1 hour ago, Darienne said:Read this only after you are feeling strong. It's devastating.
Added question: How did I get to be 81 years old, having since about the age of 40, read countless articles about the best diets to follow, what foods to avoid, and so on and so on, and this is the very first time I've ever read anything like this?
I read it. Whoever writes their headlines is clearly an effective alarmist! Acrylamide is indeed nasty stuff, especially when inhaled and it certainly seems prudent to minimize its consumption. Even though it hasn't been conclusively proven to cause cancer, it seems quite likely. The fact that different species metabolize acrylamide differently makes it challenging to draw conclusions from animal studies and humans are notoriously difficult to study.
A lot of the foods on the list to avoid are worth limiting due to their sugar and fat content so obesity and diabetes are probably greater risks from a diet high in fried foods and baked goods than acrylamide toxicity is.
As to your second question, the formation of acrylamide in cooking has really only been studied for the last 20 years so neither you nor anyone else knew about it 40 years ago!
Edited to add: Maybe don't read those emails in the morning.
