I have heard some moms tried to lessen their children’s intake of their favorite fast food chain’s french fries because of a harmful substance formed during its cooking. The substance is called acrylamide, a suspected cancer-forming substance that is formed by heat-induced reaction between sugar and amino acid called asparagine. This chemical reaction is responsible for the brown color and tasty flavor of baked, fried, and toasted foods. Moms have heard that this substance is associated with brain, lung, and gasgtrointestinal cancers. Should moms really worry about this? Here are some research that have looked into acrylamide’s possible association with different kinds of cancers:

• A research was done in the Maastricht Unversity in the Netherlands involving 120,000 subjects that showed no impact of acrylamide on the risk of brain cancer. Using a food frequency questionnaire, the researchers estimated the subjects’ acrylamde dietary intake. Sixteen years of follow-up showed 216 people diagnosed with brain cancer, but over-all the risk for brain cancer was not purely associated with increasng dietary intakes of acrylamide.

• Aside from being linked to brain cancer, dietary intake of acrylamide was also investigated for its possible associaton with lung cancer risk. A 13-year follow-up was made to assess the link between acrylamide consumption and lung cancer.  Study investigators reported that the acrylamide intake was not associated wth lung cancer riks in men but was inversely associated in women. According to the researchers, acrylamide may reduce the risk of lung cancer in women by affecting hormonal balances, but this could also be the reason why it may increase the risk of some other types of cancer among women lke endometrial and ovarian malignancies.

• Another group of scientists gave study results showing no association of acrylamide with risks of having colon, gastric, pancreatic, and esophageal cancer. The researchers said that despite being a cancer-formng substance in the laboratory, many epidemiological studies have reported that everyday exposure to acrylamide foods is too low to be of concern. Using a 150-item food frequency questionnaire, the average daily acrylamide intake of all 5,000 study participants was 21.7 mg. None of the forms of cancer found among participants followed up after 13 years was associated with acrylamide intakes. But in some subjects, obesity and age potentally increased the risk for certain gastrointestinal types of cancer.

However remote the associaton of acrylamide to risk of certain cancers is, food scientists are continuously looking for means to reduce its formation during the cooking of foods. Formation reduction approaches have included using food enzyme binders, changing pH to alter reaction products, cutting heating temperatures and times and removing compounds from recipes that may promote acrylamide formation.

Some food innovators have also looked into vitamin B3 as having the potential to inhibit formation of acrylamide in french fries by over 50 percent. Using Vitamin B3 to inhibit acrylamide formation created no unpleasant odours in the food. Other vitamins that have shown potential for reducing acrylamide formation in foods are Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine form) and C.

More interestingly food scientists came up with food enzymes that can effect a 90 percent acrylamide reduction from  the end products of cooking. While these may sound as good news for french fries lovers, this should still not allow anyone to over consume foods that are cooked in very high tempertures. Other acrylamide-containing foods include other bakery products and even coffee.

As in any nutritional guideline, moderation is the key to having a healthy dietary intake, so practice moderation in consuming your favorite french fries or other foods cooked in very high temperatures.