My son was diagnosed with ADHD and Asbergers.

I threw all the factory made food and also things like stock-cubes etc out of the house and started cooking everything from basics with fresh food,

Six weeks later I threw his medication away because there were no further symptons of either ADHD or Asbergers.

That was two years ago and we maintain a chemical free
diet. (ie no factory made food / products) and the symptons
never returned.
In addition he his now in the top 10percent in his class.

As far as I am concerned the Food Standards Agency should be closed down, It has little use.

David, cardiff, Wales

Of what use is this article, if it does not list the exact E additives used in the southampton study? please give us the name of each and every additive used, then intelligent people can make decisons based thereon

susan, johannesburg, south africa

Buy simple produce...make your own food... no need to worry.

Michelle Robinson, Kerikeri, New Zealand

As a mum of two young children I would like to see more help and information given to parents to identify the products affected by these additives. For example skittles and other products marketed for children should be made to clean up their act. Well Done to Smarties!!! at last a sensible pro active manufacturer that cares about their target audience.

Sharon Cutts, Bradford, West Yorkshire

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is another incompetent government body like the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Ray Nipper, Portbail, France

I just knew it would be Southampton University who carried out this "research" and that before we knew it the "Food Commission" would be on the band waggon. Someone needs to investigate the group behind this "research" and uncover their real motivation! They have been at it for years and constantly seek results to confirm the conclusions they have already drawn. They have been so successful that now almost every Mum believes her kid is allergic to something and blames "additives" for bad behaviour. One day the real truth will emerge because this surely is not it, no matter what the headlines will be screaming tonight..

David House, Wisbech, UK

Although these additives, in the form of flavourings and colourings, seem to almost certainly have a deleterious effect on some children's behaviour, do they really need to be removed from products?
I cite the example of peanuts as being a similar case (though illness brought on by this allergy can sometimes cause death unlike colourings, etc.). Peanuts haven't been banned but dealt with by better warning messages on packaging and the commonsense of the buyer. Do we need, therefore, to ban these additives completely - an exercise that will cost all taxpayers money through legislating - or could we pass on the cost to the companies that produce goods containing the offending additives by getting them to beef up warning messages on packaging and leaving the choice of whether they are consumed to the commonsense of all?

Cliff Rigg, Lingdale, UK

If this additives harm childrens,harms adults too.

celio gurfinkel marques de godoy, sao paulo, brazil

For this warning to be really effective the list of the controversial E-numbers should have been included. Not ALL additives designated by E-number are bad. And now we only know one number: E211 for sodium benzoate.

Hans de Koning, Leiderdorp, Netherlands

This information is being released 35 years too late. Back in the late 1970' my son suffered hyperactivity whenever he had food or drinks containing colourants. There was a rumour about E numbers, but little was done to advise parents at that time. Consequently, my son suffered throughout his early life with behavioural problems. I used what little information I could glean to cut out foodstuffs containing additives, and his behaviour improved dramatically.
We now have the situation that my grandson suffers from severy dyspraxia, so we are now trying to track down all the information we possibly can to help him.
It is never easy for a parent of a child with behavioural or emotional difficulties. Simply put the help might be out there but finding it is still a lottery for many parents.
Let us hope that the food industry DO sit up and take notice - for years they have been pumping our food full of all kinds of toxins (under the guise of taste enhancers etc).

Doreen Porter, Stockport, England

I have known about this for more than ten years, when the new government said they would do something about it. To-day we heard a Food Agency representative tell us that it is being referred to the EU because they are in a position to do something about it. Since when did we need to refer to them for something as basic as this? Many other countries have banned a variety of these offending additives, but our government seems to prefer throwing money as trying to solve the results instead of banning them in the first place. How typical, how naive, how very new Labour.

Roz Venner, St Neots, England

I grew up on tartrazine in my orange squash and have been only moderately disruptive over my 48 years.

At least this absolves parents of any responsibility for the decline in discipline and the disruptive behaviour of some kids over the last 20 years.

Dr Seuss, London, UK

As a parent of two girls ages 8 and 10, we have learned over the years how much they are affected by food additives. This study is a start, but I wish it had gone into looking at other additives such as flavour enhancers & preservatives too. We know only too well how these also have contributed not only to hyper-activity in our girls but also mood swings, head-aches & stomach aches. As a family we all react to E319 (BHQ), E320 (BHA) and E321 (BHT), with migraines & moodswings. The question I continually ask is why organic manufacturers are able to produce products such as corn tortilla chips without any preservatives, and yet the big manufacturers refuse to do likewise? Obviously this is possible. In the meantime, I now make all of our bread, cakes, biscuits, etc... from scratch & with xylitol or honey, not sugar. Our fizzy drink at parties is a mix of fruit juice & carbonated water, and no one minds. When we eat this way, we feel great and our girls' behaviour is normal.

