Scientists are celebrating the discovery of a technique that will make potato chips less carcinogenic.
But wait! Who knew that chips were carcinogenic in the first place?
Most chips are deep fried in vegetable/seed oils. Frying in vegetable/seed oils renders the oils carcinogenic because high temperatures induce the oils to release toxic chemicals called lipid oxidation products (LOPs). LOPs cause cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, birth defects, rheumatoid arthritis, digestive issues, gastric ulcers and dementia. The higher the temperature, the longer the oil is heated, and the more times the oil is reused, the more LOPs (such as aldehydes) are generated.
A review of the diets of 3000 men found that the more they consumed deep-fried foods with vegetable oils — especially French fries, fried chicken, fried fish and donuts — the greater their likelihood of developing aggressive prostate cancer. A study in women found that consuming foods fried in vegetable oils was associated with a higher risk of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers. In both sexes, frying with vegetable oils has been linked to laryngeal and colorectal cancers. Even just inhaling fumes from heated vegetable oils is harmful. A study in 2013 found that non-smoking Chinese women who regularly wok-fried food in vegetable oils had an elevated incidence of lung cancer. (I’m sorry this Health-e-Byte has probably ruined your day and I’m only half way through.)
Frying in coconut oil, butter or lard is significantly healthier and produces much lower levels of aldehydes.
However, the processed and fast food industries are not making any attempts at removing vegetable oils from their products. This is not what scientists are getting excited about. Instead, they are tackling a different carcinogenic property of potato chips. (You mean there’s even more bad news? Unfortunately, yes.)
Potatoes need to be stored at cold temperatures to prevent them from sprouting and getting diseases. Low temperatures trigger the potato to break down its starch into simple sugars. This process is known as ‘cold-induced sweetening’ (CIS). Ironically, CIS does not make the potato taste sweeter. Instead, when a potato that has undergone CIS is fried, the sugars react with amino acids to produce the carcinogen, acrylamide. The resulting product is a chip with a bitter taste and dark colour. If you absolutely must eat chips, avoid any that look darker than their neighbours.
The glimmer of good news in this bad news story is that scientists have identified the gene that is responsible for switching on CIS. They now propose to develop a way to inhibit this gene (called the vacuolar invertase gene or VInv) so that potatoes will not undergo CIS and therefore no longer accumulate acrylamide when subjected to high temperatures.
Of course, this only eliminates half of the carcinogenic potential of chips — and it hasn’t happened yet. Currently, the only way to avoid carcinogenic chips is to avoid chips in the first place.
But I have to end on a positive note: why not opt for raw nuts instead of chips? There are so many reasons to choose raw nuts over chips. Here are just a few:
- There are many different types of nuts, each with a distinctly delicious flavour.
- Nuts are satiating; chips are not. It is much easier to overeat chips than nuts.
- Nuts contain protein, vitamins, minerals and a variety of healthy fatty acids.
- Nuts are among the most brain-boosting foods.
- Nuts are also heart-healthy.
- I emphasise the word ‘raw’ because roasted nuts are usually bathed in vegetable oil. In addition, heating nuts reduces their nutritional value.
For those who would like to read the entire potato paper, click on the link to the journal The Plant Cell. The title of the study is: ‘Molecular dissection of an intronic enhancer governing cold-induced expression of the vacuolar invertase gene in potato’. The authors are Xiaobiao Zhu, Airu Chen, Nathaniel M. Butler, et al.
Please share this Health-e-Byte with anyone who is addicted to potato chips.
