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Scientific News  Health care Other illnesses and advices FRIED FOOD CAN MUTATE YOUR GENES, STUDY FINDS
FRIED FOOD CAN MUTATE YOUR
GENES, STUDY FINDS
Acrylamides, cancer-causing agents recently
found in some fried and baked foods, can damage the DNA by causing a spectrum of
mutations, researchers have reported.
Swedish scientists triggered a furore in 2000 when they reported that
acrylamides, used in industrial processes, can be found in a range of baked and
fried foods.
The chemicals seem to be formed by exposing high-carbohydrate foods to high
temperatures in baking and frying; the chemicals can cause cancer in laboratory
animals, but have never been linked to human cancer.
Ahmad Besaratinia and Gerd Pfeifer of the City
of Hope National Medical Centre in Duarte,
California found that acrylamides can mutate DNA, the genetic blueprint found
inside living cells.
Cells exposed to acrylamide had more adducts - specific types of mutations in
the DNA - than untreated cells, they reported in this week's issue of the Journal
of the National Cancer Institute.
They noted that they treated mouse cells only, not human cells. They said the
best way to find out if acrylamide causes cancer in people is to do
epidemiological studies - look at data across populations to see if people who
eat more foods containing acrylamides have higher rates of cancer.
One such study, published by U.S. and Swedish researchers in January, found no
link between acrylamide consumption and the risk of bladder or kidney cancer.
Dr Fredrik Granath, a biostatistician at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm and Associate Professor
Margareta Tornqvist of Stockholm
University in Sweden - considered experts in
acrylamides - said the risk to any one person from eating acrylamides is small,
and they would not recommend changing nutritional guidelines.
"However, the situation for vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and
children, should always be carefully considered," they wrote in a
commentary on the work, also published in the journal.
A U.S. lobby group, the Centre
for Science in the Public Interest, is lobbying
for limits on acrylamide in food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has
tested baby food, cereals, biscuits, crackers, infant formulas and other foods
and found the levels of acrylamides vary greatly.
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Publishing date: July 2, 2003
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