My macaroni dreams have come to an end.

Have you ever been disappointed because you get a sudden apetite for something in the kitchen only to see that it is gone? I have. Today, it happened with macaroni and cheese.

It all started out when my husband walked into our bedroom, plate in hand. I was not hungry. Nothing sounded good until I saw The Cheese. On his plate was a huge pile of shells and cheese, and next to it lie the best looking Mexican rice I had seen in ages. I was absolutely speechless. My absence of hunger ran off, and my taste buds suddenly became aroused. I RAN to the kitchen (seriously!), grabbed the nearest plate, and loaded up with the generic shells and cheese. Next, the mood turns grim as I learn the truth behind The Cheese.

“Does that look really cheesy to you?” my husband asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied. Of course it looks cheesy. It’s macaroni and cheese, right?
“I used the cheese that came with it, plus the cheese from the kids’ macaroni”.

In that exact moment, the world quit spinning. I nearly cried. All of my macaroni hopes and dreams fell to the floor. I quit spooning the now revolting pasta onto the plate and left the kitchen. I couldn’t believe it. My generic macaroni had been impregnated with the macaroni god’s cheesy sperm- the Kraft cheese powder. You’re probably wondering what the big deal is by now. It’s just macaroni, right?

Wrong. It’s not just macaroni. It is macaroni and cheese. And the cheese Kraft uses isn’t just any cheese. It’s cheese with Yellow #5. It’s cheese that’s been colored with a dye that causes me to break out around my mouth, resulting in a Ronald McDonald-like appearance.

Food intolerances and allergies affect thousands of people each year. Some food allergies are not life threatening, while others are very sensitive to their particular allergen. Food dye allergies are actually classified as an intolerance due to a different type of immune response than the traditional one being triggered. Because of this, the FDA does not require manufacturers to issue an allergy statement on products containing food dyes. Yellow #5 just leaves me red around the mouth, but the swelling and irritation is enough to crack the skin. This reaction is quite preferable to my typical reaction to Red #40- constricted air passages. This reaction requires an ER visit, and could be deadly.

One of the other things that you should know about food dyes is that they are in nearly EVERYTHING. I can’t take Tylenol, NyQuil, Midol, or many other medicines because they have Red40. Even the pills that aren’t red, such as Excedrin Back and Body have red dye in them. Little Debbie brownies have Red 40, and so do many caramel sauces. There’s a whole plethora of foods that have Red40 in them even when they should not be red. For this reason, I can’t try new foods without reading the packaging. It sucks. I can live without the snowcones, skittles, cake frosting, and pudding, but I would really like to be able to use some of the medicines mentioned above.

If you are bothered by this information, feel free the FDA or your local congressperson to express your concerns about the presence of food dyes in medicines.

Here’s the FDA link:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/oic-info.html

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