “Bicycle Guide.” He has Bachelor and Masters degrees in English from DeSales and Kutztown Universities.

A competitive cyclist for more than 30 years, Kevin won two Pennsylvania State Time Trial championships in his 30’s, the aptly named Pain Mountain Time Trial 4 out of 5 times in his 40s, two more state TT’s in his 50’s, and the season-long Pennsylvania 40+ BAR championship at 43.