Synthetic food colors and hyperactivity in children: a double-blind challenge experiment

Nine hyperactive male subjects, selected on the basis of showing a favorable "response" to the Feingold diet in an earlier study, were maintained on a strict elimination (Feingold) diet for 11 weeks, and were given multiple trials of placebo and challenge food materials. Parental and teacher ratings, classroom behavior observations, and neuropsychological test scores obtained during baseline, placebo, and challenge conditions, in general, were not found to be adversely affected by the artificial color challenge materials. As expected, comparable data gathered on a matched control group showed them to receive substantially better ratings than the hyperactive subjects on the majority of the comparison measures employed. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between the dramatic clinical-anecdotal reports that have been given and the much more equivocal findings from formal experimental projects are presented.