Artificial food dyes are a Red (40) herring while feds decimate public health

As published in Planet Detroit on Aug. 8, 2025.

By Teresa Homsi

Food coloring bottles. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

I used to think Red 40 was the cause of the mysterious migraines that led me to wake up multiple times a month unable to function.

Artificial food dyes were one of the many theories behind the pain, along with dehydration, not enough food, too much sleep, too little sleep, overexertion and so on.But my headaches almost entirely disappeared after I moved to rural Michigan in 2018, which led me to a new variable: air pollution as an invisible culprit.

I had moved from Harris County, Texas, with a population of nearly 5 million people and 3.5 million registered vehicles, to a town of only a few thousand year-round residents.

Increasingly more research documents how air pollution, including vehicle emissions, can trigger headache disorders. I can’t definitively say that poor air quality was the cause of my migraines, but I recognize that it may be a more significant contributing factor than the occasional slice of red velvet cake or bag of Doritos.

Now, as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services directs its ire at artificial food dyes, the effort to “Make America Healthy Again” falls incredibly short.

While there is scientific evidence suggesting links between certain dyes like Red 3 and thyroid dysfunction, this discussion is a distraction as the Trump administration seeks to roll back regulations on known contaminants and cut off health care access to millions of Americans.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rollback on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and several pollution rules for power plants would remove safeguards against mercury, fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and hazardous heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and chromium.

Additionally, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which was recently signed into law, creates hurdles for people to retain their Medicaid coverage and will result in an estimated $285 billion reduction over the next decade to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to Bridge Michigan.

As Planet Detroit reported, the law could cause 200,000 Michiganders to lose their health insurance and further strain rural hospitals. Cuts to SNAP could cost the state nearly $900 million per year, Bridge reported.

The administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce curbs the enforcement power of the EPA to address pollution. In regards to artificial dyes, they limit the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to review products and protect consumers.

Maybe there is a legitimate, thoughtful policy discussion we could have around banning artificial dyes. But it is deceptive for the administration to pretend to care about health while in the same breath dismantling some of our most effective public health programs.

While I’m grateful that my migraines have mostly subsided, they’re not fully gone. I’ve noticed that when I’m in industrial areas or when the sky is orange from wildfires, the headaches flare up again.

Sometimes I wish it were as simple as artificial food dyes. I could just cut them out of my diet and call it a day. But air pollution is a multifaceted issue and beyond the power of one individual.

Fortunately, many of our evidence-based solutions are interconnected, addressing multiple problems at once. For example, investing in renewable energy development cuts down emissions that directly harm human health while also mitigating the myriad of impacts from climate change.

But ultimately, we can’t be healthier as a state and country when we undermine the science, workforce and policies that provide safety nets to our most vulnerable groups and keep our air and water clean.