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Acrylamide worries
Nutrition Action Healthletter, Jan-Feb, 2008
Acrylamide may promote ovarian or uterine cancer, says a study that tracked some 62,000 Dutch women for 11 years.
Acrylamide is formed when asparagine and other amino acids in protein react with sugars at high temperatures. The highest levels have been found in French fries and potato chips, with lower levels in breads, cereals, and other baked or fried starches. Acrylamide causes cancer in mice and rats, but this is the first good study in humans.
Nonsmokers who consumed the most acrylamide from French fries, potato chips, cookies, coffee, or a popular Dutch spiced cake had roughly double the risk of uterine or ovarian (but not breast) cancer, compared to nonsmokers who got the least.
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What to do: Here's one more reason to limit French fries, fried (or baked) potato chips, and cookies. But don't abandon healthier foods like whole-grain breads and cereals, despite their low levels of acrylamide. Coffee has never been linked to cancer.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 16: 2304, 2007.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Center for Science in the Public Interest
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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