Several threads have been posted here about the Swedish study which linked a known carcinogen, acrylamide, with the cooking of carbohydrates and starches found in bread, crackers, potatoes, fries, etc. The formation of the chemical occurs because of the cooking temperature and not by the cooking method or source of carbohydrate.
I will not insult the intelligence of Elisabeth Gwee by suggesting she could not understand the results of the study. A professional journalist can certainly read and understand the study. However, I will challenge her honesty in twisting the results of the study from one critical of carbohydrates to claiming that the fat used in the frying is the cause of the cancer risk. She and Dr. Richard Epstein also shift the discussion to blame high-fat diets, especially saturated animal fats for many types of cancers.
This article clearly exposed the tactic used by the fat-phobic, carb-loving media and medical establishments in their distortion of known facts and/or study results. The distortion is obviously worldwide.
Notice how she starts the article using uppercase on the word "GREASY". Yet, the study had nothing to do with grease or fats. Baked carbohydrates and starches were also identified in the study as producing the acrylamide. Now chemicals that cause cancer in laboratory animals don't seem to matter when they originate from carbohydrate foods.
Is there a link between fried food and cancer?
By Elisabeth Gwee , The Straits Times, Singapore
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/he...130870,00.html?
GREASY French fries, salted potato chips, oily prawn crackers -- these junk food have such a bad reputation they usually cannot be consumed without an ample serving of guilt.
Now, these guilty pleasures are being cast in an even more lethal light, due to mounting evidence which could link fried food with cancer.
Food cooked at high temperatures -- deep frying, as well as grilling and baking -- has been found to contain high levels of a chemical called acrylamide.
When tested on rats, acrylamide was found to cause cancer. But whether it causes cancer in humans has yet to be established.
That was why an emergency meeting was convened last month by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assess possible health risks from acrylamide.
This came about after Swedish researchers discovered high levels of the carcinogen in both fried and baked starchy foods, like potato chips, cookies, breakfast cereal and some breads baked at high temperatures.
The higher the cooking temperature, the greater the levels of acrylamide. Some tests showed alarming results, with acrylamide levels 400 times over the recommended limit.
For instance, a survey by the United States-based Centre for Science In The Public Interest found last month that the amount of acrylamide in a large order of French fries was at least 300 times more than what the US Environmental Protection Agency allows in a glass of water.
After three days of sifting through the results, panel members of the WHO meeting concluded that the high levels of acrylamide were a major cause for concern, and could be a possible cause of cancer in humans since it caused cancer in mice. It could also cause nerve damage and infertility.
But the WHO also said more research was still needed to fully confirm its suspicions. Nor was there enough information available to make recommendations about which foods consumers should eat or avoid, just yet.
DON'T ZERO IN ON JUST ONE FACTOR'
SOME experts in Britain are openly comparing the discovery of acrylamide's role in cancer to the breakthrough in establishing a link between smoking and cancer, according to the London newspaper, The Sunday Times.
But cancer specialists here are not up in arms yet over this whole food fright.
Even the Environment Ministry (ENV) has been reported as saying that the new findings were not conclusive enough to warrant a nation-wide testing on foods such as cereal or potato chips.
Health experts here say there is still not enough known about acrylamide to start making major changes in one's diet. In fact, some feel that the brouhaha that has ensued in the West might be a bit over-exaggerated.
As Dr Bhupinder S. Mann, senior consultant in oncology at the National Cancer Centre, says: 'It's human nature to zoom in on one thing as a main cause and try to fix it. In this case, it's acrylamide. But in reality, it's likely to be a small factor.'
After all, scientists have in the past identified other potentially hazardous compounds in food. But these were later found to be present in such small amounts that they posed no harm.
Dr Richard Epstein, deputy director of the National Cancer Centre, says: 'It is significant enough to be concerned about as a potential public health risk.
'But there is currently no hard evidence that the level of acrylamides found in some cooked and processed foods is a reason for individuals to become alarmed. Of course, there are many other well-proven reasons to cut down on fried foods.'
Scientists have long been aware that acrylamide, used traditionally in the manufacture of plastics and in water filtration, was formed naturally in food when it is fried or baked.
