Acrylamide
According to what I just read, I've been eating cancer for breakfast for most of my adult life. The staples of my mornings--browned potatoes with vegetables and coffee--contain the carcinogen acrylamide. I discovered this during the morning; coffee in hands and potato breakfast on my mind, I was reading through the internet news and found this story:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200605/kt2006050217464911970.htm
Several of ROK's fast food restaurants and potato chip manufacturers have products containing carcinogens. The real catch, after reading through the article, was finding out that the chemical is formed by cooking starchy products at 120 degrees C or above. It's not some profit driven corporate plan that produces the health risk, rather it's the simple act of cooking the food. Something we do ourselves. Reportedly consuming one small bag of McDonalds fries here in Korea (if it's different elsewhere, I don't know) is equal to consuming 2 litres of water containing the maximum recomended amount by the World Health Organisation for an entire year. Sign me up.
Supposedly most of the acrylamide in our diet comes from coffee, though coffee also contains anticarcinogens. Do they cancel each other out? If cooking a starchy food at high temperatures for long periods of time creates the chemical, then what about baked potatoes, cooked around 160 degrees C for 45 minutes. Is this seemingly healthy method of potato preparation in reality a cancer factory?
But according to Wikipedia, researchers don't agree that consumption of acrylamide causes cancer. In large doses, it's dangerous. But so are a lot of relatively benign substances.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200605/kt2006050217464911970.htm
Several of ROK's fast food restaurants and potato chip manufacturers have products containing carcinogens. The real catch, after reading through the article, was finding out that the chemical is formed by cooking starchy products at 120 degrees C or above. It's not some profit driven corporate plan that produces the health risk, rather it's the simple act of cooking the food. Something we do ourselves. Reportedly consuming one small bag of McDonalds fries here in Korea (if it's different elsewhere, I don't know) is equal to consuming 2 litres of water containing the maximum recomended amount by the World Health Organisation for an entire year. Sign me up.
Supposedly most of the acrylamide in our diet comes from coffee, though coffee also contains anticarcinogens. Do they cancel each other out? If cooking a starchy food at high temperatures for long periods of time creates the chemical, then what about baked potatoes, cooked around 160 degrees C for 45 minutes. Is this seemingly healthy method of potato preparation in reality a cancer factory?
But according to Wikipedia, researchers don't agree that consumption of acrylamide causes cancer. In large doses, it's dangerous. But so are a lot of relatively benign substances.
posted by The Principal at 8:44 AM
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