There is the lawsuit in California requesting coffee shops to display a warning on their coffee products stating that acrylamide in coffee can cause cancer.
What is Acrylamide?
The following paragraph is an excerpt quoted from Wikipedia for Acrylamide at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamide
Acrylamide (or acrylic amide) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH2=CHC(O)NH2. It is a white odorless solid, soluble in water and several organic solvents. It is produced industrially as a precursor to polyacrylamides, which find many uses as water-soluble thickeners and flocculation agents. It is highly toxic, and partly for that reason it is mainly handled as an aqueous solution. The discovery that some cooked foods contain acrylamide had attracted significant attention to its possible biological effects.
In Reality
Actually, coffee beans do not contain acrylamide in the growing process. Acrylamide is formed however in the process when coffee beans are roasted. Acrylamide can be found in coffee – that’s true. Acrylamide can cause cancer – that’s true, too. But do you need to stop drinking coffee all together? Wait!
Here is what the National Cancer Institute of US has to say:
Multiple studies in human have shown that there is no evidence found between cancer and exposure to dietary acrylamide.
So where do they find the evidence for making the cancer claim? That is, studies on cancer forming induced by acrylamide in rat.
As a matter of fact, studies have shown acrylamide to cause cancer in rats only but not humans.
Coffee itself is beneficial in many areas: Increases performance, burns body fat, lowers blood sugar. Unless you add lots of sugar and cream, you shouldn’t feel guilty drinking your share of coffee daily.