Saturday 16 November 2013

Popular Breakfast Foods Could Cause Cancer

Dr. Richard Besser details the information behind the latest FDA warning.

Before you take a bite of your morning toast or bacon, you want to pay attention to our next story. There's new medical warning this morning from the fda about how we prepare some of our favorite foods with a possible link to cancer. Abc's chief health and medical editor, dr.
Richard besser. A chemical that forms when you cook foods. You see it with plant-based foods.
Potatoes, grains. And coffee. But the number one food for acrylamide, french fries.
And a lot of people like their food extra crispy, even fried at times. This can be dangerous. I love the dark french fries.
The really crunchy ones and dark toast. But the more you cook it, the more acrylamide forms. It was first identified in 2002, in foods.
And what they find, if you give a lot to mice, it can create different cancers. They've never found a cancer linked to this in humans. But the fda says as abundance of caution, we could take steps to reduce it.
They've known about acrylamide for a while. What do you suggest for people at home? Some of the good news is the fda is working with industry to cut down the problem altogether.
When you're cooking your food, you don't overcook your french fries. Instead of the toast, go for a lighter brown. You're going to cut down on it.
But the overwhelming thing you can do is put variety in your diet. If you go with a heart-healthy diet, lean proteins, whole grains, you're never going to take in enough acrylamide that it's going to cause a problem. I can't imagine having dr.
Besser telling us to eat more french fries. Yes. Thanks for coming in.
Pleasure. Thanks, doctor. We have a different story right now. 

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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