“Is it powerful enough that you want to ostracize your kid? It is very socially impacting if children can’t eat the things that their friends do.” - Dr. Thomas Spencer, a specialist in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
What's more important: keeping your kids healthy or keeping them in their generation's "trend-flow"? It seems like an obvious answer but it actually is not so obvious, which is why it stirs controversy for people like Dr. Spencer. It is getting more and more difficult to find mass produced food with additives, whether it is to enhance flavor or preserve the food. What this article suggests is that additives do indeed cause hyperactivity and wavering concentration, but that was supported by only one experiment here. The author even admits that there could have been other variables but seeing as there was a significant drop in performance for the children who consumed additive filled drinks.
What does this say about the children of our society, or even us? Are we losing bits of our attention span because of the food we eat? But then again, we cannot simply rid of additives altogether and call it a success. The whole point of making them in the first place was for financial gain and the possibility of mass producing a food so that it would last long but still taste good. The existing food industry would fall into turmoil. You also cannot take away what was already there and widely accepted. People will not be calm about their favorite drinks and snacks being taken away. Hence, the issue of food additives is still debatable and a large concern for food agencies.