Debbie Richards, Christchurch, New Zealand

Yet another health scare - how would the news media fill their columns and air time without them? This report should certainly be read in conjunction with the caveats identified in the accompanying piece by Nigel Hawkes. Surely, if children are consuming so many of these additives as to cause problems, it must mean parents are allowing them to follow a diet that's nutritionally poor in other respects - containing too much sugar or fat, for example.

Barry, Wallington, UK

The first ever conducted double-blind placebo controlled cross-over trial in this field clearly has established chemical additives and other food items to be responsible for ADHD and other problems as long as 22 years ago.
Egger J, Carter CM, Graham PJ, Gumley D, Soothill JF; A controlled trial of oligoantigenic diet treatment in the hyperkinetic syndrome.
Lancet 1985; I: 540-545
Clearly scieetific evidence ought to be taken finally into account!

Damsari Silva, Meran, Italy

It is high time that these additives were banned. It sees to me that food manufacturers are only interested in making a profit and have no interest what so ever in peoples health. Just saying that a product has been approved by the EU is not good enough. and does not wash any more!

We must all band together and just not buy these foods and drive the manufacturers of this rubbish out of business.

d case, newquay,

To Trevor in London, this trial was proven a few years ago and has now been through a peer group review and proven again. Can anyone tell me however why it is that the advice from the Food Standards Agency is for parents who suspect that their children are hyperactive should avoid these additives when none of the children in the study were suspected of hyperactivity. The truth is that the chemical companies have far too much to lose if these were to be banned over night. This is not about naughty behaviour but often strange compulsive behaviour, there is a huge diffreence. Feingold made these same conclusions in the 70's but people have been burying their heads in the sand and refuse to believe it.
Debbie Surrey

Debbie Friend, Guildford, Surrey

In reply to Trevor, London. You will find the Lancet Article in the Early Online Publication section of their site, and yes, it was a double-blind, etc.

I think it might be more useful, but also a lot more work, to test a wider range of mixtures to find those that with more and less impact. For example, it seems everyone is saying sodium benzoate is so evil, but how do we know? Both of the additive mixtures in the tests included this component? The specific impact of individual components was not tested, nor was the impact of their interaction in any other mixtures.

Steve Lowman, Aberystwyth, Wales

What will be done with this information?

Nothing I would bet.

The government should ban these additives in all foods, not just kids food

sam, sussex uk, uk

This is a poorly designed study; a cohort of 153 in an artificial environment with a made up drink. Food additives may well cause some extra inattention but late face the real reason for poor behaviour at school - poor parenting and the breakdown of family structure and discipline at home. The worst behaved children at school are always the ones who have problems at home.

Dr Z Etheridge, Oxford,

As a child 20 years ago our son suffered periods of extreme hyperactivity(ADHD). We realised food additives were cause as only occurred after he'd consumed food or drink with artificial colourings or sodium benzoate.
We switched him to additive free diet & result was no more hyperactivity. We know many parents who found their children reacted in the same way, so 'Diet Induced ADHD' seems quite common.
I tried to convince our Dr & others that additives were damaging many children. I wrote to MP’s & Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries & Food & got nowhere. I was dismissed by ‘experts’.
Now decades later they accept what was blatantly obvious to parents that additives are harmful. Meantime I wonder how many families have had to endure the severe stress of looking after a hyperactive child & how many children are turned into zombies with anti ADHD drugs.
Q) Why the government denial of major cause of ADHD for so long ? A) Political parties sponsored by food companies.

Robin Pearce, Southampton, UK

This study does not "establish" any knowledge. It merely adds to evidence that SUGGESTS the effects of food on behavior. The author of this study cautions in an earlier article that "there needs to be awareness of the dangers of the use of unsupervised restriction diets with children, and the use of dietary treatments alone is not likely to be sufficient treatment for many children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder."

Why is the article title not listed in this new article so that anyone can read the study themselves? I cannot locate this article through the usual Pubmed academic search engine.

Ben Barton, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Tell us something we didn't already know. The USA knew this in the 60's. My eldest was deemed hyperactive in 1968 aged 4. The Education Authority wanted to send her to a "Special Boarding School" a hundred miles away. A relative in the USA sent me a diet sheet from a Hyperactivity Support Group. In 3 weeks her behaviour was "normal" whatever that means. At 5 she started school. Then her behaviour plummeted. The school meals often contained Soya which was one of the things she reacted to ...... not to mention the artificial colourings and flavourings. I had to send her in with a lunch box. She was fine after that. I don't actually believe in Hyperactivity as a medical condition. I do believe many people are actually intolerant of certain foods, especially the colourants, flavourings and preservatives used. Soya is not the wonder replacement the advertisements say either. It's a good cattle food, but we aren't cattle with 4 stomachs to break it down.

