I heard that Acrylamide is related to cancer. I heard someting like it's found in fries, chips and other things. I love vegan fries and chips but now I'm wanting to find out what this is about. I'm still trying to understand if Acrylamide is in water and how it relates to the fries and chips?

http://www.foodrisk.org/acrylamide.cfm



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamide

My dad and I just had a conversation in email about this... here are some excerpts from it - though not necessarily in cronological order & somewhat mishmashed together.



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What are the Health Effects?



Short-term: EPA has found acrylamide to potentially

cause the following health effects when people are

exposed to it at levels above the MCL for relatively

short periods of time: damage to the nervous system,

weakness and incoordination in the legs.



Long-term: Acrylamide has the potential to cause the

following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels

above the MCL: damage to the nervous system,

paralysis; cancer.



http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/contaminant.../acrylami.html

=================================================

We are slow in the USA, now they are talking about

2007 for addtional findings.



http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/pestadd.html#acrylamide



http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2005/NEW01161.html

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In the UK

http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/acrylamide_branch/



==========================================

It was Swedish research that found this. It seems

completely outside the radar of the US News agencies.



=====================================

This is a somewhat more popular version of the

dangers:



http://www.drgreene.com/21_978.html



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and some more links:

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/acrydata.html



look at the baby formulas.



----------------------------------------------------



Look at the number of times Acrylamide appears in

potato chips and french fries as compared to the safe

limit in water.



http://www.drgreene.com/21_974.html



=====================================



End excerpts.



HTH!!

Thanks for all the links. I browsed through and found the above. I guess my next query is if I make my fries/chips at home with spring water, how risky is this? Anyone know?

What I mean by spring water is washing my potatoes in it and then of course using oil to coat and bake them or fry them

the acrylamide formation is simply due to the high temperature the starchy materials are heated to (in this case, the potato).



this will not matter if you make it at home vs buying it somewhere. the levels may vary depending on temperature and time, but it will still contain acrylamide.