The Perils of Eating Potato Chips

Popcorn will always be my favorite snack food of choice to munch on during a movie or when watching sports on television, but when there's no popcorn to be found, potato chips are what I go searching for next. Sure, I munch on more than my fair share of carrots sticks and broccoli, but when watching TV or a movie, munching on potato chips is just one of those things that you're supposed to do.

Better change that to the past tense.

In case you didn't know, acrylamide is a dangerous chemical present in foods such as French fries, potato chips, breakfast cereals, cookies and crackers. Problem is, it's difficult to determine exactly how much of this chemical, which is a natural byproduct of cooking starchy food at high temperatures, is present in any given food.

Under intense heat that may be experienced, particularly in a high temperature oven or fryer - some elements of proteins react with natural sugars and fuse to a dark caramel brown in a process (that you may recall from chemistry class is termed the Maillard reaction). The darker the brown (or more "well-done" the protein and sugar combination becomes) the more of the chemical acrylamide is formed.

The Globalist.com (www.theglobalist.com) points out those high levels of acrylamidein food were first reported in 2002, but currently little is known about how acrylamide forms, exactly how it affects people or what to do about it.

What is known however, is that studies have shown that according to research conducted by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, acrylamide causes cancer in lab mice and rats. The federal limit for acrylamide in drinking water is .5 parts per billion, or about .12 micrograms in an eight-ounce glass of water. However, a six-ounce serving of French fries or potato chips can contain 60 micrograms of acrylamide.

According to Bionet.com (www.bionet.com) no manufacturers provide information on how much acrylamide is present in their products, and the most recent FDA data is more than two years old.