More Dangers of Staple foods

More evidence reported last month suggested staple western diet foods such as bread, crisps and chips may have adverse health effects.

Researchers at Stockholm University, Sweden found that many foods rich in carbohydrates contained alarmingly high levels of acrylamide after they had been cooked, a carcinogen which is believed to cause cancer.

The World Health Organisation sets a maximum permitted level of acrylamide in drinking water and one bag of crisps analysed contained up to 500 times the permissable limit. The substance was found in bread, chips, fried potato and cereal products.

Researchers believe acrylamide forms when carbohydrate-rich foods are heated, particularly through frying, deep-frying and oven-baking. The substance is also believed to cause damage to the central nervous system.

A spokesperson from the World Health Organisation claimed the results were worrying, but that further research was needed.

Meanwhile, a seperate study claimed that eating too much bread during childhood could cause short-sightedness in later life.

Researchers from Colorado State University and the university of Sydney put forward their theory in the journal New Scientist.

Jennie Brand Miller, a nutrition scientist at the University of Sydney claimed that diets high in refined starches could lead to excess production of insulin. This in turn affects the development of the eyeball. Overly-long eyeballs then lead to myopia, or short-sightedness.

The theory seeks to explain a dramatic increase in cases of myopia over the last 200 years. The condition now affects around 30% of Western Europeans.

Links between myopia and insulin have already been established with overweight people or those with adult-onset diabetes more likely to develop myopia.

Friday, 24 May 2002