Think Food Doesn’t Affect Behavior? You’ve Got to Read This.
This post may contain affiliate links from which I will earn a commission. Learn more in our disclosure.
Are food and behavior connected? Some say that’s nonsense, that food has nothing to do with behavior.
Others say that there is a clear connection. What does the evidence show?
Food and behavior is a big topic these days. Folks are talking about gluten-free diets, paleo diets, candida diets, and more.
Does it all matter? Does food affect things like autism, ADD, ADHD and just plain old defiance?
So many behavioral issues can be traced to gut health. We need to all inform and empower parents to make a difference in their children’s (and their own) lives.}
It’s common to joke about kids being on a sugar high after a party, so all of us know, on some level, that food influences how kids behave.
But how many of us realize the extent to which our children’s day-to-day actions are shaped and molded by the foods we feed them?
Food and Behavior
An experiment on the effects of food on behavior done by the British TV series, The Food Hospital, produced shocking results. Party food loaded with sugar, artificial coloring, and other additives have the power to turn your lovely, cooperative child into a badly behaved, physically aggressive youngster.
Before we get to the study, let’s talk about some of the WORST things that you (and your kids) can eat.
Three Food Ingredients that Might Affect Behavior Negatively
1. Artificial Coloring
There’s evidence both for and against artificial food coloring causing behavioral issues in children.
More and more evidence is pointing to artificial food dyes as a major cause of ADHD in children. While this hasn’t been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, the facts are strong enough to convince many European countries to ban blue 1 (brilliant blue), blue 2 (indigo carmine), yellow 5 (tartrazine), and yellow 6 (sunset yellow) among others.
These food colors have FDA approval and are found in cereal, candy, and a variety of colorful foods popular with children.
2. Sugar
There is a shocking amount of sugar in processed foods – and some of it is lurking in places you wouldn’t suspect. One 12 oz. can of coke has 9 ½ teaspoons of sugar. The same amount of Tropicana Farmstand Juice has 9 teaspoons. There’s also lots of sugar in flavored yogurts and chocolate milk – not so surprising. But did you know that there is often sugar in savory foods, such as ketchup, bread, sausages, and barbeque sauce? Your child can consume a considerable amount of sugar even before you let him or her eat candy, and high sugar levels contribute to hyperactivity.
3. Sodium benzoate
Sodium benzoate is a preservative found in carbonated beverages and fruit juices, condiments, candies and many other products. It has been implicated either separately or together with artificial colorings for causing or aggravating ADHD symptoms, and is best avoided.
It has also been noted that sodium benzoate reacts with citric acid to make benzene. So be very very careful with any foods or personal care products that have both ingredients together!
Read labels.
A real-food, nutrient-dense paleo diet – which excludes these three substances as well as anything likely to affect behavior – seems to be the best way to ensure your kids get the right nutrition.
How Does This Affect Your Family
You may think that these problems don’t affect you since your child doesn’t suffer from serious behavioral problems or learning disabilities. Remember, the children in the video were just a regular group of school kids–not children selected because they didn’t behave well. The impact on them was profound, so clearly, this is a concern for every parent.
Let’s do all we can to set our kids up for success.
The Food and Behavior Experiment
Children in Britain aged 5 – 9 attended a party.
They were split into two groups:
Group One: was fed healthy options such as apple slices, carrot sticks, sandwiches, hummus, etc. and was given water to drink.
Group Two: received the usual party fair: candy, potato chips, and soda (or as they say in the UK, sweets, crisps, and fizzy pop), all containing loads of sugar, artificial coloring, and other additives.
The children’s ability to follow instructions, concentrate and remember information was then measured as they played party games, and their actions were carefully recorded.
You may be surprised by what they found.
The results are shown in this simple chart:
It wasn’t only how they behaved that was remarkably different.
The healthy food group did “48% better in the games overall” – that’s a huge improvement in performance.
Now, of course, there are a lot of factors associated with the foods served at this party, but it’s an interesting experiment nonetheless.
And I’m sure you have noticed that you feel better after eating healthier food–so it only makes sense that your kids would as well.
And when you feel better, you act better.
Are We Setting Our Kids (and Ourselves) Up for Failure?
After watching the segments that you can see below, I couldn’t help think that many kids are inadvertently being set up for failure by their own parents. Moms and Dads certainly intend to do the best for their children, and part of this can mean feeding them “regular food” that won’t set their children apart from their friends.
