Inside your favorite tender rack of ribs may be a DNA mutating compound waiting to strike.
When we apply heat to food - especially when we sear or grill it - there’s a delicious chemical reaction that takes place called between chains of proteins and simple sugars in our food that causes caramelization and shades of brown and black. Ultimately, most nutritional advice boils down to: eating a little bit of burnt food doesn’t mean you’ll be harmed, but you should avoid eating it whenever possible. While the chemical reactions associated with burnt food have been found to contribute to the development of cancer in animals “in humans, it’s not clear,” Sinha says. She tells Inverse that determining whether or not burnt food really poses a cancer risk is more complicated than it seems. Rashmi Sinha is a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute whose research focuses on the dietary exposures and biological mechanisms of cancer risk. In 2017, the U.K.’s Food Standard Agency even launched a campaign against the consumption of darkened food, telling diners to “ Go for Gold” with their food’s color instead. Or maybe, after a quick Google, you’ve read blogs that claim that eating burnt food - from slightly blackened barbeque to scorched toast - will fill your body with cancer-causing carcinogens. Maybe you’ve heard eating burnt food can make you sick.
But is this relaxed approach to food safety really as harmless as you think? Whether a culinary accident or an exercise in digestive boundary-pushing, it’s no surprise that we’ve all eaten our fair share of burnt foods. It’s the crispy, forbidden crunch of an overtoasted marshmallow or the acrid mouthfeel of blackened toast smothered in jam.
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