California might become the first state to make coffee shops greet you every day with a reminder about the link between coffee and cancer. Good morning!
When coffee shops roast coffee beans, a chemical called acrylamide is created, which California lists as a possible cause of cancer. And in California, you've got to warn customers if your product could affect their health. In 2010, a nonprofit filed a lawsuit claiming that some companies that deal with coffee, including Starbucks, BP, and 7-Eleven, failed to clearly warn people about the risk of acrylamide, CNN reports. Thirteen of those companies, including 7-Eleven, have already agreed to post warnings in stores. The other nine are going into mediation today.
On the one hand, it's reassuring to know groups are out there trying to protect consumers from terrible things like cancer. On the other hand, damn. Are we supposed to kick our morning coffee shop routine altogether? Given all the scientific information we have on acrylamide right now, the answer is... unclear. Helpful, right?
One of the arguments against the acrylamide warning is that the health benefits of coffee outweigh the risk. And it's true that coffee has been link to lower risk for other maladies, such as heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and even early death. Hell, it's even been linked to lower risk for some cancers, like melanoma and prostate. Plus, a 2014 review of research found "no statistically significant association between dietary acrylamide intake and various cancers" in humans. But it did say that future research is required, partly because studies done in animals have linked it to cancer.
At the end of the day, acrylamide is defined by multiple reports as a possible human carcinogen, and the FDA even has guidelines for avoiding it in your diet. So if you want to be ultra-careful, cut coffee out. (While you're at it, reconsider French fries, potato chips, breakfast cereal, bread, tobacco, and more—those have acrylamide in them, too.) Besides, it probably wouldn't hurt us to consume fewer foods that are chock full of chemicals. Best case scenario: Our favorite early-morning coffee shops start roasting their beans with fewer carcinogens.