But in doing so, our children are being sabotaged in ways that make it difficult for them to perform school tasks successfully.
They’re fed processed foods that can make them aggressive and difficult to control. Then, as if that weren’t bad enough, they’re penalized for their inability to learn and their out-of-control behavior.
We all know that a child who is constantly hitting other children, having tantrums, and running around wildly is a child who is continually reprimanded. We also all know a child who doesn’t follow teachers’ instructions, can’t remember what he or she was taught yesterday, or can’t concentrate long enough to finish a task receives poor grades and negative feedback.
No parent wants this for his or her child.
Tragically, in the worst cases, kids who are simply reacting to what they are being fed end up taking unnecessary prescription drugs or are sent to special schools.
Helping Kids Succeed with Good Nutrition
How do we feed children to prepare them to succeed in school and get along in society? Generally speaking, the more natural a food is, the less likely it is to cause a severe behavioral reaction. Keep in mind that there are plenty of individual differences in how children react to specific foods and additives.
One family might discover that avoiding a certain additive transforms their child into a little angel, while in another family cutting out wheat may do wonders.
That said, watch out in particular for the Three Substances I list below, which are often linked with behavioral problems.
Watch the following video to see what happened to these two groups of kids — and be thinking about how we might be setting our kids up for either failure or success, based on what we are feeding them.
The Experiment on Video
After the initial publication of this post, the videos of the experiment were removed from The Food Hospital’s website. Following is what is now available.
Watch as parents and a psychologist evaluate behavior during play and learning tasks.
The coordinators divided up the groups, what they ate, and how things started to play out.
Full Experiment
I can’t embed this video here but you can go to this link and watch it.
It’s split up into parts. The time stamps for the experiment are:
From 9:22 – 13:27 and
from 25:28 – 31:55.
Here’s a small part of the experiment as well.
**Note: The woman, when stating that they “don’t know” what made the difference, mentions “E numbers.” From Wikipedia, this is what she is referring to: “E numbers are codes for chemicals which can be used as food additives for use within the European Union and Switzerland (the “E” stands for “Europe”).They are commonly found on food labels throughout the European Union. Safety assessment and approval are the responsibility of the European Food Safety Authority”
Study Conclusion
Those who ran the study say that they don’t know what it is in the party food that affects the children. Is it the sugar? The artificial coloring? Maybe the lack of essential nutrients? It’s not clear.
I suspect it’s a combination, with individual children being more affected by different things.
What is clear is that children not only behave better but concentrate better, follow instructions better, and remember more when they eat healthier food.
Let’s not forget that concentration, following instructions, and memory are fundamental building blocks of the learning process and vital for success at school.
(UPDATE: Think the evidence isn’t compelling enough?
Check out the follow up post to this one at Response to Doubters–STILL Think Food Doesn’t Affect Behavior? Read This.)
Have you noticed (or suspected) foods affect behavior in your house?
What has YOUR experience been?
Ruth is a big fan of the paleo diet, having regained her health after decades of living with chronic fatigue syndrome.
What I like most about this is the profound absence definitive declarations about the results! There were NO gross statements as regards the specifics of diet. It was clearly an intelligent assessment of the results!
VERY GOOD! I love that!!!!!
I have been eating good, nutrient dense, whole food most of my 54 years. My body never could accept any type of fast food (even when I worked at McDonalds) Most people thought I was weird. I do drink sodas (not diet). I have severe problems with aspartame. My children were all born with food allergies so I made all baby food and sent snacks and lunches to day care and then school for them to have. The day cares and schools will fight you on sending food. The most important thing I have found is that my children behave much better if they get a good snack/some protein and fruit every couple of hours. Try this with your children and watch the difference. My children have all been straight A students. Food does make a difference.
The day cares and preschools get paid by the USDA, on a per meal served reimbursement setup. I used to have a home day care and used the USDA’s program.
Hi Guys,
I have just read your article and finally I can say with certainty that the foods we eat are affecting us because of what is put into them. I constantly hear about people complaining about how years ago there weren’t as many illnesses as there is now ie ADD, ADHD, ODD etc. A lot of people still find these illnesses a fallacy. I’m going to be sure to pass this article on to them. I also believe that adults behaving badly has a lot to do with the foods they eat ie road rage, more violence, less patience etc. If only people would go back to eating healthily, organically and naturally, then we may see an improvement in not only our environment but also in ourselves with less illnesses ie cancers, Alzheimer’s etc.
