07/06/06 Acrylamide schmilamide

Potato growers have had it rough these last few years threatened by fad diets and acrylamide scares. The diets and food fears have come and gone and yet the lofty potato remains a staple in the American diet. In hindsight, it is almost comical to think that a gullible public believed claims of groups like The Center for Science in Public Interest, simply because of the word "Science" was in part of their name when the science involved in was so shoddy. The council for Agricultural Science and Technology, a non profit group of scientific societies, where the word "science" accounts for something, reviewed the claim that acrylamides were harmful and concluded there was "scant evidence to support it". To elevate fears over acrylamides once and for all, the group Consumer Freedom reports a person of average weight would have to eat over 62 pounds of chips or 182 pounds of fries everyday for their entire life to be in any danger. I would be worrying more about diabetes.