Coffee contains acrylamide, a chemical byproduct of roasting coffee beans.
We have reason to think that acrylamide, in high doses, can cause cancer and could be toxic.
But there's no evidence that we should worry about the amount of acrylamide in coffee. If anything, coffee seems connected to a lower risk of cancer.
When coffee beans are picked and removed from the fruit they're inside, they're a pale color.
It's only after they're roasted that they take on a dark or light shade of brown and develop that wonderful aroma that we associate with comfort and feeling alert.
But that cooking process creates byproducts. One of the chemicals formed when coffee is roasted is acrylamide, a substance discovered in 2002 by Swedish scientists.
But whether there's enough of it in coffee to be concerned about is a different question.
Because of the presence of acrylamide in coffee, the Council for Education and Research on Toxics filed a lawsuit in 2010 in California against businesses like Starbucks that sell coffee, asking that they be required to post warnings saying coffee contains cancer-causing chemicals.
Industrial accidents in which people have inhaled large quantities of acrylamide indicate it can harm humans too. It's also one of the many chemicals in cigarette smoke, though in higher amounts than produced in coffee-making.
So far, there's no evidence that the amount of acrylamide in coffee is dangerous. Plus, it can't be avoided.
There's still no good reason to believe that drinking coffee is dangerous. Caffeine, also found in coffee, can be deadly at high doses — but that doesn't mean it's all bad.
Coffee has many benefits
It should be remembered
:)
