Flinstones Vitamins fir Inattentive ADHD, Dyes, Oysters, Scallops and Cheerios

It was recently brought to my attention by a kind and gentle reader that my beloved Flinstones vitamins have an insane amount of food dyes.  I looked at the label and sure enough, the flinstones Complete, that have lots of zinc, also have lots of food dyes.  Some people think that food dyes interfere with the absorption of vitamins.  I looked and looked for a citation in the medical literature regarding this and could not find one.

It does not matter.  It makes good sense to me to not be giving our kids anything that has a bunch of food dyes just because we really do not need to.  As it turns out, Cheerios Multigrain variety has all the daily zinc and other vitamins that our kids need and my kids regularly eat it.  Now granted, Cheerios are also a processed food but as far as processed food goes, Cheerios are minimally processed so, in my book anyway, they are a good thing to feed yourself and your children.

I have taken to putting the Multigrain Cheerios in my blender and making a flour out of it and the making banana nut-chocolate chip muffins with the flour.  I use the Fiber One Complete Pancake mix when baking and in these muffins it is used as the rest of the flour.  My kids gobble them up right out of the oven.  The recipe is included at the end of this post.

We do not know the effect that food preservatives and dyes have on ADHD but some studies have suggested that in some children, the dyes and preservatives make their symptoms worse.  I have switched my kids to a chewable gummy vitamin called Gummy Vites.  They are made by the company called Lil Critters and they use food and spices such as tumeric and carrot juice as dyes.  The Gummy Vites do not have anywhere near the recommended amount of zinc however.  Unfortunately zinc is not found in many foods that kids will eat so this is where the Multigrain Cheerios come into the picture.

My zinc levels must be at an all time high because oysters are very high in zinc and I have just come back from the beach where I consumed a voluminous quantity of oysters.  These delectable oysters were fresh, cheap, and available raw, steamed, baked, broiled, and grilled.  I tried them in every possible incarnation while my kids watched on with a permanent look of disgust on their faces.  Their astonished and grossed out expression, I am happy to report, did not slow me down.   The kids would not try the oysters at all but we did go scalloping and they ate the scallops raw and cooked.  Unfortunately, scallops are not even remotely high in zinc bu, for me, it is always a red letter day when they try to eat something new.

The beach house we stayed at was near Appalachicola, Florida.  Appalachicola is one of the few places on the east coast of the U.S. that has summer oyster beds.  Scalloping starts in July and goes through the end of September and the kids could just go out to the bay and grab the scallops using a mask and snorkel.  Pretty cool!!  We had no oil whatsoever near our eastern Florida Panhandle vacation which was a blessing.

Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup Multigrain Cheerio Flour
1 cup Fiber One Complete Pancake Mix (or any pancake mix but the Fiber One has whole grains)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Applesauce
3 Ripe Smashed Bananas
2 Eggs
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
3 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

Mix all of the ingredients  together in one bowl until it is well mixed.  Spoon 1/4 cup into cupcake pan sprayed with pam or buttered so the muffins do not stick (or use a paper cupcake liner) and bake for about 20 minutes in a 375 degree oven