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Kool-Aid Brings Back the Fun [Not Kool]

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This full page ad was spotted in Rachel Ray’s EveryDay magazine. “Bring back the fun” is supposed to trigger parents’ memories of a happy, carefree childhood, and nudge them to impart the same on their offspring. Just look at those happy smiling faces, those playfully extended tongues…

…COVERED IN ARTIFICIAL COLORS that are harmful to kids’ health.

What you need to know:

Kool-Aid is the epitome of “fake”. Here is the ingredient list of the grape flavor mix:

Sugar, Citric Acid (Provides Tartness), Calcium Phosphate (Prevents Caking), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Artificial Flavor, Red 40, Blue 1.

Each cup of Kool-Aid you prepare for your child has 5 teaspoons of sugar!

That’s 20 grams, or 80 calories.

And if the sugar rush is not enough to drive your kid bonkers, then the artificial dyes certainly can’t help.

A sufficient number of studies have demonstrated that dyes cause hyperactivity in children. In Europe, Red 40 is being phased out. FDA tests have shown that the the most-widely used dyes, including Red 40, are tainted with low levels of cancer-causing compounds. Tests on lab animals of Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 showed signs of causing cancer.

So skip brightly colored sugary drinks. Our kids get way too much sugar throughout the day, through sweets and candies, some  artificially colored. It is almost impossible not to consume food with artificial dyes, so at the very least, the beverages consumed not contain them. Especially when they come with such a high sugar count.

Our advice: Start early and teach you baby / toddler / pre-shcooler to drink tap water. You’ll be doing your child a great favor.

(hat tip to Dr. Deborah Kennedy, creator of Build Healthy Kids)

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  • Kitten

    They are doing this with the latest McDonalds commercial. Have you seen it? It’s a series of people going form young to old, ‘enjoying’ McDonalds. Yeah Right!

  • Sailorstrawberry18

    Dude, this is not a joke I actually used kool Aid Like Crack And instead of watering it down I just Ate it raw, Kool aid is Bad for teens and young Adults too and it worsens Autism but it did give me a ” feel-good” rush like aspartame and I’m talkin’ bout 4 to 3 years ago so the colors in Kool aid just aren’t Problematic in Children but worse with people who have any kind of Autism, teens and young adults so it does Cause problems Don’t ignore it! it even gave my younger brother who’s 17 a rush he Wouldn’t stop talking for hours and my parents Wanted to know the reason why? so I told them its kool aid and they got rid of it and then didn’t buy anymore and he was fine after that

    and about Rachel Ray, she is one of the Many spokes people for kraft that Came from the food network I believe by the look of the food network magazine that they have a Contract with Kraft foods.. which explains Why their food is so Ridden with Calories and kraft products, if Cigarettes aren’t enough for Philip Morris then he’ll get your kids, teens, young adults, and Children with Autism mild/high.. Dependent On the colored Powder.. Just don’t even buy this for your Child and all the Problematic and Dependences that come with garbage like this Don’t even have to start or begin,

    when life gives you Lemons, make your Child Lemonade.. not Colored Garbage

  • Charlotte

    I make my son herbal iced tea. I take some bags of herbal tea, plonk it in a quart of boiled water. Let it steep, and voila, he has something healthy and tasty to drink. :)

    • http://www.thefrugaldietitian.com Nancy – The Frugal dietitian

      Herbals are not necessarily safe though…herbals cover a lot of chemicals!!

  • Jessica

    I buy kool-aid every now and then…. fruit punch does a nice job of boosting my red hair color (a quick and affordable color boost for 20 cents), and the lemonade packet does a GREAT job cleaning out the dishwasher. Leaves it lemony fresh!

    I wouldn’t let my child ingest it though, just as my own mother NEVER bought it for me growing up.

    • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

      Should follow the rule…if you won’t put it in your mouth, you shouldn’t put it on your body.

      • Jessica

        I “should” follow alot of rules that I don’t. and it’s far better than most hair coloring products on the market. it’s not like I’m bathing in it daily, lol.

        • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

          Promise me that if you do bathe in it daily that you use a green one and take daily pics ;-)

      • Jomiller11

        how do you bathe?

        • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

          In the shower…

    • Mrs Kymedwards

      How do you boost it? Just add a pinch of red to your shampoo? Or conditioner? Which one?

