Tostados filled with delicious ingredients, and chemicals?

February 28, 2020
Posted by: admin
Category: Blogs

We all love our tortillas and tostados, with their delicious fillings, but tostados also contain acrylamide formed during the frying or toasting process. We have looked in detail at how acrylamide is formed during the cooking process in this article https://www.hazoxinc.com/cookies-hazardous-to-your-health-in-ways-you-wouldnt-think-about/ as well as at the health effects of acrylamide in our diet https://www.hazoxinc.com/acrylamide-in-our-bagels/. Yesterday’s article also looked at how our body breaks down and disposes of acrylamides(https://www.hazoxinc.com/your-favorite-popcorn-may-contribute-to-making-you-ill/).

In this article we will look at how we can detox our body from acrylamide.

Initially, we should consider that the largest supply of acrylamide in our body comes directly from dietary acrylamide, that is, from the food we eat.

To detoxify our body, the first thing that we need to do is to decrease the consumption of acrylamide-containing foods. The main foods that contribute significant amounts of acrylamide to the diet are fried and processed foods such as potato chips and crisps; baked goods composed primarily of wheat and sugar; and processed foods containing roasted grains such as coffee, roasted wheat cereals, pizzas, and some others.

The next step is to improve food preparation methods to decrease the amount of acrylamide formed in our food. To do this we should reduce fried and high temperature roasted food and we should incorporate more cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts, as well as red peppers and other fresh vegetables. These vegetables provide our natural detoxification system with a better supply of the amino acid cysteine that can help build up your glutathione stores and neutralize unwanted acrylamide.

In addition to the above mentioned vegetables, the regular consumption of vegetables of the genus Allium including garlic, onions, shallots, leeks and chives should be considered. A substance in garlic oil called “diallyl disulfide” (DADS) slows down the processing of acrylamide, causing it to interfere with DNA (leading to cancer) at a much slower rate, and the acrylamide that persists is not as toxic (and is neutralized and excreted in the urine) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16337756)

DADS and other chemicals in garlic and onion are able to reduce the toxicity of multiple carcinogens. Cooking meat at high temperatures generates heterocyclic amines, another class of carcinogen. However, cooking with onions and garlic significantly reduces the content of carcinogens. In addition, adding garlic powder to bread dough can reduce acrylamide formation by more than 40% (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25754987).

The chemical DADS is readily available in freshly crushed garlic but is sensitive to heat, and even degrades at room temperature. So, a simple “garlic detox” of acrylamide should be achieved by consuming one or two cloves of freshly crushed garlic with some salad or raw vegetables (https://www.livestrong.com/article/322850-garlic-detox/)

Garlic is known to produce a strong odor on the breath, but this can be neutralized with some herbs or beverages such as green tea, mint, or parsley; but it should be consumed at least 20 minutes after a meal to avoid interaction with garlic that could decrease its effectiveness. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24592995).

At Hazox we believe that consumers should be aware of the hazardous chemicals used in everyday products to make informed decisions before buying and consuming the items they need.

In our next article, on Saturday, we will review ways of protecting ourselves from acrylamides.

In our final article of this series, on Sunday, we will investigate healthy alternatives to foods containing acrylamide.