Festival of colours-Holi is over. But as a parent you must be cautious and conscious with colours, particularly when it comes to food. Perhaps you have read many articles on healthy and tasty foods. But leading play schools like Genius Kids make parents aware of what is behind the tasty and colourful foods. Arvind Ram (name changed), a fruit seller in Esplanade in Kolkata was spraying something on an apple and rubbing it with a cloth to keep fruits fresh. He admitted that he sprayed lead acetate, a toxic chemical before rubbing it to make it fresh.

According to Dr. Krishnajyoti Goswami, a biochemist and Director, National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India, cut fruit sellers often use rhodomine B for watermelons causing skin irritation because watermelons become redder being exposed to the sun. They inject saccharine and metanil yellow, a carcinogenic substance in pineapple to make it more yellow appealing to customers and also sweeter, said  Dr. Goswami. Maybe, your child cannot understand such toxic chemicals but reputed daycare like Genius Kids Daycare offers such information in the parents meet so that you can disseminate information to your child at home.

Playschools giant Genius Kids keep on updating you about ill effect of fast food. Mouth-watering foods ranging from biryani to chow to processed foods and other fast foods sold on the street, in restaurants and markets are not only fresh but also tasty because of toxic impurities. Adulterated foods do not affect one's health immediately but affect it in the long run as impurities used as taste maker and preservative are poisonous, toxic and some are carcinogenic. Metanil yellow, a carcinogenic chemical is used as a substitute of saffron which is expensive (Rs. 3, 50, 000 per kg) to make cheap rated biryani. 1gm of metanil yellow was found in 150 gm rice in biryani while more than 2 microgram lead is harmful to the human body, said Dr. Goswami. However, leading play schools like Genius Kids believe in the value addition. That is why such value added information is being shared with parents because toxic foods are 8-10 times more vulnerable to children.

Moreover, warm fried food often contaminated with lead as fried food is carried in a container made of newspaper which carries printed substance lead oxide. According to food technology expert Utpal  Raychaudhuri, noodles are generally boiled and dried out keeping them on newspaper. Thus chow gets also contaminated with lead oxide.
Adulterators do not spare milk. They use formalin in milk to absorb water content and make it thick. Casein is being processed using muriatic acid, which is used for cleaning of toilets, instead of using lactic acid and thus sweets do last more than the usual time and at the same time, insects and bacteria do not come. Fried food sellers often recycle oil to fry, which causes heart attack as recycled oil increases low density lipoprotein cholesterol (Bad cholesterol) which saturates in the artery wall, added Goswami.

But it does not mean that you and your child will not try these lip smacking foods once. You should but not frequently. Teachers at the top play schools like Genius Kids teach children about ill-effect of adulterated food in a lucid language. But as a parent you should put health before taste.

For more information on child discipline, parenting development and how to nurture your kids, please visit our website at www.geniuskidsindia.com or email us at info@geniuskidsindia.com.