Acrylamide from baking -- should I be concerned?

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Acrylamide from baking -- should I be concerned?

Postby TominTN » Wed May 28, 2008 6:25 pm

Hi, Jeff,

I have read that baking things at high heats tends to cause acrylamide to form in the baked item -- hence how common it is in baked goods like cakes and breads.

My question is about sweet potatos. I recently increased the amount I consume and it occured to me to wonder whether I should be concerned about the acrylamide from baking a sweet potato at 400 degrees for an hour and a half.

Is it enough of a concern to change how one cooks such things? I tried boiling some sweet potatos over the weekend. They were edible, but the baked ones are so much sweeter and soft. Would boiling them longer produce the sweeter flavor? The ones over the weekend were already falling apart when I got them out of the water, so I'm not sure how much longer I could boil them for without winding up with soup!

Anyway, I'd like to invite input on the issue. Thanks in advance!
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Re: Acrylamide from baking -- should I be concerned?

Postby JeffN » Wed May 28, 2008 8:20 pm

Hi Tom

TominTN wrote: I have read that baking things at high heats tends to cause acrylamide to form in the baked item -- hence how common it is in baked goods like cakes and breads.!


Well, to be honest, no one is recommending a diet with lots of breads and/or cakes in them regardless of the amount of acrylamides. They are highly refined and processed foods, which, are more of a problem, then the acrylamides.

BTW, you can see the full list of acrylamides here
https://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllne ... 053549.htm

And, I wonder where acrylamide would be on this list.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6502

TominTN wrote:My question is about sweet potatos. I recently increased the amount I consume and it occured to me to wonder whether I should be concerned about the acrylamide from baking a sweet potato at 400 degrees for an hour and a half.Is it enough of a concern to change how one cooks such things?


No.

But, if you choose it to be, you can always just steam them or bake them for longer at a lower temperature.

With all due respect, we are missing the boat here and in the concern over acrylamides. There is no evidence that a diet like this, when followed appropriately increases your risk for any of the diseases related to acrylamides, but just the opposite. Remember, the main source of Acrylamides is fatty foods, fried foods, crackers, chips etc.

In the FDA analysis, Smokey John's Bar-B-Q Baked Sweet Potatoes had no detectable acrylamides

Enjoy your sweet potatoes.

Even baked.

That is, unless anyone can post some conclusive evidence that it is clearly a diet like this that will produce enough acrylamides to cause harm.

In Health
Jeff

PS Dr McDougall on Acrylamides
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl ... lamide.htm

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2002nl ... lamide.htm
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Postby TominTN » Thu May 29, 2008 5:51 am

Thanks, Jeff. That's the answer I was hoping for.
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Re: Acrylamide from baking -- should I be concerned?

Postby JeffN » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:46 am

Dietary acrylamide and risk of prostate cancer.
Wilson KM, Giovannucci E, Stampfer MJ, Mucci LA.
Int J Cancer. 2011 Aug 22. doi: 10.1002/ijc.26383. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 21866549

Abstract

... We found no evidence that acrylamide intake, within the range of US diets, is associated with increased risk of prostate cancer.

And

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22495255

Review of epidemiologic studies of dietary acrylamide intake and the risk of cancer.
Eur J Cancer Prev. 2012 Jul;21(4):375-86. doi: 10.1097/CEJ.0b013e3283529b64.

"After an extensive examination of the published literature, we found no consistent or credible evidence that dietary acrylamide increases the risk of any type of cancer in humans, either overall or among nonsmokers. In particular, the collective evidence suggests that a high level of dietary acrylamide intake is not a risk factor for breast, endometrial, or ovarian cancers, which have generated particular interest because of a conjectured hormonal mechanism of acrylamide. Moreover, the absence of a positive association between smoking and ovarian and endometrial cancers suggests that any association of these cancers with the much lower, more sporadic dietary acrylamide intake is unlikely. In conclusion, epidemiologic studies of dietary acrylamide intake have failed to demonstrate an increased risk of cancer. In fact, the sporadically and slightly increased and decreased risk ratios reported in more than two dozen papers examined in this review strongly suggest the pattern one would expect to find for a true null association over the course of a series of trials. Therefore, continued epidemiologic investigation of acrylamide and cancer risk appears to be a misguided research priority."

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Jeff
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Re: Acrylamide from baking -- should I be concerned?

Postby JeffN » Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:26 am

To get a better sense of how much acrylamide is in some foods (and how this compares to the EPA's limit of 140 mcg of acrylamide per day), here are some examples

Food
Serving size
Acrylamide per serving (mcg)


French fries, oven-baked
2.5 ounces (about 12 fries, depending on size)
48.8 mcg

Prune juice
5 ounces
30 mcg to 100 mcg

French fries, restaurants
2.5 ounces (about 12 fries, depending on size)
28.3 mcg

Potato chips
1 ounce (about 15 chips)
17.9 mcg

Canned black olives
5 olives
3.2 to 8 mcg

Breakfast cereal
2 ounces (1/4 cup)
6.6 mcg

Brewed coffee
8 ounces
1.9 mcg

California-style green ripe olives
5 olives
1 mcg

Roasted Kasha
45 mg (dry) serving
.5 mcg

Acrylamide Intake through Diet and Human Cancer Risk
Mucci, J. Agric. Food Chem. 56, 15, 6013-6019
DOI: 10.1021/jf703747b

Review of Methods for the Reduction of Dietary Content and Toxicity of Acrylamide
Friedman, J Agric Food Chem 2008
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf0730486

Formation of acrylamide at temperatures lower than 100°C: the case of prunes and a model study.
Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2011
Jun;28(6):726-30.
doi: 10.1080/19440049.2010.535217.

Influence of California-style black ripe olive processing on the formation of acrylamide.
J Agric Food Chem. 2014 Aug 27;62(34):8716-21.
doi: 10.1021/jf5022829. Epub 2014 Aug 15.

Effect of roasting time of buckwheat groats on the formation of Maillard reaction products and antioxidant capacity
Food Chemistry
Volume 196, 1 April 2016, Pages 355-358
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 4615014077
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Re: Acrylamide from baking -- should I be concerned?

Postby JeffN » Thu May 24, 2018 6:22 pm

From the 2018 AICR report on Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Cancer: A Global Perspective.

A comprehensive analysis of the global research by independent experts from around the world and covers 17 cancer sites, including colorectal, breast, ovarian and prostate. Findings are based on the data of 51 million people, including 3.5 million cancer cases.

http://www.aicr.org/reduce-your-cancer- ... opics.html

On Acrylimides

Acrylamide is present in many different types of food and is a natural by-product of the cooking process. The highest levels of the substance are found in foods with high starch content which have been cooked above 248 degrees Fahrenheit, such as chips, bread, breakfast cereals, cookies, crackers, cakes and coffee (as a result of the roasted beans).

It can also be produced during home cooking, when high-starch foods - such as potatoes, fries, bread and parsnips - are baked, roasted, grilled or fried at high temperatures. When bread is toasted, for example, this causes more acrylamide to be produced. The darker the color of the toast, the more acrylamide is present.

However, the research linking acrylamide to cancer has only been carried out using animals. AICR/WCRF has carried out a review of studies in people, and found no link between acrylamide in food and cancer. More research is needed, but in the meantime maintaining a healthy weight and eating a healthy diet – which includes eating fewer high-calorie foods such as chips, fries and cookies – together with not smoking and keeping active, are the most effective ways to reduce your cancer risk.
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