If I say the word “acrylamide” there’s a better than likely chance that 1.) you are a coffee drinker in California, or 2.) are the brain worm that’s about to be the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Basically the coffee bogeyman that new-age hucksters will point to as the reason that coffee is going to kill you, acrylamide is a naturally occurring chemical that is the result of applying high temperatures to foods. Like roasting coffee. While it can be carcinogenic in very high doses—and was the reason some California congresspeople wanted to require a cancer warning on all bags of coffee—the amount you’d find in your average cup of coffee is something below nominal, roughly .45 micrograms (which is basically a rounding error in comparison to the 39-83 micrograms of the stuff found in fast food French fries.
Thus it is generally concluded that drinking coffee doesn’t pose an acrylamide-based health risk. Unless you are drinking lots and lots of instant coffee. A study has found that instant coffee has twice the level of acrylamide as freshly ground coffee.
As reported by Daily Mail, the findings are based on a 2013 Polish study that examined acrylamide levels across 42 different coffee samples, including 11 instant coffees (and three coffee substitutes). That study found that the instant coffee samples had twice the acrylamide levels of the fresh coffee, 358 microg/kg to 179 microg/kg. In terms of single cups (160ml), fresh brewed coffee conformed with earlier findings of .45 micrograms per, meaning instant had .9 micrograms. Coffee substitutes, by the by, led the way with 3.21 micrograms per cup.
Using this figures, researchers at McGill University sought to determine at what levels does instant coffee consumption become a concern. Using conservative estimates of safe daily acrylamide consumption levels, about 25 micrograms a day, they state that a person would have to drink around 2.5 liters of instant coffee daily to reach that amount, or roughly 10 cups.
They also note that some agencies set safe acrylamide level at 195 micrograms daily, which brings your total cup count to over 70.
Which is all to say, even if you are drinking instant, the most acrylamide-packed type of coffee, you’re fine. Unless you are drinking more than 10 cups a day on the conservative end. And if you are, I just want to know, like, why? Who hurt you? Is this a cry for help? I also agree that you shouldn’t be drinking more than 10 cups of instant coffee a day, but more on principle than anything.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
