For the Love of Yellow....

So, a whole week has passed since my last blog post.  And, in that week, I've managed to keep it fairly real, as far as food goesl!  Don't get me wrong, there were a few tempting times such as pizza delivered to work for a team lunch and a 60th Anniversary party complete with beautiful, wonderful cake.  But, for the most part, I've stuck it out and will be hitting this third week a little healthier than before.  My official "Biggest Loser" scale has a dead battery so I can't be sure that I lost weight, but I can feel it in my clothes and my chin!  And, as far as how I feel?  I've had more energy.  So, I'd say we are off to a good start.

My biggest milestone this week was finally breaking my love affair with what I've affectionately started calling "Yellow #5".  Yes, I am talking about my former friend and loving companion, DMD (name not included for libel reasons, even though everything I will say about it is true!).  When I first made the decision to go real, I knew that DMD would be on the chopping block.  But, I procrastinated...I told myself that I would drink only what I had left in the house, about 10 cans.  As those were dwindling, I prepared myself for the end.  But, then my husband, nice guy that he is, bought me another 12-pack!  I hadn't communicated to him that I was going to quit and I couldn't be rude since he'd done such a nice thing for me!  So, I decided to drink those, too.  But, on can number 11 from that last 12-pack, I decided I'd had enough.  That can is still sitting, unopened, on my desk at work.  And, can #12 is still sitting on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator, unopened.  Would I like to go out to the kitchen right now, crack open that refreshingly cold can and drain every last precious ounce into my mouth?  About 6 days ago, I would have said yes....and, even now, after that description, I'm wavering a bit.  But, instead, I'm going to go get it, but only so I can peruse the ingredient list and share what I find with you, my blogees!  As we say at work, "Hold Please", while I go retrieve the final can...

Well, as fate would have it, the last can of DMD is, in fact, missing from the refrigerator.  I'm glad because I no longer have to rely on will power alone to keep me from drinking it down while I finish typing this.  But, this also poses a problem as I now have no way to read the ingredients.  So, I will resort to looking into the one that I know for sure is in DMD, Yellow #5.  And, with that, I will give my not-so-scientific overview below of what exactly we eat/drink when we consume Yellow #5.

 

Yellow #5

 

According to Wikipedia, Yellow #5 is also known as Tartrazine, FD&C Yellow #5, Food Yellow 4 and many other names.  It is a lemon yellow dye and is primarily used in the food industry.  Ok, great, I'm sure if it's used in food, it's fine right?  Let me keep reading...it is in fact synthetic (man-made) and is used in many processed foods.  It's also used in cosmetics, medicines, crayons and cleaning products.  The interesting thing I noticed on the Wikipedia site right away (and you can chalk this up to my recent OSHA required safety training) is that it has the little, multi-colored National Fire Prevention Association Haz-Mat diamond over on the right hand side.  Yes, the symbol that Fire Fighters and EMT's look for when responding to emergency situations....that diamond!  That gave me an immediate warm fuzzy (not!).  I work in a manufacturing facility so I know what this symbol means....hazard, danger, be careful, stay away.  I couldn't help but click in and see what the NFPA diamond had to say about Yellow #5.

 

For those who don't know, each of the four colored areas within the NFPA Haz-Mat diamond mean something different.  I was glad to see that the red, yellow and white sections didn't amount to much(thankfully, as red is related to flammability!).  But, I found the blue section, the code relating to Health information, interesting.  Yellow #5 is given a "2" under blue.  Per Wikipedia, a "2" means that "Intense or continued but not chronic exposure could cause temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury".  Really?  That's great....because I used to drink DMD like it was water.  I definitely fell into the "continued" category. 

 

So, what is Yellow #5 made of?  I'm still not sure I know so I typed that exact question into Yahoo.com.  And, apparently, I'm not the first person to ask this question.  Ask.com had just the piece of information I was looking for.  Apparently, Yellow #5 is made from coal tar.  Coal tar is a petroleum derivative.  Can we use the Socratic method here to make a deduction?  Is Yellow #5 really petroleum based?

 

So, that was my next question for Yahoo.com.  And, with that, I found an interesting article from a website called Fitness Quests.  This guy, noted only as Kris, has done his research.  I think I finally found what I was looking for.  He takes much of his information from the book "Twinkie Deconstructed" by Steve Ettinger (I plan to peruse Amazon immediately after publishing this post!).  Ettinger's goal was to trace all 39 ingredients found in the now deceased Twinkie (may it RIP) and find out what they really were.  And, what he found on Yellow #5 was interesting....it originates from Benzene, a crude oil by-product.  Benzene is carcinogenic and while the author of the Fitness Quests site goes on, I think I can stop my research right there...enough said.  Why would anyone want to put that in their body?

 

Multiple web sources note that Yellow #5 can be the culprit behind anything from migraines to depression in adults and ADHD in children, but I think I can safely say I'm not going to have to worry about that anymore....good-bye DMD.  We had a good run.....

 

Works Cited

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartrazine

2. http://answers.ask.com/Food_and_Drinks/Other/what_is_yellow_5_made_of

3. http://www.fitnessquests.com/2010/06/what-is-fdc-yellow-5-tartrazine.html