Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 1978 Winter; 11(4):439-46
This was a double-blind study on two girls who had been on the Feingold diet for almost a year. Trained observers watched them in school and reported on the frequency of the following behaviors as they occurred in the subjects’ regular class setting:
- Out of Seat
- On Task
- Aggression
They were challenged with an almost unbelievably small amount of food dye — only 1.2 mg Yellow 5 in each cookie. Shockingly, there were measurable results: “(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.”