Thank you for sharing this. I am a pregnant Paleo mom, and I strive to feed my toddler a Paleo diet as much as possible, although I come across some resistance. It’s a shame when people don’t say a word to parents who feed their kids fast food and frozen processed pizza, yet they judge me for limiting her grain consumption.
The grain issue is pretty confusing. We have to do what we think is best. You are doing waaaaay better than the processed pizza folks. Bless you.
As mama to three kids with celiac and food allergies and intolerances (with food allergies and celiac myself) I will tell you that this is SO VERY VERY TRUE! My daughter has celiac and 24 food allergies, half of which are anaphylactic, the other half of which are not yet. Some of the latter give her EXTREME (as in: need an exorcist STAT!) behavior reactions just by inhaling or coming into contact with them. Her allergist has even written this into her 504 plan. Corn exposure has her wanting to kill herself (at age 6.5!), or go away b/c she’s “bad”, or crying for no reason at all. It also gives her digestive issues, eczema, bloating, and extreme joint pain. In addition to foods, many of her environmental allergies affect her behavior, with the worst being molds. The girl goes out of control with big exposure – eyes rolling back, kicking , screaming, tantruming, etc. She doesn’t recall any of it later, after benadryl has worked its magic. THANK YOU for this article!
I couldn’t agree more with the conclusion, Trust me, I’m a believer that food affects behavior drastically! I think in order to gain the trust of more readers, it’d be awesome to include things such as the study group size, controls, etc. I did read your response article- and I agree about anecdotal evidence being powerful. I think that most people’s “fear” about trying/committing to a diet change is mostly just habit- and comfort, and cost, and time, and convenience, and social norms/culture. Perhaps for people who are so strongly attached to their current diet in all these ways, no research could convince them to eat real food until it becomes the norm. However, especially for nurses and med students/MDs etc. (who sadly are not taught any of these things in school), a bit more info on the study COULD be the difference between brushing a claim like this off to considering it more thoroughly. Now, I am totally the type who does just enough research until a truth resonates with me and scarcely remembers scientific reason to share, and I could not see myself trying to convince others with all kinds of scientific data- don’t have the patience, so I’m not judging your style if yours is a similar reason. I just think sharing more of it would be valuable for a lot of people! (Whenever I share my opinion on something like this, I always have a friend who says “did you even check to see if the studies were done well?”, etc. etc. and I guess hearing this enough has caused me to care a little more about it before I share something as knowledge, though I may believe it is. Anyway, thanks for sharing and keep the work going! Much love
Very very poorly done study! Although I believe very strongly that food has this type of influence and it would have been a great way to prove it, this study had no control groups and undue influence by the testers to have acceptable or meaningful results. Not scientifically acceptable methodology! Too bad since simple changes would have made it quite acceptable and useful! Once again a great effort ruined by poor science!
Hi Payam. Did you happen to read the follow up post? https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/food-and-behavior-anecdotal-evidence-scientific-evidence/ I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks.
Adrienne and Ruth, Yes, I have now read the follow up post and must reaffirm that as valuable as anectodal information might seem to be, it is inconceivable that in this day and age we still accept them as fact! In this study some very obvious and very influential variables were introduced. The infuence of a male supervisor vs a female. The blatant encouragament and suggestion of the female supervisor asking a child if the drink gave more energy. To eliminate some, the same groups could have a week or so later been given another party with the opposite ‘party foods’. This would have at the very least nullified the effects of some of the variables Ruth seems to think are impossible to remove. I can go on and list all the issues with this study but space does not allow that. To Ruth’s point however, many well thought through scientifically correct studies have still given misleading results due to uncontrollable or even unanticipated variables.
I will again reiterate that I do believe that food has a very significant effect on our nervous system, mood and obviously behavior, but to put a study like this up as evidence is opening the door to many of the nay sayers and allowing them to pick it apart to prove their point. I do know from testing my own three children over many years and I got numerous different results. One of my children was extremely sensitive to food dyes (blue in particular) and when mixed with sugar (almost always is) he spun like a top! My second child did not show any sensitivity to the food colorings however, sugar seemed to have a mild effect. My third was somewhere between the other two. Over the course of some fifteen years I noticed a weakening of the effect, but when they where tired or stressed, the effect was enhanced. I became aware of how different foods were effecting adults as well. All of my findings, even though carefully collected and documented are no more significant to the scientific community than old wive’s tales because they were not done in a proper scientific fashion. I agree with that and prefer that to everyone throwing their ideas and opinions in as fact when there is nothing but anecdotal evidence supported by more anectodatal evidence. There is a reason why we have carefully designed scientific experiments and peer review to stop the confusion which has caused one tide after another of misunderstandings and opinions direct and guide peoples actions and behaviour.
