Petrochemicals Are Bad.

See this? It looks beautiful, n'est pas? Brilliant swirls of vermillion ("Red, red, vermillion red")* Do not be decieved by appearances, my friends. This substance is full-on evil. I cannot tell you exactly how my son feels when he ingests the infamous Red 40, but I can tell you how I feel: like I want to take my skin off, or crawl out of my body; like I need extra limbs in order to use the frenetic energy trying to escape my body; like there is a volcano in my brain, one of those bubble-type ones. And then I can also tell you what I see in my son. One time, when Small Son was about 9 months old and was still nursing (nurse nurse), I was very naughty and ate about six strings of red licorice. That night, he was awake for hours, flailing spastically all over, shrieking, and apparently feeling like I felt, more or less. And then last night . . . oh dear God, last night . . . he had some imitation crab meat last night (we had ordered chinese), and it started I think before midnight, and he was up multiple times, on like 150 rpm and more or less frantic. As far as I know, those are the only times he's consumed significant amounts of Red 40, and hopefully we can keep it that way.

Read more about Red 40 from this site, where I got the nifty photo.

*Red, red, vermilion red,

With buds and blooms in a glorious head!
There isn't a flower, the wide world through,
That glows with a brighter hue.
Her name Geranium ev'ryone knows;
She just as happy wherever she grows,
In an earthen pot or a garden bed
Red, red, vermilion red!

-Cicily Mary Barker