The functional relationship between artificial food colors and hyperactivity.
Artificial food dye can act like a switch for hyperactivity—test it child-by-child with simple snack swaps.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two children drank Kool-Aid with and without artificial food colors on different days.
Staff watched each child for hyperactive moves like wiggling, yelling, or leaving the seat.
They counted how long and how often these moves happened after each drink.
What they found
Both kids showed more hyperactive moves on days they got the dye drink.
The plain drink days looked calm; no change happened with fake dye.
The color additive worked like a trigger for extra movement and noise.
How this fits with other research
Cortez et al. (2022) also used an ABAB flip to show adult presence controls honest talk.
Here, food dye flips behavior the same way—clear on/off control.
Hall (1992) cut hyperactivity by teaching kids to match words and deeds.
That study shows we can train self-control; Fields (1978) shows we can remove a trigger.
Both paths aim for calm, just from opposite ends.
Why it matters
If a child spikes in activity after snacks, run a quick dye test.
Serve plain snacks for one week, dyed snacks the next, and chart behavior.
A clear jump gives you an easy parent tip: skip the bright-colored foods.
No extra meds, no cost—just calmer sessions.
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Join Free →Track one client’s hyperactive episodes for three plain-snack days, then three dyed-snack days, and share the pattern with parents.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The presence of a functional relationship between the ingestion of artificial food colors and an increase in the frequency and/or duration of selected behaviors that are representative of the hyperactive behavior syndrome was experimentally investigated. Two eight-year-old females, who had been on the Feingold K-P diet for a minimum of 11 months, were the subjects studied. The experimental design was a variation of the BAB design, with double-blind conditions. This design allowed an experimental analysis of the placebo phases as well as challenge phases. Data were obtained by trained observers on Out of Seat, On Task, and Physically Aggressive behaviors, as they occurred in the subjects' regular class setting. Results indicated (a) the existence of a functional relationship between the ingestion of artificial food colors and an increase in both the duration and frequency of hyperactive behaviors, (b) the absence of a placebo effect, and (c) differential sensitivity of the dependent variables to the challenge effects.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1978 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1978.11-439