Acrylamide has been in the news this week, with the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) warning that eating overcooked potatoes, crisps, or burnt toast could increase your risk of developing cancer. Does this mean you should be consigning your toaster to the trash and avoiding roast potatoes with your roast dinner? This graphic assesses the realities of the risks.
Over the past week, you may well have seen a couple of graphics purporting to explain the effect that drinking a can of Coke or Diet Coke has on your body. They’ve been picked up by a range of online news and media sites, and as a result circulated widely. Unfortunately, although some of the information contained in them is correct, a lot of it is sensationalised, hyperbolic, or just plain wrong. This graphic is an attempt to sort the fact from the fiction, and give a clearer picture of what’s going on when you drink a can of Coke.
Last week, Pepsi announced they will be removing aspartame, the artificial sweetener, from Diet Pepsi (in the US), and replacing it with another artificial sweetener, sucralose. This reignited the discussion on aspartame, probably one of the most maligned substances in fizzy drinks – but what does the science say on its safety? This graphic looks at the evidence behind aspartame’s bad reputation, and whether it makes sense to remove it from drinks.
Monosodium glutamate, or MSG for short, has long been the villain of the food supplement world. In the UK, Chinese takeaways proudly display ‘No MSG’ signs beside their counters, and many websites will purport to tell you ‘the truth about MSG’. Numerous studies have been carried out examining the effects of MSG, but with all the conflicting information, it can be hard for consumers to know who to believe.
This graphic is the first in a series I’m hoping to make on chemicals with potentially undeserved reputations. In it, I’ll look at the evidence and research on each, and try to come to some kind of rational conclusion as to whether or not their bad reputation amongst the general public is deserved. I thought I’d kick things off with one of the most controversial topics, particularly over in the USA: the fluoridation of water supplies.
That smoking causes cancer is a well known and scientifically proven fact. Everyone knows that nicotine is present in cigarettes, and causes addiction to smoking; however, what’s a little less well known is the range of chemicals contained within cigarette smoke that can lead to carcinogenic (cancer causing) effects, and what other effects they can have on the body. The effects of some of these chemicals also explain why it’s advised that women shouldn’t smoke during pregnancy.
