Acrylamide found in 1,500 foods, says FDA

by Brian White (Subscribe to Brian White's posts)
Aug 28th 2006 9:46AM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Are you a fried food lover? Although fried foods smell an taste fantastic -- usually due to chemical taste enhancers and MSG -- there's an important byproduct that seems to make the rounds in popularity amongst the health-conscious nutrition crowd (at least in the circles I participate in). That one byproduct? Acrylamide. But, wait a minute -- is acrylamide found in over-baked (non-fried) foods as well?

We don't want to think about it, but high cooking temps + high-carb foods = the chemical acrylamide. In this table from the FDA's website, there are quite a few samples of grocery store and fast food products where testing for the presence of acrylamide was performed. Holy smokes -- literally -- some of the acrylamide levels in fast food french fry products were, well, way (way) above what I would consider healthy.

Although it's very tough to find a diet that's completely acrylamide-free -- without being a raw vegan -- there are steps most of us can take to reduce acrylamide intake. My routine is to carry this guide with me and have pre-defined categories of foods that generally contains higher levels of acrylamide so I know what to avoid when the chance presents itself. For those social situations where eating a little out of your comfort zone is required, having a little pre-knowledge can be a great thing.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bottleman 8-28-2006 @ 1:55PM

Hey, wait a sec! You said: "fried foods smell and taste fantastic -- usually due to chemical taste enhancers and MSG -- "

Let's not blame the attractiveness of fried foods on the poor chemical industry. Home cooked fried foods without the chemical junk can smell and taste just as fantastic or even more fantastic than commercially prepared stuff.

The attraction of fried foods comes from something even deeper and harder to root up: people's need to live. Starch and grease are two major sources of calories. For humans that evolved in an environment of food scarcity, it makes sense to crave those things. Only now that we live in a world of food abundance have fried foods become a problem.

Regarding acrylamides, I'm no chemist, but I think people should remember that anytime you are cooking, you're basically performing "partial combustion" of hydrocarbons (such as starches and oils). This inevitably creates some pretty weird molecules, some of them potentially dangerous. It's similar to the nasty pollution that comes out of a car tailpipe. If combustion had been complete, the only emissions would be carbon dioxide and water. But it's not, and so the tailpipe also emits PAHs and other nasty things.

The problem with cooking, I'd imagine, is that some of those weird molecules you're making in your pan add to the flavor and savor. How do you separate those from the bad ones?