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Comment by msgodel | Hacker News Reader

The red dye they use in a lot of stuff is absolutely psychoactive. I used to intentionally consume things with it on long drives because it zaps my short term memory so I don't get bored and fall asleep. I noticed this effect after eating some red candy while trying to do math homework in college.

The downside of course is that once you get where you're going you're practically retarded for the next 12 hours or so and can't get any work done.

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Cherries are absolutely dangerous because when I eat them my breathing gets difficult. No idea why they still allow companies to sell them to people...

I'm sure you can grasp how ridiculous that statement is, and reflect on your own.

Heh, never said it shouldn't be allowed. I was just pointing out that some of these things are often more complex than they initially seem.

Source on red dye being psychoactive?

A quick web search brought this:

* https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3441937/

* https://oehha.ca.gov/sites/default/files/media/downloads/ris...

* https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/red-dye-40-adhd

I thought it was moderately well known. A couple of decades ago a friend would take some red candy when hiking as it could give her (at least the feeling of) a significant short-term energy boost if needed, more than just regular sugar would.

I actually thought that particular red dye was banned where I'm from some time back, though I don't recall why. Allergies perhaps? But that's just a guess.

You'll have to look for it yourself I guess? I don't know if anyone has even tried studying it, the effect is pretty subtle if you don't know to look for it. I'm just posting my experiences with it.

You can't just make a massive claim like that about such a common ingredient without backing it up. I'm not saying it's not true, it could be, but it's just inappropriate to state something is true like that with 0 evidence aside from personal experience.

If that were the case posting on forums like this would be either entirely inappropriate or a complete waste of time.

Not at all. You can

a) Make claims that are not as extraordinary.

b) Back your claims up with evidence.

Making absolutely wild claims without evidence just makes you sound like a quack.

You complainers are missing the mark. You obviously can make extraordinary claims (see above for evidence).

What isn't reasonable is to also expect large numbers of people to take them seriously without evidence (see above for evidence of people questioning unsupported claims).

Maybe a better way to phrase our question is "is making such claims productive?"

See my above comment - it's a relatively well studied topic, and yes - there is a link.

For the people downvoting this comment - it's a relatively well researched topic covered by at least three major studies with published papers, etc. If you are not aware of something, it does not necessarily mean it is wrong.

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