Acrylamide does not raise breast cancer risk

Acrylamide, a harmful chemical identified in baked and fried foods, does not increase the risk of breast cancer in women, say US and Swedish researchers. Acrylamide appears to form as a result of a reaction between specific amino acids and sugars found in foods reaching high temperatures in their cooking processes.
Following new findings, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, claim the amount of acrylamide eaten in the diet does not pose an increased risk of breast cancer among the women in the study. Lorelei Mucci, lead author of the study, warns : “It is still important to examine the risk associated with other cancers as well as neurological conditions.”


The Swedish and US scientists assessed acrylamide intake of more than 43,000 women, including 667 breast cancer cases, who were enrolled in the Swedish Women s Lifestyle and Health Cohort. The average daily acrylamide intake among the participants was 25.9 micrograms per day. Less than 1.5 per cent of the women consumed more than 1 microgram of acrylamide per kilogram of body weight per day, a level used in risk assessment models.


The foods that contributed the most to acrylamide intake were coffee (54 per cent of acrylamide dose), fried potatoes (12 per cent of dose) and crisp bread, (9 per cent of dose).
“Comparing the women in the study who had the lowest daily acrylamide intake, the researchers found no significant increased risk of breast cancer among the women whose intake was higher,” report the researchers in the 16 March, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.