A Fried Food That Will Kill You Slowly

Fried potatoes and baked snack foods should not be a major part of our diet regardless of acrylamide content!

These foods are high in fat, contain too much salt, and often they are full of preservatives, dyes, and other items that contribute to poor health. Also, these foods contain a lot of calories and they do not provide the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that we know help reduce risk of cancer and many other diseases. For all of these reasons, these foods should be an occasional treat, not a regular part of the diet.

• Focus your diet around healthy, unprocessed, whole foods such as vegetables, fruit, legumes, and whole grains.

• The more crisp and brown that a baked food is, the more acrylamide it is likely to contain. For example, "well-done" French fries and potato chips contain more acrylamide than the more lightly cooked versions of these foods.
• When cooking starchy vegetables such as potatoes at home, cook them at a lower temperature for a longer period time. This minimizes the amount of acrylamide that is formed during the cooking process. Cooking foods at a higher temperature creates more acrylamide.
• Frying and dry baking appear to generate the most acrylamide in foods. Boiling, steaming, lightly sautéing and stir-frying foods appears to create very little or no acrylamide.
• Go for organic. Some health experts feel that the chemicals used in conventional agriculture methods may increase the amount of acrylamide that forms in the final, cooked product.
• Finally, do your best to stay informed about the acrylamide food issue. The scientific research on this topic is new and evolving. It is always possible that future research studies will provide additional, important information about acrylamide in the food supply and human health concerns.
• At home workouts or getting your self a home trainer to keep you accountable.