Cooking up cancer

Consuming a chemical formed when french fries and other starchy foods are baked or fried at high temperatures (over 250[degrees]F) may pose a serious cancer threat, according to a March 2005 report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Discovered only three years ago, the chemical, called acrylamide, has caused cancer in lab tests and neurological damage in human factory workers who create plastics.

"The risk is not as great as smoking cigarettes or consuming trans fat," Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, tells VT. "But acrylamide might cause several thousand cancers a year in the United States."

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