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| FRENCH FRIES |  |
| Before You Begin Information presented here is for general educational purposes only. Each one of us is biochemically and metabolically different. If you have a specific health concern and wish my personalized nutritional recommendation, write to me by clicking here. |
The
most basic food such as bread, biscuits, potato chips and French fries (that are eaten by millions around the
world everyday) contain alarmingly high quantities of acrylamide, a substance
believed to cause cancer.
This report came from a study carried out of Stockholm University, jointly
with Sweden's National Food Administration, a government food safety agency.
The report explained that the heating of carbohydrate-rich foods, (such
as potatoes, rice or cereals) formed acrylamide, a probable human carcinogen.
The research was deemed so urgent, that the scientists decided on taking
the unusual step of releasing it to the press, in July 2002,
before the results were even officially published in an academic journal,
in order to warn the general public.
At the press conference, scientists highlighted that French
fries sold at everyone's favorite fast-food restaurants such as Burger King
and McDonald's contained about 100 times the one microgram per liter maximum
permitted by the World Health Organization for drinking water. (One
milligram, or 0.001 grams, contains 1,000 micrograms). Furthermore, an ordinary
bag of potato chips contains up to 500 times more of the substance using
this same criteria as set by the WHO. This information certainly sounds
very scary.
Fast-food French fries showed the highest levels of acrylamide among the foods tested by an independent agency, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI had tested, with large orders containing 39 to 72 micrograms. One-ounce portions of Pringles potato crisps contained about 25 micrograms, with corn-based Fritos and Tostitos containing half that amount or less. Regular and Honey Nut Cheerios contained 6 or 7 micrograms of the carcinogenic substance.
Among the findings:
| Acrylamide in Foods: Micrograms per Serving |
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| Water, 8 oz., EPA limit |
0.12 |
| Boiled Potatoes, 4 oz. |
<3 |
| Old El Paso Taco Shells, 3, 1.1oz. |
1 |
| Ore Ida French Fries (from package), 3 oz. |
5 |
| Ore Ida French Fries (baked), 3 oz. |
28 |
| Honey Nut Cheerios, 1 oz. |
6 |
| Cheerios, 1 oz. |
7 |
| Tostitos Tortilla Chips, 1 oz. |
3 |
| Fritos Corn Chips, 1 oz. |
11 |
| Pringles Potato Crisps, 1 oz. |
25 |
| Wendy’s French Fries, Biggie, 5.5 oz. |
39 |
| KFC Potato Wedges, Jumbo, 6.2 oz. (est.) |
52 |
| Burger King French Fries, large, 5.5 oz. |
57 |
| McDonald’s French Fries, large, 6 oz. |
72 |
Acrylamide is colorless and crystalline solid in nature. It is possibly a medium hazard form of human carcinogen. It induces gene mutations and has been shown, in animal tests, to cause benign and malignant stomach tumors. Acrylamide is formed during the preparation of food especially at high heat (as in oven-baked or deep-friend). This discovery is new. It may now be possible to explain some of the cases of cancer caused by food.
Deep fried food should be
avoided as much as possible. In addition to acrylamide, it is
prepared using, and therefore contain a high concentration of, trans-fat. Trans-fat is a
special kind of polyunsaturated vegetable oil that has been transformed,
under a heating process, into a solid form at room temperature. Trans-fat
is used for most deep-frying and extensively used in processed food. It
has been shown to cause cancer in many studies.
Steaming is a better choice. If you wish to
deep fry, use saturated oil such as palm or coconut oil rather
than polyunsaturated fat such as corn oil or mono-unsaturated fat such as
olive oil as the heat changes the chemical structure of the oil into trans-fat
- the worse kind of fat you can ever consume.
What
do French Fries contain:
- Starchy potato which behaves
like a sugar in your body and contributes to diabetes.
- Acrylamide, a proven carcinogen.
- Trans-fat, the worse type of fat and leads to cancer.
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