Acrylamide in Food and Tobacco Smoke

[Guest guest]

What I've found about acrylamide:

It is formed from a reaction between sugar (glucose, fructose, or

sucrose) and the amino acid asparagine. It will form in sugary or

starchy foods when fried, toasted, or oven-baked at high temperatures.

It does not form during boiling temperatures.

Thus, all french fries and potato chips (and baked potatoes) contain

acrylamide, regardless of organic status or soil quality. Mashed

potatoes should be safe, and sweet potatoes should be cooked by

boiling rather than baking (which should, I would think, produce the

same result, considering how soft sweet potatoes become when baked).

Acrylamide can be reduced in home-cooked foods if the potatoes are NOT

stored at cold temperatures, if the potatoes ARE soaked in cold water

for a few minutes before cooking, and if toast is toasted to the

minimum acceptable and browned or burnt parts are removed.

Dufty claimed in _Sugar Blues_ that traditionally

open-air-cured tobacco had its sugar eliminated and for this reason

was not carcinogenic like flume-cured tobacco. He said that the

Japanese consider the tobacco-lung cancer connection ridiculous, and

that the correlation did not exist in Japan. Additional to his point,

the Japanese smoke much more than Americans but have considerably less

lung cancer.

This all makes sense with acrylamide: acrylamide would be formed in

tobacco smoke if the tobacco contained sugar, but not if the tobacco

was cured in a way that eliminated the sugar.

That doesn't mean tobacco smoke doesn't contain *other* carcinogens,

but it is one more reason to belive that traditionally processed

cigarettes are at least LESS carcinogenic than modern American-style

cigarettes.

Chris