There is no question that more natural and less processed foods are better for us. There is ample scientific proof in the proper studies that have been done in the medical and nutrition journals. Please lets not present our media hype as scientific eveidence!
And Ruth, if you realy can’t have the control that you need to perform a study, then you don’t have a study.
Payam, I see that you really seem to be trying to go about this by insisting on pure double blind studies and all that, but the responses that Ruth and I have both put forth state our case very clearly. I wonder if you would like to contact the source of the videos and tell them that you think their program is flawed.
Here’s one of my main points. Our bodies were made in a precise manner and they were made to run on real food. Not on garbage.
We have been feeding them garbage and putting garbage into them and on them for years and it has only gotten worse and worse in recent years. It is a perfect storm and we are seeing the fallout now with more and more cases of autism, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and more. I wrote about some of that here and here.
No one can tell me in any conclusive way that this isn’t the case. You can’t expect to put junk into and onto our bodies and not expect to see the effects at some point. And I don’t need a double blind study to tell me that it isn’t the case. It is.
Science has its limitations and it isn’t testing the combinations of toxins, nor the combinations of food dyes with sugars and preservatives. The scientists test one thing at a time and proclaim it to be safe–meanwhile more and more people get sick and die.
And are prescribed more and more drugs.
The answer is simple. Eat naturally. Put natural stuff on your body. Reduce stress. Cut pollution. Otherwise you will pay for it at some point.
I hope you can understand where I am coming from.
And Ruth didn’t have the study. She just brought it to our attention and I thank her for that.
Adrienne, you stated that you would love to hear what I thought, and I obliged by reading the suggested article and writing back. Basically I did as you asked. Also if you read my response completely you would understand that I agree with your main point that we should be eating healthy foods. What is one’s understanding of healthy vs unhealthy food is also subject to interpretation and might need clarification, but I will leave that subject to another time and place. To reduce confusion, I would like to respond to your last statement, point by point:
1. Nowhere in any of my comments have I suggested or even mentioned a double blind study.
2. In both Ruth and your responses you seem to be trying to elevate anecdotal information as fact and regarding it as what might be considered significant scientifically. As many other comments and responses to this article made it clear, that is wrong and unreasonable given the current established state of our scientific reasoning and methods.
3. I have absolutely no qualms about contacting the source of the videos and informing them of their erroneous approach and protocol. I am sure they are keenly aware of that.
4. Our bodies have evolved over millions of years and have adapted to digest certain foods, and yes, introduction of many chemicals not normally found in our diet historically, and also the misuse of certain food groups and chemicals due to economics of the industry are more than just mood changers and behavioral modifiers, but are actually the cause of numerous diagnosed and undiagnosed ills as well.
5. It does not look like anyone is trying to tell you that your conviction regarding feeding ourselves healthy food vs unhealthy is in any way erroneous.
6. Yes, science has its limitations, but its limitations are mostly the result of the limitations of its data collection, and its erroneous interpretation. Like you said, science is also subject to ‘garbage in garbage out’.
7. You make some blanket statements about science, its testing methods and prescribing more and more drugs. As I am sure you are well aware, science has little to do with the economics of the health care industry or its desire (or lack thereof) to heal people.
8. I absolutely agree with eat healthy, reduce stress and pollute less or we will pay the price.
9. I have understood your point well, from the very beginning and agree with it. It seems that you have missed my point. Mine is that you can’t prove or convince everyone with poor ‘science’.
It seems that I have upset you in some way as your last response seemed full of emotion. Please accept my apology if that is the case. My intent has only been to bring to your attention, as have many other posted comment, that what you are presenting as a ‘study’ and possible proof of the effect of bad food is nothing but an anecdote and scientifically lacking and unconvincing.
I think both our points have been made abundantly clear and dragging this side discussion on is of little benefit to anyone.
Keep up the good work and hopefuly the sources of your information will use better data collection practices and more scientifically acceptable methods. May you always be blessed.
