Acrylamide Doesn’t Increase Breast Cancer Risk

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Go ahead ladies, eat those french fries. New research shows there is no association between acrylamide — a compound found in baked and fried food — and breast cancer.

Researchers studied more than 43,000 women who were enrolled in the Swedish Women’s Lifestyle and Health Cohort. Among the group were 667 breast cancer patients.

The participants had their average daily intake of acrylamide monitored. Researchers found no evidence of an increased risk of breast cancer in the women whose intake was higher.

This study comes after the World Health Organization classified acrylamide as a “possible human carcinogen.”

The Swedish National Food Administration first discovered acrylamide in 2002.  Acrylamide forms as a result of a reaction to amino acids and sugars found in foods heated to high temperatures.

Lead author of the study, Lorelei Mucci, ScD, has conducted previous research to calculate the risk associated with acrylamide and other types of cancers in humans.  Mucci says, “Given the widespread public health implications of acrylamide, however, it is important to examine the risk associated with other cancers as well as neurological conditions.”

So far, Mucci has found dietary levels of acrylamide do not increase the risk of bladder, large bowel, and kidney cancers.

SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005;293:1326-1327