Not since they were renamed Freedom Fries have spuds gotten such bad press.
A few years back this was Washington’s misguided attempt to expunge all things French from American menus in retaliation for France’s opposition to the Iraq invasion. Alas, the new name never caught on outside the Senate cafeteria.
Not that anyone believed potato chips to be particularly nutritious, what with all the grease and salt. And we were duly warned that some fast food restaurants reused the oil in their deep fryers, adding to unhealthful chemical changes. After all the hoohah about trans fats, the mandatory listing on nutrition labels beginning last January, Frito Lay, Kraft, Keebler and other companies have eliminated partially hydrogenated oils. And although restaurants so far aren’t required to list trans fats on their menus, many chains such as Wendy’s, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, Romano’s Macaroni Grill and others have agreed to change their ways and use more healthful oils.
Last year, New York City reported it would ban trans fats from city eateries. We’re not quite sure how this will play out, but the ripple effect has spread to makers of packaged food products who have been using these oils for decades and now say they will stop.
Nabisco actually managed to ditch trans fats from its popular Wheat Thins, a stunning achievement, I thought. Our arteries are grateful.
Now, however, the common spud is getting new scrutiny from scientists and the media.
Turns out trans fats were small potatoes compared to acrylamide, a known carcinogen produced by a chemical reaction to starches cooked at high temperatures.
A baked russet or yam is quite nutritious and won’t clog your arteries unless, of course, it’s swimming in butter or trans fat-laden margarine. But take that same potato and deep fry it, changing the starch to sugar, creating the ubiquitous French fry, and you have beaucoup de problèmes.
Why isn’t the FDA doing something about this? Well, for one thing, Congress has again slashed the agency’s budget while increasing its responsibilities. In addition to tracking outbreaks of food-borne illness (think spinach), the FDA is also responsible for safety inspections of the burgeoning volume of imported foods from 130 countries, thanks to globalization. And traditionally, the agency bends to the will of the food industry.
But the process of identifying acrylamide in foods is complicated. Unlike trans fats, which the food processor puts into the product, nobody puts acrylamide in food. It occurs naturally when starch hits the fat sizzling at temperatures high enough to produce fries, or even a super hot oven that creates ostensibly healthier baked chips. The starch in corn and other grains reacts the same way, so Doritos and tortilla chips aren’t off the hook. And the same goes for hard salted pretzels, even organic Newman’s Own, the first company to create an Oreo-type cookie free of trans fat.
The feds have actually set limits for acrylamide in drinking water, 0.5 parts per billion or about 0.12 micrograms in an 8-ounce glass of water. How the stuff gets into water, I’m not quite sure. Could it be those trendy plastic bottles carried around in overheated cars?
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, after using its considerable clout to bring trans fats to nutrition labels, has been working on this and has come up with some tested levels: about 60 micrograms of acrylamide in a 6-ounce serving of French fries. Those who aren’t junk food junkies need to pay attention too. Cheerios, that most nutritious and heart healthy cereal, surpassed, I believe, only by real oatmeal, packs 7 micrograms per ounce. Even baby teething biscuits contain 381 ppb. How scary is that?
Meanwhile, in Idaho, where potato is king, scientists are hoping to get a grip on the problem. The J. R. Simplot Co. biologists are using gene technology to develop tastier, bruise-and sprout-resistant spuds. Along the way they’ve discovered that something about the revamped gene structure foils acrylamides. The genetically modified Russet Ranger may someday supplant the Russet Burbank, currently sold by the billions to fast food restaurants all over the world.
The bad news is that the GMO potato is at least five years away from coming to a market near you. And it may never appear on the shelf of a market in Paris. The Europeans still frown upon foods that have been genetically manipulated, er, enhanced.
So what are we to do, short of denying ourselves all manner of starchy snacks produced in extreme heat? I personally have no problem with that, addicted as I am to Trader Joe’s trail mixes. I could live on nuts and berries. My grandkids, not so much.
Even I will have to think twice before ordering pommes frittes at my favorite French restaurant. I know those paper-thin slices are boiled in oil hot as Hades to make them puff and crisp as they do. Quel dommage!