Hi again, Payam. Thanks for responding. I have a load on my plate so forgive me if this sounds terse.
1. You didn’t explicitly mention double blind but of course that is what you were insinuating if you aren’t satisfied w/ unscientific evidence since dbl blind randomized testing is what is commonly accepted in the scientific community.
2. We haven’t elevated it in the sense that you say, but if you reread out statements you will see that we are saying that it is not feasible to do testing that matches what is going on in the world. We were pointing out that there is a real handicap in the scientific testing for many reasons. We have outlined them numerous times in the comments.
3. If you would like to do so please do :).
4. I don’t believe in evolution. That is a different topic but it is a theory and even Darwin pointed out its flaws. There are so many holes in that theory that I am honestly shocked that it is believed by many in the scientific community.
5. Yes, many have told me in the comments that my conviction is only based on anecdote and that I am making a big deal out of nothing.
6. I don’t think this needs a response.
7. I think science has a lot to do with the economics of the healthcare industry. Money comes from drug companies and they are tightly tied into the insurance companies and the doctors and the research institutions. It is a HUGELY biased industry all the way around. Look at the autism/ Pharma debate.
8. Yes, we are paying it already.
9. I get your point but I am arguing that it is like arguing in circles due to the things I have outlined in this comment and in the other one. We will never get scientific testing like what you want for this kind of situation. But pure common sense needs to trump in this situation b/c it is so obvious that putting garbage in yields to behavioral issues. How could it not? And of course, the follow up post had more info as well that goes beyond common sense.
I don’t see this as “dragging”. I think that topics such as this are important and that it is of great benefit to my readers to learn how to think and reason in the marketplace of ideas.
Thanks.
Adrienne, I agree with your original point, and would like to add that you and I have in some way also proven it! When two such extremely opposing perspectives agree, there must be some undeniable truth to it.
We each have some strong convictions and opinions which we obviously do not share or agree with. I have tried to be understanding of yours and hopefully show in a respectful way where some might require reexamination. Nowhere have I assumed or taken one of your statements to mean anything other than what you have explicitly stated. I believe that God has given us the power of reason and it has, in one way, culminated in the development of our scientific process. As to who is more right or more wrong in this discussion, I prefer to leave that to your readers to decide for themselves. At this point I will bow out of continuing this discussion. May you always be blessed.
Very interesting perspective :).
I hope you aren’t offended. I think that you can see that I really think that the scientific situation here can’t be dealt with in the way that you would like. First of all, the funding will not be there. I doubt most of my readers will read all through the comments but I hope that they all try to reason these things out as necessary. It seems you think that I took your statements out of context. If so, feel free to tell me despite your “bowing out.” I am swamped and also need to be careful how much more time I spend on this. I deeply respect scientific analysis, but also realize the biases and limitations thereof.
Hi Payam,
I think we all actually agree on the most important point, and this is that we need to eat unprocessed, real food to stay optimally healthy.
I do actually appreciate the point you are making. The experiment is done in the framework of a TV show. It’s not perfect.
Here’s where I think looking for definitive proof can hold us back. Let me give you an example.
In the same show, a small boy is taken to see one of the doctors. He is covered pretty much head to toe with eczema – constantly suffering. Nothing his doctors had prescribed helped. No one mentioned the possibility that food could be a factor.
According to Western medicine, the cause of eczema is unknown (check, for example, the Mayo Clinic or the National Eczema Association websites).
My point is, that a person suffering from eczema can go to doctors and search the web, and not find out that diet MAY be a factor.
Honestly, I know nothing about eczema research, but I’m sure there is a reason the official sites (or at least the ones I looked at) don’t mention diet as a factor. There probably aren’t definitive studies proving that food can affect eczema. Of course, the vast majority of clinical trials are funded by pharmaceutical companies, so how would you do the kind of large scale research that would prove this point?
The doctor on the show recommended dietary changes (they had him tested for allergies / sensitivities) and the problematic foods were eliminated.
The boy’s terrible eczema simply disappeared. In truth, he got his childhood back.
I used eczema as a random example, but it could have chosen something else.
So Payam, yes, we could wait around for those robust clinical trials to really and truly prove that diet effects behavior, ADHD, eczema, migraines, acne… you name it, but in the meantime, people are really suffering. That’s why I think this less-than-perfect, but (in my opinion) quite nicely designed TV experiment can be helpful. It doesn’t proof anything definitively, but it gives us proof of concept.
