Friday, November 04, 2011

Food That Will Kill You Slowly - Part 4

Today's honest truth is about our favourite fastfood. No fastfood will be complete if not because of French Fries. Some call them Fun Fries. Others just call them Chips.
They are essentially potatoes, sliced and deep fried to fluffy crunchy texture you can't say no to.
The evil here is not potatoes, but the process of preparing it via deep frying any starchy food. Starchy meaning they are not limited to just potatoes, but also bread, yam etc.
A byproduct called acrylamide will be present and it is known to be a potential carcinogen. It was even admitted by a fastfood chain as shown in the photo below. However, to solely point finger at them for selling junk will not be too right. In fact, i applaud them for putting up a warning where others dare not! Truly a leader in their own (food franchise) industry!
Image from Facebook by Dailymuscle
I have specifically blurred off the image of the brand of fastfood chain to protect myself against possible legislation. Suffice to say, even the fastfood chain has admitted that their food, down to the bun and even coffee contains acrylamide, BUT (hahaha!) lower than FRIED POTATOES.
What is acrylamide?
Since the chain gave the US FDA link to check for acrylamide and has a disclaimer stating that FDA has not advised people to stop eating baked potatoes, fried potatoes or other food containing acrylamide, it is then assumed that the food is harmless?
Acrylamide is a short  for arcylic amide, a white odorless chemical that is soluble in both water and other chemical. It decompose to release ammonia. It was accidentally discovered in food by a  Swede in 2002. It is extensively used in manufacturing process that uses this chemical to produce multitude of things.
Taken from FDA website on Acrylamide
It was also stated that the average ingestion of this is between 0.2 to 1.4 (micrograms /kilogram body weight/day (ug/kg-bw/d) and the average American takes in 0.4ug/kg-bw/d. Not extensively high. There is no data pertaining to this in our country Malaysia. And with this entry, i sure hope you will continue to make more informed choices about the food you put in your mouth.
Healthier Alternative : more whole food, baked or steamed. Eating fried food, no matter HOW healthy they claimed to be (such as saying eating FRIED SWEET POTATO is better) is a misleading fact. Fried food has high level of oil and will contribute to obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Make the informed choice. Avoid if you can.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for informative article. It is a wake up call for the fast/junk generation. We have another food choice off the list...

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  2. I have been to California and I have seen those warnings on ridiculous stuff like a china cup simply because it contains lead{but locked within the glaze}. I think that warning is solely for litigation purposes and does not represent a scientifically respected viewpoint. The same goes for lead solder which earns the wrath of ROHS legislature. Come on. Scientists disagree that lead will leech out from solder even if the numerous circuit board are burnt in a fire. Not using lead in fact can lead to the formation of tin whiskers{NASA even admits this} which can short out electronic circuitry. So, whether the State of California considers unsafe may not be necessarily so.

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