Beryl, WINDSOR, England

There is a farm in Broadway Worcester that has been taking in badley behaved children for 30 years and taking them off food containing artificial additives etc and feeding them on organic food,including meat. The results were very good. Why has it taken the "experts" 30 years to discover what many already knew.

Eddie Ward, llandrindod Wells, Radnor County

This is not new, for the last 4 1/2 years I have had my youngest child on an additive/preservative free diet.. It meant a total new way of thinking but basicaly involved cooking from scratch and removing the juice he was used to having from his day to day diet.
He now knows what he can and can not have and even told his new teacher at school when she said that the class would have jelly beans as a treat for very good behaviour, that if he receievd any please could he take them home to have on a Friday. Friday is the day we relax his regime as he can detox over the next two days!!

I also avoid Aspartamine and Monosodium Glutomate. It took a while, involved some research and was not an instant fix but my son is now achieving at school and the diet is still in place.

Sue, Exeter,

Evidence has been out for ages, only problem is the press and politicians never had the balls to take on the food and drink
industries. And they still don't.

But if you pay some back in taxes and employ people that's alright
to spike your produc, not like those scumbag drug dealers that
pay no tax.

Fred is dead, London,

Its a pity we can't see the parameters of the experiments. Presumably it was double blind and the criteria for determining aberrent behaviour acceptable to the scientific community. Were all factors affecting behaviour taken into account and allowed for?

Until I see all this I will view the results with a large pinch of sodium chloride

Bill Q, Derby,

Listening to a representative of the FSA on the BBC this morning waffling on talking gibberish, avoiding giving straight answers to reasonable questions, I was left with the impression that we now have little control over most aspects of our life having passed all power to the EU.

Quote "The FSA defended its stance and said the matter had to be resolved by the European Commission" why, aren't we capable of doing things for ourselves any more. The guy admitted it could take years for the European Commission to make any rulings on these findings. Oh why oh why are we involved with this monster called the EU, have we lost so much confidence in ourselves and our own abilities.

Ajer, Basingstoke, UK

We do not give our children drinks or sweets with additives and they have pure juices and fruit instead. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that the E numbers that are added to childrens food are not good for them or indeed neccessary, they are used for commercial reasons and cosmetic looks.

joe kellie, Edinburgh, Scotland

As a teacher in an inner city comprehensive school the evidence is irrefutable.Behaviour is worse after lunch.I have asked children who are impulsive and argumentative and aggressive what they have eaten and the answer is always that they have eaten rubbish: a bag of sweets,crisps,a pasty,or a bag of chips(if anything) and always a fizzy drink.Why does this country accept the rubbish that the uk does? My experience of other countries is that they dont, food is fresher less "enhanced".Parents are under pressure to work all the hours and give their children as much as possible thinking that this will be good for them.
.What they dont often do is give their children what they need-Simple fresh food and drinks and some positive time and attention.The people who make food and fill them with additives need to have a long hard look at the consequences on behaviour in this country because parents trust that what goes into the food they buy is safe and good for their children.

dawn, newport, wales

The real problem lies with the combinations of additives in sweets ans junk food.

Some children eat sweets, and assorted types of junk food almost as a "staple" diet, with the resultant weird after effects.

All the research done is confined to one particular food item and the result gathered are no doubt very accurate, but little or no research into combinations of additives.

Most additives, if injected into individuals would immediatly be banned by law.

C>Horne, Chichester,

This is known about but ignored, artificial sweeteners are also to blame and msg, the food companies that make these foods are so powerful in our world today, I do not think the Government are interested in protecting our health only themselves, in large hand outs by major food companies. If we associate the rise of new diseases with the rise of artificial food and additives, chemicals to make children’s toys and plastics that we eat from, heavy metals used as preservatives in vaccines we can see how our immune systems are damaged, not only children but adults to, with numbers of children with Autism at 1 in 100, A.D.D and A.D.H.D, asthma, eczema, ME, MS, Cancers, all these are due to damaged immune systems. We need to start saying no to chemicals that our bodies cannot cope with and become over loaded with toxins and carcinogenic.

laura, kent,

We have known this for decades. It's just news to a new generation who will do little about it because it's more convenient to buy processed foods rather than cooking from scratch using natural ingredients.

Tanya Ambrose, Mallorytown, Ontario, CANADA

My own son was hyperactive from babyhood up until his early teens. My friend pointed out to me when he was a toddler how many E numbers were in the orange squash I was giving him. As a result I started to give him diluted apple juice and saw an improvement straight away. Obviously it didn't cure the problem altogether but certainly made all our lives a lot easier.
This occurred 21 years ago when people were just becoming aware of the effect of E numbers on children. So why has it taken the FSA so long to make this announcement?