  • Melisah_Cash

    I totally agree. Don’t care for the fact that the article states that it’s “almost impossible” not to consume foods with artificial dyes. There are lots of brands that do not use anything artificial, let alone the fact that “artificial” can be avoided easily by eating whole foods.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QDLCSILKJYOFRHWHIV6ND2GC54 G.L.

    Yellow dye is also a culprit in causing uticaria and asthma in some individuals. Definitely not “Kool.”

    It is great for dying wool though!

  • http://www.foodieformerlyfat.com Foodie, Formerly Fat

    The real insidiousness of this is the general idea that food=fun and that without the color additives life is boring drudgery. Food can be delicious, creative, nutritious, and even elegant, but fun? No, fun is what happens when you are doing something active, not when you are passively consuming something. There are some problems with the whole model that tries to trick us into thinking that food is the same as an emotion. It contributes to the epidemic of obesity by promoting emotional eating.

  • Jim

    The theory that food additives such as food colorings cause hyperactivity is simply not proven. There is one significant 2007 study which I discuss here:

    http://tinyurl.com/4dvd3b9

    Conclusion: Possibly.

    • http://www.fooducate.com/blog Fooducate

      As parents we need to have dyes 100% proven as safe, not 100% proven as unsafe. So until we hear that red#40 is 100% safe, let’s not take a chance on our kids.

      • WF

        I think we need a little perspective in this discussion… absolutely nothing we eat is “100% proven as safe”. That is just not possible.

        Anyone who has studied toxicology will recognize the quote “The dose makes the poison”. Anything, when consumed in a certain amount, can kill you. Even raw veggies.

  • http://www.thefrugaldietitian.com Nancy – The Frugal dietitian

    The only real benefit that I found for Kool-Aid was the version that I used for my cancer patients: add sugar to taste (or sugar free) to mask the flavor of foods. Inexpensive too!! Many of my cancer patients, due to radiation and/or chemotherapy treatments, had altered tastes. They were really useful for my patients. Wonder if an ad for that would be effective. Probably not!!

    There was a nice article in Advertising Age regarding the increase in ads money towards children. Instead of putting those ads on “kids shows” (because of their pledge not to) they just directed it to night with family shows. The ads are more directed to mom/dad, of course with Junior close by. Hmmm…
    http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/kids-tv-regulatory-challenges/149247/

  • http://www.facebook.com/cactuswren Susan Cactuswren

    Kool-Aid does have one use: being acidic, it makes a wonderful dye for protein fibers such as wool or silk. (Or, as Jessica pointed out, hair.)

    http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html

    I wouldn’t drink it, though. Any colorant that attaches itself FOREVER to protein fibers must be doing some nefarious things to your proteiny body.

  • http://www.facebook.com/cactuswren Susan Cactuswren

    Kool-Aid does have one use: being acidic, it makes a wonderful dye for protein fibers such as wool or silk. (Or, as Jessica pointed out, hair.)

    http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html

    I wouldn’t drink it, though. Any colorant that attaches itself FOREVER to protein fibers must be doing some nefarious things to your proteiny body.

  • Brooke

    Nothing is 100% safe.

    However, I think it should interest most readers that the FDA has an upcoming Food Advisory Committee on this very subject.

    http://www.fda.gov/AdvisoryCommittees/Calendar/ucm236321.htm

  • http://twitter.com/yummyspoonfuls Agatha

    Kool-Aid is the epitome of disgusting and unhealthy. I hope parents don’t fall for this.

  • Kool-Aid Man

    kool-aid is the most delicious drink ever! all you ppl here are sitting here on your high horse knocking it saying its bad and can lead to obesity are probably obese yourselves and just need something to blame it on. probably the same obese people who think obesity is a disease…FYI ITS NOT A DISEASE, you just think exercise is walking to the fridge to get your healthy food that you slab butter on and still think you are eating healthy. And then you sit back down on the couch watching re-runs of friends all day. you figure its too late for your unhealthy self so you think you are gonna “help” others and knock kool-aid. you might not drink kool aid but you are gonna go down a bottle of vodka or eat a quart of ice cream and think you are better then the kool-aid man. get a life, you are gonna die eventually and if getting one more year on your life is that important then go ahead. Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. Take you healthy talk and shove it