Careful cooking: How to enjoy potatoes without the risk
Potatoes are present in almost every kitchen regardless of the time of year. However, it's important to pay attention to how they are prepared. While potatoes contain many nutrients such as potassium, magnesium, and zinc, a harmful substance can be released during thermal processing.
Can potatoes be unhealthy?
Potatoes often appear on our plates in various forms: most commonly as fries, mashed potatoes, baked, or potato pancakes. However, few realize that dangerous acrylamide can form during prolonged frying.
Carbohydrate-rich foods exposed to high temperatures (above 248°F) during processes such as frying, baking, or grilling can contain a significant amount of toxic acrylamide.
Acrylamide intake can negatively affect our bodies. "It is a very toxic compound formed during the preparation and production of food products. Particularly large amounts of acrylamide are formed during the production of fries. In the body, acrylamide damages brain cells, and causes breast and bladder cancer," reads abczdrowie.pl.
Worse still, not only fries, pancakes, or roasted potato slices are problematic—chips and other fried snacks may also contain this unwanted substance, including roasted nuts, almonds, biscuits, chocolate products, dried fruits, and many others. Therefore, it's important to be aware of this danger and prepare foods in a way that minimizes the risk of its formation.
You can eat fries, but do this before frying
The good news for French fry lovers is that they don't have to give them up. A simple method can avoid harmful acrylamide. Cut potatoes should be soaked for about 10 minutes in hot water before frying, making them delicious and safe.
This simple task can reduce the presence of harmful substances by up to 90% and help avoid adverse health consequences.
To maintain a healthy lifestyle, it's important to limit the consumption of foods fried at high temperatures and, if possible, replace them with healthier alternatives.
