The latest food scare involves not sugar, but rather acrylamide – a substance produced when starchy foods such as potatoes and grains are cooked at high temperatures – that has been linked with neurological damage, reproductive issues in animals studies, carcinogenesis risks and should be avoided as much as possible.

Your diet may expose you to acrylamide, particularly eating processed, fried or roasted foods like fries, potato chips, bread and cookies. Other ways of exposure could include smoking cigarettes or drinking contaminated water; however most people don’t consume enough of this chemical in their environment or daily diet to be concerned.

Now, there’s no foolproof way to completely avoid acrylamide since it occurs naturally in many foods due to Maillard reaction (the browning process that occurs when carbohydrates are heated), but you can lower your exposure by eating a variety of whole food that are lightly cooked or raw; additionally it would be wise to avoid fried foods which tend to contain higher concentrations of the chemical.

Notably, the formation of acrylamide in coffee occurs during its roasting, not when brewed at home. Therefore, while your own homemade brew should not pose any significant health concerns, ideally sipping black or with minimal added sugar is recommended to avoid bitter, unappetizing coffee that has been over-boiler.

Alternatively, organic and sustainably-grown coffee may help to lower your acrylamide exposure. According to tests, these types of beans outshone conventionally grown and roasted alternatives in terms of levels of acrylamide. It could be because the roasting processes used in organic/sustainablely grown options are gentler on their beans.

Regarding cancer warnings, it’s important to remember that acrylamide is only considered potentially carcinogenic by the FDA due to lab animal studies conducted using it; according to the American Cancer Society there is currently no evidence showing it poses any significant cancer risks to humans. Thus despite a court ruling that some coffee shops in California should start providing their products with cancer warning labels there’s no need to panic over your morning cup of joe!