Anti-Cancer Drugs in French Fries: Good Idea?
Health Canada is proposing a strange solution to combat the potentially carcinogenic effects of acrylamide found in French fries and chips -- lace them with the antidote, anti-cancer drugs.
Is this a good idea? Bad idea? Is it the ultimate act in "waving the white flag"?
Acrylamide 101
Here's a quick and painless primer on issue: acrylamide is a by-product of cooking items (mostly found in French fries and chips) at high temperatures, which has been linked to cancer in rodents. Health Canada wants to approve the use of the enzyme asparaginase, which lessons the impact of acrylamide by as much as 90%.
Is this a good thing?
This idea makes me uneasy. I think we're just serving to feed an already rampant mentality that we can just chemically alter something, and "poof!" we can enjoy without worry.
I'm concerned about both Pandora's box and cans of worms being opened simultaneously here. To me it's like adding beta-blockers to cocaine, or statins to Krispy Kreme's. But why stop there? We could add some platinum alkylators to cigarettes, metformin to baked goods - you get the picture...
Is Acrylamide that bad?
Before even discussing the merits of an intervention, we must first look at whether there needs to be an intervention in the first place. The cancer-causing properties of acrylamide have been demonstrated in rodent studies, which lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider it a "probable human carcinogen."
In human studies, however there doesn't seem to be an established link, with the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Epidemiology finding no link between acrylamide and breast cancer. Further, the International Journal of Cancer found no link between acrylamide consumption and cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, larynx, large bowel, breast and ovaries.
So, do your homework, scour the literature, weigh the benefits and risks carefully, and debate about the ethics and potential pitfalls of altering foods in the name of health.
Or, you could just eat less French fries.
Source: The National Post
References: Medicinet
I don't eat french fries much; maybe once a year at the most. I don't get the point in making junk food somehow "better" for you. It just promotes people eating more of it when they should be trying to eat healthier foods in general.
It reminds me of the craze that hit when fat free chips became available. Everyone bought them because it was like a license to eat tons of chips with no guilt. But they caused all sorts of digestive problems and tasted like crap, so they didn't do so well in the long run.
ReplyWhy not just throw everyone in government run camps where they are forced to eat lots of fruits and vegetables?
Canada is a toilet. I feel sorry for anyone who lives there.
ReplyOuch!
Have to admit though - not one of our brightest ideas. Oh well, we'll always have Alex Trebek and good ginger ale.
Reply"...it's like adding beta-blockers to cocaine". Funny (and appropriate), since that combination can give you a heart attack.
Adding something good(?) for health to something that's not so good doesn't automatically make that thing healthful...and it can have unwanted bad effects.
....though maybe the side effects of the anti-cancer drugs would get people to stop eating french fries altogether...
ReplyUmm Big no! to that. I love french fries but I don't eat them every day. And the thought that the Gov is putting some drug in the food, not really appetizing. Of course that could be the whole idea put something in the food people might think twice about eating it. You never know what the side effects could be. or if people have allergies to the drug.
ReplyI think it's a dumb idea. That being said, I know that Vitamin c or an isomer, erythorbic acid, and sometimes Vitamin E, in processed meat to cut down on carcinogenic possibilities from nitrites.
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