Oh not my TAH DIG
could your favorite Persian dish
be causing you CANCER???

By: Jami Zamyad

Take anything you want away. My big breakfasts, my junk food, my lust for a juicy steak, my love of pastries, my dreamy dates with a cone of vanilla ice cream. Take anything you want but leave my Tah Dig alone. Like the kid pleads to his hero baseball player “ say it ain’t so” say it’s not true that my beloved Tah Dig, would be my undoing if I crunch upon its slender and golden brown grains to my palate’s content. Don’t tell me Tah Dig may cause me cancer.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) many brands of snack chips, French fries, breakfast cereals, breads and rice contain disturbingly high levels of acrylamide. Swedish researchers first discovered this chemical in some fried foods last year and with great concern Norway, U.K., Switzerland, Canada and the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in United States, began testing numerous samples of foods on their own. Unfortunately they have all had positive results for acrylamide.
This chemical forms during certain high-temperature cooking processes, such as frying and baking of starchy foods, and levels of acrylamide increase with heating time. Scientists know that acrylamide causes cancer in laboratory rats and contact with large quantities of acrylamide can cause nerve damage in humans, according to the FDA consumer magazine. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the short-term dietary intake of acrylamide was found to be about 50 micrograms per day for the average adult, but levels found in foods tested were up to 100 micrograms, with the highest levels in French fries. “I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americans,” said Clark University research Professor Dale Hattis.
While testing continues, the FDA emphasizes its traditional advice to eat a balanced diet, choosing foods that are low in fat and rich in high-fiber grains, fruits and vegetables.” As more information becomes available, we will consider additional messages, for example, recommendations related to cooking,” says Terry Troxell, Ph.D., Director of the FDA’s office of plants and Dairy Foods and Beverages.
In learning about this subject, the first thing I thought about was one of my favorite foods Tah Dig, the crunchy, scrumptious part of rice I have enjoyed growing up. I think eating Tah Dig, even on a daily basis is not of great concern, but when I think of all the other foods we eat that have this chemical, it raises concern, especially in the younger people, who consume large quantities of these foods on a daily basis, from breakfast to dinner. We have to wait and see what the researchers come up with next on this health concerning issue. Meanwhile, this is yet another reason to eat healthy and avoid fried foods as much as possible.