What is rainbow candy made of?
There is a kind of candy called "rainbow candy" in the market, which is very popular with children and many parents are willing to buy it for them. This kind of candy, like its name, has various colors and tastes. Colorful and varied tastes are the "secrets" to attract children. So have parents ever thought about it: what is behind the colorful? What's bad for our children?
What harm does it do for children to eat too much rainbow candy?
The experiment found that:
So we did a light experiment: take two pieces of rainbow candy of various colors and soak them in a 20ml small test tube. Results With the introduction of rainbow sugar, the pigment slowly melted in water, and the color of the test tube was very dark in less than half a minute.
Further query on the composition table;
Parents can't help wondering, if these pigments are natural, will they be much better? From the point of view of nutrition, most natural pigments are superior to synthetic pigments. However, the poor coloring ability, instability and high cost of natural pigments limit their application in food industry. At present, the utilization rate of natural pigments in food is less than 20%, and most of them are synthetic pigments, especially synthetic flavors. Then look at the ingredient list of rainbow candy!
Ingredients list: white sugar, glucose syrup, vegetable oil, food additives (citric acid, acetylated disodium hexaphosphate, sodium octenyl succinate starch, sodium citrate, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide, alluring red and its aluminum lake, lemon yellow and its aluminum lake, brilliant blue and its aluminum lake, brilliant blue aluminum lake and sunset yellow aluminum lake) white dextrin, and edible spices.
There are many contents in this ingredient list. Let's analyze them one by one:
First of all, the raw material of rainbow sugar is a typical combination of "sugar+food additives", and its nutritional value is nothing to advocate.
Secondly, the army of food additives added is really huge, and they are all synthetic. Most of them belong to colorants (pigments) that give color, coating agents that make color more stable and brighter, acidity regulators that adjust taste and essences.
Thirdly, different from the pigments added in drinks and jellies, the pigments added in rainbow sugar are also decorated with "aluminum lakes". Ordinary pigment is water-soluble, and the lake made by attaching the pigment to the "carrier" containing aluminum becomes a water-insoluble pigment, which is more stable and more suitable for candy food. That is to say, the color in the experiment is only brought by water-soluble pigments, excluding the colors of various lakes that are insoluble in water! But in such an era of "aluminum" discoloration, Lake will also increase the intake of aluminum!
What's wrong with these children's food additives?
Small experiments and ingredient list analysis can confirm that artificial colors and flavors are the soul of rainbow sugar. Among food additives, pigments and flavors have the greatest influence on children. Excessive intake of synthetic pigments and flavors may increase the loss of zinc in children, leading to a decrease in appetite, and in severe cases, pica may occur; Increase the risk of ADHD in children, and even make children grow and develop slowly.
The lake containing aluminum is simply "worse". Aluminum is not an essential trace element for human body, and its absorption degree is not great, but it does not mean that it has not been absorbed. Long-term excessive intake of aluminum will lead to the accumulation of aluminum in brain, kidney, liver, lung, bone and other tissues, which will have chronic toxic effects to some extent and cause pathological changes in the nervous system. For children, it affects nerve development; Moreover, too much aluminum acts on bone tissue, which leads to the loss of calcium deposited in bone, inhibits bone formation and affects the growth and development of children's bones. In addition, aluminum is toxic to hematopoietic system and immune system, and it will also hinder the absorption of elements such as calcium, zinc, iron and magnesium.
To say the least, even if these things are harmless, the sugar content of rainbow candy itself is high. Children who eat such polysaccharides are not only prone to dental caries, but also have a great impact on their appetite for eating, which easily leads to irregular eating, preference for snacks, irregular and unbalanced diet, leading to nutritional deficiency.
Summary:
A bag of rainbow candy has 45 grams, and some children can eat several bags a day. In the long run, the pigments and flavors they eat will be very impressive and will also affect the appetite for dinner! Therefore, giving children a colorful childhood does not mean buying them all kinds of colorful snacks. Children don't have certain discrimination and self-control ability, and parents play an irreplaceable role in guiding their children's good eating habits! In this way, identifying the quality of snacks is also a skill that parents should master.