A Student's Story: Passport to Smith

Have you ever wondered about how harmful the ingredients in your favorite snacks can be? Most people think that if products are available to all customers, they are not harmful. At least that’s what I thought until I went to Smith Summer Science and Engineering Program and took a two-week course called "Truth in Advertising". In this course, we researched various popular snacks.

Since Cheetos was my favorite snack, that’s what I researched. This snack was very popular at my house so I wanted to know what exactly we were eating. When I noticed the food dye Yellow 6, I immediately started to research it. The results shocked me; food dye Yellow 6 can cause seizures on a regular basis, sleep disturbance, tumors of the kidney and adrenal glands, and increase the risk of ADHD. As soon as I called my family and told them about these dangers, we started checking labels for Yellow 6 and other food dyes.

Another popular snack we studied were M&M’s. First, we wet a Q-Tip and rubbed the coats of color off each candy individually. Then we got as much color off the Q-Tip as possible on a special paper that let us watch the colors separate. It was interesting to see all the colors that were mixed together to make the colorful M&M’s. Orange candies have Yellow 6, green has Blue 1 and Yellow 5, blue has Blue 1, yellow has Yellow 5, red has Red 3, white has no food dyes and black has Blue 1 and Yellow 6. Although we think the brown has a natural color from chocolate it actually has Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 3, and Blue 1, which are the four worst food dyes.

This course taught me so many things in two short weeks. Now when I check the labels, I look at ingredients and not calories. I also know things I should avoid consuming because it can be harmful in the long run. Another amazing thing I realized was that I loved doing research on various foods, drinks and household items, and now have a desire to study to be a dietitian in college.

—Olga Kalytyuk