#1 Children’s Vitamin in US Contains: Aspartame, GMOs and Hazardous Chemicals

Kids nutritional vitamins are supposed to be healthy, right? Well then, what’s occurring with Flintstones Nutritional vitamins, which proudly claims to be “Pediatricians’ #1 Alternative”? Produced by the worldwide pharmaceutical company Bayer, this wildly profitable brand contains a stunning checklist of unhealthy substances, together with:

Aspartame;
Cupric Oxide;
Coal tar artificial coloring agents (FD&C Blue #2, Red #40, Yellow #6);
Zinc Oxide;
Sorbitol;
Ferrous Fumarate;
Hydrogenated Oil (Soybean);
GMO Corn starch;
On Bayer Health Science’s Flintstones product web page designed for healthcare professionals they lead into the product description with the following tidbit of data:

“82% of youngsters aren’t consuming all of their veggies*1. With out sufficient vegetables, children will not be getting all the vitamins they want.”
References: *1. Lorson BA, Melgar-Quinonez HR, Taylor CA. Correlates of fruit and vegetable intakes in US children. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109(3):474-478.
The implication? That Flintstones nutritional vitamins someway fill this dietary void. However let’s look a bit closer at a few of these presumably healthy substances…

ASPARTAME

Aspartame is an artificial mixture of the amino acids aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine, and is understood to transform into extremely poisonous methanol and formaldehyde within the body. Aspartame has been linked to over forty adverse health effects within the biomedical literature, and has been proven to exhibit each neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. [1]

What business does a chemical like this have doing in a kids’s vitamin, particularly when non-poisonous, non-artificial non-nutritive sweeteners like stevia exist already?

CUPRIC OXIDE

Next, let’s look closer at Cupric Oxide, 2mg of which is included in every serving of Flinstone’s Full chewable nutritional vitamins as a presumably ‘dietary’ supply of ‘copper,’ supplying “100% of the Every day Value (Ages 4+), according to Flintstones Nutritional vitamins Web page’s Dietary Data. [2]

However what’s Cupric Oxide? A nutrient or a chemical?

According to the European Union’s Harmful Substance Directive, one of many predominant EU legal guidelines regarding chemical safety, Cupric Oxide is listed as a Hazardous substance, labeled as each “Harmful (XN)” and “Dangerous for the environment” (N).

Consider that it has industrial functions as a pigment in ceramics, and as a chemical within the manufacturing of rayon fabric and dry cell batteries. In could also be technically right to name it a mineral, but should it be listed as a nutrient in a kids’s vitamin? We think not.

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A widely known side effect of utilizing artificial dyes is attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

There’s additionally indication that the neurotoxicity of artificial food coloring brokers enhance when mixed with aspartame, [3] making the mixture of elements in Flintstones much more regarding.

ZINC OXIDE

Every serving of Flinstones Complete Chewable nutritional vitamins contain 12 mg of zinc oxide, which the producer claims delivers 75% of the Daily Worth to children 2 & 3 years of age. Extensively used as a sun protection factor (SPF) in sunscreens, The EU’s Harmful Substance Directive classifies it as an environmental Hazard, “Dangerous for the environment (N).”

How it may be harmful to the atmosphere, however not for people ingesting it, escapes me. One factor is for certain, if one is to ingest supplemental zinc, or promote it to be used by youngsters, it makes far more sense utilizing a kind that’s organically sure (i.e. ‘chelated’) to an amino acid like glycine, as it is going to be extra bioavailable and fewer poisonous.

SORBITOL

Sorbitol is an artificial sugar substitute which is classed as a sugar alcohol. It may be argued that it has no place within the human weight loss program, a lot much less in a toddler’s. The ingestion of upper quantities have been linked to gastrointestinal disturbances from stomach ache to extra severe situations comparable to irritable bowel syndrome. [4]

FERROUS FUMARATE

The one clear warning on the Flinstone’s Website issues this chemical. Whereas it’s unattainable to die from consuming iron from meals, e.g. spinach, ferrous fumarate is an industrial mineral and never present in nature as meals.

In reality, ferrous fumarate is so poisonous that unintended overdose of merchandise containing this manner is “a number one reason behind deadly poisoning in kids beneath 6.”

The producer additional warns:

“Keep this product out of reach of children. In case of accidental overdose, call a doctor or poison management heart immediately.”

HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL

Discovering hydrogenated oil in something marketed to kids is totally unacceptable. These semi-artificial fatty acids incorporate into our tissues and have been linked to over a dozen hostile well being results, from coronary artery illness to most cancers, violent conduct to fatty liver illness. [5]

GMO CORN STARCH

Whereas it may be argued that the quantity of GMO corn starch on this product is negligible, even irrelevant, we disagree. It is important to maintain accountable manufacturers that refuse to label their merchandise truthfully, particularly after they comprise substances which have been produced via genetic modification.

The ‘vitamin C’ listed as ascorbic acid in Flintstones is probably going additionally produced from GMO corn. Let’s keep in mind that Bayer’s Ag-biotech division, Bayer CropScience, poured $381,600 of money into defeating the proposition 37 GMO labeling bill in California.

Mother and father have a proper to guard their youngsters in opposition to the properly-identified risks of genetically modified meals and the agrichemicals that contaminate them, don’t they? GMO corn starch is GMO, plain and easy. We’d recognize it if Bayer would label their “nutritional vitamins” accordingly.

In summary, Bayer’s Flintstone’s vitamin model is way from a natural product, and the consumer ought to concentrate on the unintended, adverse health results that will happen on account of using it.

By Alex Braun, SaliengMag,Well being & Health; | Assets:

[1] GreenMedInfo.com, Adverse Health Results of Aspartame;
[2] FlinstonesVitamins.com, FLINSTONES Complete Chewable, Nutritional Info Overview;
[3] Karen Lau, W Graham McLean, Dominic P Williams, C Vyvyan Howard. Synergistic interactions between commonly used food additives in a developmental neurotoxicity test. Toxicol Sci. 2006 Mar;ninety(1):178-87. Epub 2005 Dec 13. PMID: 16352620
[4] GreenMedInfo.com, Sorbitol’s Adverse Health Results;
[5] GreenMedInfo.com, Health Effects of Hydrogenated Oil;