It was just a few weeks ago when people freaked out after finding out that processed meat and red meat could increase the risk of cancer. Nowadays, it seems like everything is carcinogenic.
A new study conducted by the British Food Standards Agency - which is pretty much the equivalent of the United States Food and Drug Administration - suggested that toasted bread and roasted potatoes can also give us cancer.
Of course, they could only give you cancer if they're done with a heavy hand - when toast is burnt to a crisp, when fries are browned, and when roasted potatoes are well done. Munchies reports:
"The FSA's study found that burnt toast and crispy fries are high in acrylamide, a chemical linked to cancer that is produced from a reaction between amino acids and the sugars and water in bread and potatoes when cooked above 120 degrees Celsius. The FSA tested lightly cooked and burnt-to-hell toast and potatoes from home-cooked meals at 50 households and compared the levels of acrylamide. The results were, well, dark."
As it turns out, lightly toasted bread had "nine micrograms of acrylamide per kilogram," while blackened toast contained 167 micrograms per kilograms.
Heavily cooked fries had 1052 micrograms of acrylamide per kilogram, which is more than 50 times of what was found in lightly fried fries.
Then there's the potatoes: thoroughly roasted potatoes had 490 micrograms - 80 times more than lightly roasted potatoes.
Apparently, the amount of acrylamide is dependent on the cooking time, as well as the temperatures. Higher temperatures and longer cooking times increase the amount of acrylamide.
To give you a basis of comparison, the allowed amount of acrylamide in British water is 0.1 micrograms per liter.
FSA chief scientific adviser Guy Poppy says, "The risk assessment indicates that at the levels we are exposed to from food, acrylamide could be increasing the risk of cancer."
However, these don't necessarily mean that we have to stop eating potatoes and toast. In short, just be wary of how cooked they actually are.
Not only that, but its best to keep potatoes in a cupboard than a fridge - cold temperatures will increase the sugar content, which then increases the acrylamide when it is fried or potatoes. It's also best to minimize the surface area when roasting the potatoes.
A few more tips include: avoiding the use of vegetable - specifically corn or sunflower - oil when cooking potatoes, since they can also cause cancer. It's better to cook in lard or butter - at least there's a silver lining!
