It
has recently been discovered that the simple act of cooking foods under high temperature conditions like frying, especially
those rich in carbohydrates, produces a significant amount of acrylamide,(Tareke, 2002, 4999) a substance shown to cause cancerous
mutations in lab animals(IARC, 1994, 389). Here at Duke, this discovery becomes
especially significant to us all during the spring semester. As our all-star
men’s basketball team blows through its competition, we, the Cameron Crazies, blow through the take-out. But so what, who cares about us? We all know that Duke
sixth man basketball makes Cameron the most terrifying place in the world to visiting teams, but we aren’t the ones
winning the games. So am I saying that our players should steer clear of these
potential health hazards? Not really. Actually my advice goes to a higher source,
the king of the Dukies, and I don’t mean Nan. The players are a young bunch,
and because of their age they aren’t currently at risk, but Coach K, being a bit older and hence having been exposed
to acrylamide for a longer time period, is in a slightly higher risk group. Luckily,
scientists have just found the way that the chemicals in foods are converted to acrylamide in the cooking process; thereby
giving us, and Coach K, the knowledge we need to limit our intake of a potentially dangerous substance (Mottram, 2002, 448;Stadler,2002,449).
Of
course, as with any discovery, the science behind this has been developing for a few years.
Scientists first thought that the general population might be exposed to acrylamide on a regular basis when they observed
that people who were not known to be exposed to acrylamide had very nearly the same amount of the chemical present in their
systems as workers who produced acrylamide industrially. These observations suggested that the most significant source of
exposure was coming from outside the workplace. Scientists hypothesized that
the acrylamide might be coming from cooking. To test this hypothesis an animal
study was done at Stockholm University in which rats were fed fried feed for 1 to 2 months.
The scientists observed elevated levels of acrylamide in the rats comparable to those found in humans, linking acrylamide
to cooking(Tareke, 2000, 517).
Once acrylamide and cooking had been connected, the only question that remained was
why? Don Mottram and a team of scientists at the University of Reading in the
UK as well as Richard Stadler and his team at the Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland have found the answer. The two groups each independently discovered the chemical mechanism, the way
in which a group of chemicals is converted to another, as well as the necessary starting materials, a specific amino acid,
for the formation of acrylamide(Mottram, 2002, 448;Stadler,2002,449).
Mottram and Stadler each concluded that an amino
acid known as asparagine as well as a source of sugar must be combined and heated to a temperature higher than 100°C in order for acrylamide to form(Mottram, 2002, 449;Stadler,2002,449). The two groups of scientists also found that the amount of acrylamide produced in cooking rose sharply
as the temperature moved beyond 100° C and peaked at 170°C, or 340°F (Mottram, 2002, 448).
I don’t know if Coach K knows much about cooking, but most foods are fried or
baked somewhere around 350°F, suggesting that many of our beloved “junk foods” may be even more “junky”
than we had previously realized. While starchy foods like potatoes are not particularly
rich in protein, the proteins that they do contain are made up largely of asparagine, and by definition, starchy foods contain
an abundance of sugars, making these foods ideal for the production of acrylamide(Mottram,2002, 448). But the situation isn’t necessarily all that bad. Although
scientists have established that acrylamide can cause genetic mutations and an increased risk of tumors in laboratory mice(IARC,
1994, 389), the implications of human ingestion of acrylamide are still up in the air.
Further research still needs to be conducted before we can definitely say that acrylamide is dangerous to humans.
Alright
Coach K, this is the really important part. In addition to realizing the potential
dangers of our cooking methods, the information discovered also affords us the knowledge necessary to limit the amount of
acrylamide we’re exposed to, thereby lowering our potential risk. Since
foods must be cooked at a temperature above 100°C for acrylamide to form, acrylamide is not present in boiled foods(Tareke,
2002, 4999).
There
we have the answer we’ve been looking for. Coach K must go on a strict
diet of hard-boiled eggs, and steamed vegetables. Not only are these foods nutritious,
they are also totally free of acrylamide. As far as all of us go, I know that
I’ll at least look at my next blazing sea nugget a little differently.
References
Acrylamide
(1994). IARC Monographs Programme on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, 60, 389. Found at: http://monographs.iarc.fr/htdocs/monographs/vol60/m60-11.htm On 1/19/03
Mottram
D., Bronislaw L., Wedzicha, & Dodson A.(2002). Food Chemistry: Acrylamide is formed in the Maillard reaction. Nature,
419, 448-449. Found at: http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v419/n6906/full/419448a_fs.html On 1/19/03
Stadler
R., Blank I., Varga N., Robert F., Hau J.,Guy P., Robert M., & Riediker S.(2002). Food Chemistry: Acrylamide from Maillard
reaction products. Nature, 419, 449-450. Found at: http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v419/n6906/full/419449a_fs.html On 1/19/03
Tareke
E., Rydberg P., Karlsson S., Eriksson, & Tornqyist (2000). Acrylamide: A Cooking Carcinogen?. Chemical Research in
Toxicology,13, 517-522. Found at: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/article.cgi/crtoec/2000/13/i06/html/tx9901938.html On 1/19/03
Tareke E., Rydberg P., Karlsson S., Eriksson, &
Tornqyist (2002). Analysis of Acrylamide, a Carcinogen Formed in Heated Foodstuffs. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry,
50, 4998-5006. Found at:http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/article.cgi/jafcau/2002/50/i17/html/jf020302f.html
