Whether you are a Christian, or simply celebrate Spring this Easter weekend, you may be coloring eggs with your children or grandchildren.
Coloring eggs takes me back to memories of my mom setting up a row of coffee mugs on the kitchen table, each filled with vinegar, water and a PAAS® colored tablet. We’d dip the eggs with the wire holder until they were the color we wanted. On Easter Sunday, the hard boiled eggs were magically transformed into colorful deviled eggs.
But did you know you can use real foods to dye Easter eggs? And why might you want to consider this?
Food dyes – originally made from tar and now petroleum – are not without controversy. A 2010 report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that many of the nine currently approved dyes raise health concerns – including links to cancer, hyperactivity in children and hypersensitivity reactions.
To keep perspective, the small amount of dye used to color eggs one time per year is probably not significant enough to have much of an impact on overall health, especially since the dyed shell is removed before eating. And if you don’t eat the colored eggs, then this isn’t even an issue.
But what if you want to reduce your overall intake of food dyes? Eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains naturally full of color and fewer packaged foods with added food dyes. And should you choose to experiment with a natural way to dye your Easter eggs this week, check out these suggestions from an article in USA Today this week:
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