Oxygen gives us energy by burning our food
Is eating burned food bad for you? It could be.
Growing up in my house, eating burned food was par for the course. Even if you burned your toast, for example, it had to be consumed; otherwise it was considered terribly wasteful. “Heaven forbid should you throw that bread out. Don’t you know there are starving children in Africa?” my mother would say. And so I would finish every last bite of my burned toast, or charred pizza, or singed French fries (yeah, I was a little absent-minded when it came to remembering my food in the toaster oven.)
But now, there’s evidence that suggests that eating all that burned food could actually be bad for you. Back in 2007, a Dutch study was done that showed an increased risk of cancer in women who were exposed to the chemical acrylamide — which forms on fried or baked foods, especially when those foods are burned. The study found that women who ate 40 micrograms of acrylamide a day (equivalent to say, a bag of potato chips) had double the cancer risk of women who ate the lowest amount of the chemical.
So what is this chemical acrylamide anyway? Acrylamide is a chemical that is can be used in the manufacturing of paper and plastic, and is often found in products like caulk and food packaging. Alarmingly, though, acrylamide is also found in certain foods that have been prepared at a very high temperature — i.e. food that was fried, grilled or broiled. It’s found more in starchy products like bread and potatoes. How come? An amino acid called asparagine found in these foods forms acrylamide when heated at a very high temperature.