Acrylamide is a chemical that can form when certain starchy foods are cooked or processed. While there's no direct evidence that acrylamide can cause cancer in humans, there is evidence it can cause cancer in laboratory animals. Read more about this evidence.
Potential health effects of acrylamide
Laboratory tests show that acrylamide in the diet causes cancer in animals. Scientists agree that acrylamide in food has the potential to cause cancer in humans as well. We recommend that the amount of acrylamide we all consume is reduced, as a precaution.
Studies in rodent models have found that acrylamide exposure increases the risk for several types of cancer (10–13). In the body, acrylamide is converted to a compound called glycidamide , which causes mutations in and damage to DNA.
The EU has created a much stricter benchmark for safe levels of acrylamide in food (at least related to the growth of tumors) at 0.17 µg/day per kilogram of body weight. Doing the math, a person weighing 154 lbs (70 kg) could safely consume 26 µg of acrylamide each day.
Studies that followed people over time did not find a link between eating foods with acrylamide and cancer. “Researchers have studied this for about 20 years now and no definite link between acrylamide and cancer in people has been found,” says Stelwagen.
Air-frying equipment is not known to cause cancer, but the process of air frying does result in the formation of certain compounds, like acrylamide, that are linked to cancer development. Acrylamide is classified as a probable human carcinogen.
However, the amount of acrylamide in your average brewed coffee is 0.45 micrograms, according to a widely cited 2013 Swedish study. Compare this to the 39-82 micrograms of acrylamide that you'll find in your average serving of fast-food french fries, and that cup of coffee is looking less carcinogenic by the minute.
How can acrylamide affect my health? The main targets of acrylamide toxicity are the nervous system and reproductive system. Nervous system effects such as muscle weakness, numbness in hands and feet, sweating, unsteadiness, and clumsiness were reported in some acrylamide workers.
Once in your body, acrylamide enters your body fluids. Acrylamide and its breakdown products leave your body mostly through urine; small amounts may leave through feces, exhaled air, and breast milk.
Acrylamide is not thought to accumulate in the body at environmental doses, but can covalently bind to form adducts with proteins.
Histopathological evidence of acrylamide-induced peripheral neuropathy has been observed in rats receiving oral doses as low as 1 mg/kg/day for 3 months; the observed degenerative effects in peripheral nerve fibers at such dose levels have been shown to be completely reversible within a few months following the ...
Acrylamide can modify the cysteine residues of presynaptic proteins, thereby significantly reducing the neurotransmitter release, which eventually leads to process degeneration [7,12].
Acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in animals exposed to very high doses, and although there is no consistent epidemiological evidence on the effect of acrylamide from food consumption on cancer in humans, both the U.S. National Toxicology Program and the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health ...
It's most likely to be found in grains, potatoes or coffee heated to high temperatures. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cites these food sources as having the highest levels of acrylamide when heated to high temperatures: French fries. Potato chips.
Drinking more water, a lot more water for some of us, will probably be the most important thing you can do to get rid of Acrylamide. However, make sure you are drinking pure water; otherwise you may inadvertently increase your exposure. Taking herbs to improve kidney and liver detoxification may be helpful.
Acrylamide is ubiquitous in the human diet, and more than one-third of the calories we take in each day come from foods with detectable levels of acrylamide (5). The highest levels appear in fried and roasted potato products and in cereal products such as breads, crackers, and breakfast cereals (Table 1).
Nervous system effects such as muscle weakness, numbness in hands and feet, sweating, unsteadiness, and clumsiness were reported in some acrylamide workers. However, most people are not exposed to acrylamide levels high enough to cause these effects.
High acrylamide exposure was associated with a linearly increased risk of endometrial cancer, particularly in never-smokers. A statistically significant association was found between dietary acrylamide exposure and ovarian cancer (especially in non-smokers).
Another study also indicated the neurotoxic effects of acrylamide by inducing oxidative stress and apoptotic and inflammatory responses in the microglia in mice.
For acrylamide, the safe harbor level is the same as the so-called no significant risk level (NSRL): 0.2 micrograms per day. An eight-ounce cup of Starbucks runs about 9 parts per billion acrylamide, which translates to about 2 micrograms, or ten times the NSRL.
Acrylamide exerts its main potential obesogenic effects through body weight increase, worsening of the levels of obesity-related blood biomarkers, and induction of adipocyte differentiation and adipogenesis.
Air fryers themselves aren't a cause of cancer, but air frying does produce certain compounds such as acrylamide, which is considered a "probable" carcinogen.
The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has classified acrylamide as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies acrylamide as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”
The only type of coffee that does not contain acrylamide is that which contains unroasted, or green, coffee beans. However, these coffees can taste very different to roasted varieties. A range of unroasted coffees are available to purchase online.