Thanks for your input.
Ruth, you are completely right on this. You can read my story about eczema with my son here. Had I not pushed to try something that wasn’t proven to work, I would have continued in the horrible situation that we were in.
https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/eczema-and-food-allergies-our-story-from-despair-to-healing-part-one/
There actually was a test group (the one that got party food) and a control group (the one that got healthy or healthyish food).
In my opinion, when it comes to food, it’s impossible to control all the variables. One kid may be sensitive only to one particular dye. Another child may be sensitive to that dye, but only when it is found together with another chemical – a confounding factor. Maybe a child in the control group getting the so-called healthy food is sensitive to wheat and another to dairy. (I’m sure what the researchers defined as healthy food is not what I would define as healthy food). I could go on… There are confounding factors galore!
I’m sure if you added add the different chemicals and additives in all the party food, you’d get a very large number of food colorings, preservatives, and other chemicals, plus the sugar. That’s a lot of variables.
In addition, a truly controled experiment would also involve giving each kids precisely measured amounts of the same food and seeing that they ate it. Try tell a 7-year-old that he has to eat a cookie that he doesn’t like, and that he can’t have another candy that he desperately wants.
And there are long term effect of food. What about the foods they ate before the party? Maybe they would have stop exposure to certain substances (but to what?) for a week or a month before they were free of the effects of that food. How would you control for that?
You simply can’t control every variable in a food experiment.
I tried to open the video clip and it was just blank. please can you send me the link to this em address. i am really interested to see this as this is what i teach on!!! My website is Monsters to Munchkins and my first book i wrote is called Raising Happy Healthy Children (food and behaviour!)
I think the links were right above the images. I have had a few readers say that they can’t see them. Have you tried a different browser? And would you mind telling me what browser you are using? Thank you :).
Hmmm…this was rather interesting. I think I’m gonna print it out and give it to my son’s teacher and school counselor so they stop harassing me to take my son to the doctors to be evaluated for adhd when it’s already been done once and he didn’t even hit half the markers to show a red flag for it
I really liked your new clip on children’s foods at parties.
I am thaaaat mom who brings a tiny bag of prized yogurt pretzels (4 pretzels) and organic banana chips (that do contain sugar) to toddler parties were my child, almost four years old, will be presented a blue iced shelf stable, aka partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, soy, and gmo sugar frosted blob on a bromated cake base. He will be lucky if there are eggs in it. And he will with great self control say no thank you and quietly eat his tiny snacks as he watches all their tongues turn blue.
This is a kind of painful part of our lives. I want to say how much poison is okay in the name of a celebration of a child? How much toxin is just for this day? I was guessing we average 15 parties a a year. (Birthdays, wedding, holidays that are hosted by friends or family that roll their eyes at me.)
We had a party when he was three. Mom’s were very concerned that I was not serving cake. I have never made him a birthday cake. Why? Because I LOVE HIM, and I respect his tiny body, and I deeply believe that every bite until six counts to build his brain. Every bite. So I made a 3D dinosaur watermelon sculpture with lots of fruit. Organic and way more costly than Kroger cupcakes. BUT safe, and real, and yummy.
I live in the USA, where we manufacture all sorts of chemicals and preservatives to extend artificial food, many which are banned in other first world countries. It boggles my mind.
I kind of want to print this study and pass it out. Or wave it like a victory flag. Thank you. I added you to my media news.
Take care and thanks again. Katylin
I wish I could have seen the dinosaur—neat!!!! I too think every bite counts. I really try–to this day. When I ingest some GMO corn I feel I have done something really bad to myself. And I fear that, in fact–I have. :(.
Here’s a great watermelon idea (Link deleted by Whole New Mom due to it not working anymore). Looks like they had a lovely party, without food coloring!
I notice the same thing happens with grownup parties. I have a group of mutual friends and when we get together, each one in turn feels obligated to serve coke, cakes with artificial ingredients (that frankly taste like cardboard) etc. and other junk, but they do it for everyone else’s sake. Each one of them is on a diet, and each one separately has said that they personally don’t want to eat the junk, but what choice do they have?
I got to the point where I stopped caring about what I’m “supposed” to serve. There is no coke or other soft drinks offered. Sorry. I serve real food and everyone says what a great idea it is…. They are happy to eat something that tastes good and doesn’t make them feel guilty.
But, when it’s their turn to host, they do the same.