Maria, London, UK

Nothing has been done before for the same reason that nothing will be done in the near future. What are a few non-blatant health risks when compared to the profits to be made by big business?

Why should a politician listen to concerned parents, researchers, health professionals and the like when there is so much money to be made by big business, with their enormous political clout?

How can disorganized parents, researchers, health professionals and the like hope to out bid big business for political support?

Keep on with the pressure for change, out shout big business, shout down their counterarguments, write letters, send emails. In politics, the squeaky wheel gets the grease - become an organized squeaky wheel about this issue. Science does not have to be on your side if you make enough noise.

DanO, Mount Vernon, USA

Most parents know this by now, it is very old news but nice to see it confirmed. Almost all of thes additives are banned in France. Why are they not banned here?

Liz, Bristol, UK

Why was E for Additives written all those years ago and has been updated if not to help people know what is what? I changed my daughter's diet 22 years ago when she was 13 and it was like a miracle.

Maureen Crossland, Leeds, UK

This is only what most parents already know.
Extra sugar etc makes them hyperactive.

Alan Rose, Southampton, Hampshire

I was recently subscribed antibiotics and it was impossible to get a version without E102 & E104 colouring in the shell!

Barrie A Tankel, London,

I can't find this study yet in the Lancet online. Until then, I have questions about it. Was this a randomized controlled double-blind trial, or a mere cohort study? If it was not the former, the "evidence" is non-existent. When I was at school back in the 50s, if for some reason we were left to our own devices, behaviour always deteriorated and the noise grew and concentration evaporated. If this was not a a randomized controlled double-blind trial, I have no faith in its results. In such a trial, neither the researchers nor the children would know whether they received active or placebo preparations until the results had all been collected. Bias is endemic in "before-and after" cohort studies.

Trevor, London,

People have been let down by the drinks industry and the governments. Many children and families must have suffered from the effects of these chemicals why wasn't action taken before?

javed, london, uk

I have always wondered if such additives play a part in illnesses such as ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other 'modern' health problems.

Secondly I am curios as to why this Government has done so little to remove what appears to be a contributor to serious health problems when so little good is known about the additives - other than they enhance the tase of food?

Anthony Walker, Louth, Lincolnshire

"a cocktail of controversial E numbers and the preservative sodium benzoate". How can a number be controversial? It is the use of certain food additives that is controversial. btw sodium benzoate is E211.

Arthur494, Guildford, Surrey

Many of us with children who are hyperactive or have other problems have known for many years about these colourings and additives for a long time, and do our best to avoid them. I'm amazed that they are still used.

They are also extensively used in prescription and standard "over-the-counter"child medicines like Calpol - just for visual appeal. Their use here urgently needs be similarly reviewed, it's very hard to find alternatives and it's not sensible giving your child something that you know is going to cause them ( and you) diffculties.

JB, Oxford,

Why has this research not been done decades ago?

Or maybe it was, but we as a society haven't listened till now.

Peter, Beds,

Yes, old news .. but still many people seem unaware of this link. Exactly the same link exists between these additives and dog behaviour, yet some manufacturers still put these additives, such as tartrazine, sunset yellow, into dog food. One of the culprits is Bakers Complete .. just read the ingredients list!

Mary Sanders, Nuneaton, UK

Isn't it about time they stopped wasting money on totally useless surveys and spent it on more police to keep enforcing the laws of this country. Everyone knows certain addatives are not good for you and those that don't will not take the slightest notice when they are advised.

Roger, Beddgelert, Wales

We feed our children rubbish, which is totally unnecessary for a good diet. It ruins their concentration at home and at school. The exam results show that they are all ultra clever, because they pass the bastardised politicised 'exams'. Then Universities complain that entrants can't string two words together.

This looks like a good way to keep the population under control.

Bring back George Orwell. Someone needs to get up and shout about what we do to our young - those we don't abort.

Charlotte Peters Rock, Knutsford,

There has been scientific evidence for 20 years that tartrazine and other additives have a negative effect on children's behaviour. What is the FSA playing at?

PR, Cornwall,

Information of such a suspected link has been in the public domain for some time.

If this were to be found possibly to have contributed to the breakdown of discipline in some schools and difficulties faced in controlling unruly pupils by teaching staff, the damage to education and childrens’ life chances from delayed action could be more serious than might appear.

Unfairly, disruption in classes might be caused only by a few pupils at risk, but the breakdown in a learning environment affects all. Including the health and stress of the teachers.

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

This is old news

Rob, Brum, West Mids

Information of such a suspected link has been in the public domain for some time as a result of empirical observation.

How come there was no earlier action?

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

THE ANSWER....AT LAST!


Hmmmm! I wonder if Charles and Diana........ .

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA