How can chips cause cancer

In , it was found that many heated foods contain the chemical acrylamide. To put the cancer concern in perspective, acrylamide is also found in cigarette smoke and plastic products. Fries with a larger surface area relative to the volume may reduce acrylamide since is tends to form in the surface layer instead of inside.

When it comes to potato chips, higher temperatures and longer cooking time result in higher acrylamide levels. The chemical especially increases towards the end of frying. This is one with more fruits and vegetables and foods high in fibre, like brown varieties of bread, rice and pasta. A healthy diet is low in processed and red meat, and low in foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt. But some foods with acrylamide are high in calories, so can make it harder to keep a healthy weight.

How you cook meat like bacon and how crispy you make it does not affect your cancer risk. But bacon itself is processed meat. Find out more about processed and red meat and cancer risk. We regularly review new research on the causes of cancer to make sure our information is up to date and based on the best quality evidence. We develop our information by looking at lots of research carried out over many years.

So, although new research comes out all the time, it is unlikely that one new study would change our position on a topic. Some studies are better than others at telling us about how different factors affect cancer risk.

These are some of the things we consider:. So we focus on studies in people. And studies that only follow people for a short amount of time can miss long-term effects. So we mainly look at studies that follow thousands of people over many years.

Studies should take known risk factors into account. For example, if a study is looking at air pollution and lung cancer, it should also look at whether participants smoked. This means that other experts have checked the results. Cancer Research Workforce. Partners in Cancer Research. What Are Cancer Research Studies. Research Studies. Get Involved. Cancer Biology Research. Cancer Genomics Research. Research on Causes of Cancer. Cancer Prevention Research. Cancer Treatment Research. Cancer Health Disparities.

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