Does Coffee Cause Cancer?

You probably had a cup of coffee in your hand as you listened to the news about cancer-warning labels that the state of California requires to be put on every cup sold by 7-Eleven, Starbucks or wherever. And now, opinions on both sides of a lawsuit brought by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics put America’s beloved drink squarely in the crosshairs.

CAN COFFEE GIVE YOU CANCER?

Bottom Line has reported extensively on coffee’s benefits and its drawbacks, including the drawback at the heart of the civil case—that the roasting process causes the natural formation of a chemical called acrylamide. According to the National Cancer Institute, acrylamide forms when foods are cooked at a high temperature and longer lengths of time. Frying, broiling and roasting—as in roasting coffee beans—are more likely to create acrylamide than steaming, for instance. When coffee is brewed, acrylamide then winds up in your cup.

How great is your risk? Studies are very limited. Research brought up in the California lawsuit linked acrylamide to cancer in rats. However, strong evidence shows that drinking coffee reduces our risk for endometrial and liver cancers, among other benefits, Alice Bender, MS, RDN, director of nutrition programs at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) told Bottom Line. Current research about acrylamide, on the other hand, is inconclusive. Research done on lab animals can’t be readily extrapolated to people—we can’t compare the doses they were given to what we’re taking in or assume that we have the same risk factors as a lab animal or that the human body metabolizes acrylamide the same way. There’s no doubt that acrylamide is a carcinogen. But in the AICR’s response to the California ruling, Dr. Nigel Brockton, director of research, said that coffee itself is being unfairly labeled a carcinogen given the strong evidence in humans that it is beneficial or, at worst, not harmful.

What’s more, according to the World Health Organization, acrylamide can be found in nearly all foods including bread, breakfast cereals, vegetables and even possibly in poultry and fish depending on how all of these are cooked. The highest average levels of acrylamide were found in fries and chips. But, added Bender, while it’s possible to detect the chemical, more important is the fact that links haven’t been established between eating these foods and cancer in people.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you’re concerned about acrylamide, your first step might be reducing foods that don’t contribute to your health, like deep-fried foods—Bender pointed out that they’re often linked to obesity, which is one of the many factors that can increase cancer risk.

Because acrylamide forms at high temperatures, take simple steps such as turning down your toaster setting—lightly toasted bread has less of it. Also, try these healthy cooking techniques to minimize acrylamides.

And what about your coffee? While the amount of acrylamide in roasted coffee beans varies with roasting time, according to the FDA, the actual amount in a cup of brewed coffee is typically very low.