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A few days ago, the European Commission forced to limit the use of acrylamide in much of food.
It all started a few weeks ago, when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle forced Starbucks coffee shops in California to warn their customers about the use of acrylamide in their coffees. A ruling that did not take long to reach Europe, putting in check all those businesses that serve food such as coffee, soft bread or, especially, fried potatoes, the food that most uses a chemical component with carcinogenic dyes, acrylamide.
What is acrylamide?
Acrylamide is a substance formed when food is cooked at temperatures above 120 degrees. It is then that sugars and proteins react to the change producing acrylamide, especially in foods that have a higher level of starch and succumb to a more aggressive roasting or frying process.
That is why fried, roasted potatoes and any of their derivatives have been considered the food with the most acrylamide of all, followed by coffee, soft bread or salty crackers.
With regard to the diet of the little ones, foods processed with cereals are considered the most dangerous, in addition to confectionery products and industrial sweets consumed especially by children and adolescents.
A component also presents in tobacco, a product through which it acquires a much higher level of exposure compared to that of food.
Acrylamide has become a component to alleviate in recent weeks, although other experts have not been slow to affirm that, despite the tests carried out with animals that prove the "probable" lethality of acrylamide, it has not been confirmed that This substance is directly related to cancer through its presence in food.
"There is no doubt that this substance is carcinogenic in laboratory mice, but no one has been able to demonstrate that acrylamide that reaches humans through food has an impact on cancer" - stated Ricardo Cubedo, oncologist at the Institute of Oncology from Madrid.
On the other hand, those who do believe in the presence of acrylamide as a harmful component for people, ensure that its exposure effects can always be reduced while maintaining a healthy and balanced diet.
It can affect people with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, as well as pregnant women with gestational diabetes. It can occasionally affect people who do not have diabetes, but usually only people who are seriously ill, such as those who have recently had a stroke or heart attack, or have a severe infection. Hyperglycaemia should not be confused with hypoglycaemia, which is when a person's blood sugar level drops too low.