The Food Standards Agency (FSA), the government body responsible for regulating the food industry is issuing specific guidance to parents warning them of the dangers of certain food additives. The additives, found in many children’s snacks and drinks can reduce learning ability, cause behavioural problems, and hyperactivity or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This is something many health campaigners and good nutritionists have been claiming for many years now. At long last the government has recognised something that many of us know already. The government’s U-turn comes after the publication in the Lancet of the results of the biggest UK study into the link between children’s behaviour and the food they eat, or more precisely the chemical additives in the food they eat.
The advice given out by the FSA falls short of what health campaigners and experts were asking for, namely a ban on all chemical additives that cause ADHD in children. Our government always seems to put the interests of big business before the welfare of the people. Unfortunately there will be many parents that will shy away from taking away their children’s chocolates and fizzy drinks. The food industry will clearly not regulate itself, so the only real solution is for the government to ban these chemicals.
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