But the Swedish study was the first that showed its presence in such high quantities.
Still, Dr Epstein says people have been frying and grilling meat for thousands of years, so exposure to acrylamide and other dietary carcinogens is nothing new.
'To put it another way, the increase in absolute risk of you or me dying of cancer because of acrylamide is unlikely to be terribly high. It's part of a much bigger picture,' he says.
That picture, say doctors, is of the key role that changes in eating habits have played in increasing cancer cases over the years.
Says Dr Epstein: 'Although dietary chemicals that cause genetic mutations are a genuine worry, in practise, our bodies are pretty good at mopping up this kind of damage.
'So the increased cancer risk seen in populations who eat a lot of fried food may well turn out to be as much to do with excessive total calorie intake, particularly in childhood and adolescence, as with the actual fat content of the food or the way it's cooked.'
Societies with a high-fat diet have been shown to have an increased risk of breast, colon and prostate cancers.
Experts believe that one third of the 500,000 annual cancer deaths in the United States can be attributed to a bad diet which is high in fat.
In Singapore, deaths caused by cancer -- the No. 1 killer here-- has risen from 25.9 per cent in 1998 to 26.6 per cent in 2000.
Dr Epstein says the rapid increase of cancer here over the last three decades is most likely linked to changes in diet.
For example, colon cancer, which is linked to a high animal fat diet, is the second most common cancer for men and women here.
High fat is also linked to breast cancer, the top cancer killing Singaporean women, but not to lung cancer, which is the No. 1 cancer for men here.
In the case of acrylamide, doctors say it is not so much the frying, but what is being fried that is causing problems.
As Dr Mann points out: 'Food that is fried tends to have a higher fatty content and a lot of saturated fats to begin with. And we know for sure that the amount of fat in a diet and weight gain is associated with breast and colon cancer. That is why people link fried food with cancer.'
He says a high fat diet can promote the development of cancer by causing the body to secrete more of certain hormones that create a favourable environment for certain types of cancer, such as breast cancer, which is linked to high levels of the hormone, estrogen.
It may also change the characteristics of the cells so that they are more susceptible to cancer-causing agents.
CANCER LINK NEEDS MORE PROOF
DOCTORS here say more solid evidence is needed in order to link fried food and cancer.
Some have voiced scepticism about how results from studies linking diet and cancer are deduced.
This is because the data that is gathered in trying to find a link between cancer and one's diet is based on asking questions about one's diet.
As Dr Ang Peng Tiam, a consultant oncologist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, says: 'The only way to see if there is a link between fried food and cancer is to look at a cancer patient and co-relate his diet with that of a non-cancer patient.
'It's sometimes hard for people to recall what they have eaten. Or because they have cancer, they tend to be more aware and be able to recall more accurately. Whatever the case, this makes such a study heavily flawed because it is not scientific.'
While acrylamide has been found to cause cancer in mice, he says there would only be real cause for concern if acrylamide is proven to cause cancer in humans.
As he points out: 'In the case of acrylamide, my concern is, where is the data to say that the incidence of cancer is indeed higher, other than to say that these products have so much acrylamide?'
According to the WHO, the average intake of acrylamide is determined to be in the range of 70 micrograms per day for an adult. This is a range significantly lower than what is known to cause nerve damage in laboratory animals.
But it is not yet possible to determine what percentage of the total acrylamide in a human body is from food sources. Acrylamide can also enter the body from external elements like cigarettes.
Until the WHO comes up with more findings, doctors and nutritionists all agree on one thing, and that is to eat healthily.
Ms Chew Pei Gee, president of the Singapore Nutrition and Dietitics Association, advises reducing the amount of fried food you eat to once a week, and eating the recommended portion of two servings of fruit and two servings of vegetables every day.
She also encourages parents to inculcate healthy eating habits from young.
She says: 'The emphasis should not be on avoiding one particular food completely or baking a lot of another type of food. It is about using a bit of common sense and having a healthy diet.'
Kent
Media Caught Red-Handed Distorting Study Results.
Linear Mode
