Food additives: the controversy continues

Abstract

Evidence from controlled studies suggests that the early claims of widespread adverse behavioral effects of artificial additives in food were exaggerated. However, the studies conducted to date have suffered from serious methodological flaws. The results of virtually all of them indicate that among the children being studied (usually classified as hyperactive), there is a small group of adverse responders. Nothing is known about the characteristics of the adverse responders because valuable data that could have been obtained from physical examinations, psychological tests, pediatric allergy assessment, birth records, and family histories have not been reported. Well-controlled studies that collect these kinds of information are needed. Of particular importance are well-controlled investigations in preschool-age children, because this group may be physically the most vulnerable and because there is some evidence that it is easiest to demonstrate an adverse behavioral response in this group.