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Danger of eating browned (焦 ) food?

 

TLDR; 

A current food scare is acrylamide found in browned food. Acrylamides has been shown to cause cancer in rats.  But browned foods e.g. freshly baked/roasted food are tasty! Should we avoid them 

and switch to bland steamed/boiled good.

A sensible approach is to eat smartly but not compromise quality of life ascetically. Foods low in sugars and high in antioxidants have lower levels of acrylamide i.e. standard dietary advice.  Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and don’t eat too much junk food, and thus cross acrylamide off the list of food issues you need to spend much time worrying about.

Long story:

I noticed Jack not eating the brown parts on his naan (Indian bread) in the Indian restaurant. Those were the tastiest parts! It seems a waste of good food to me so I asked him why. He said it's bad for health based on some article.

I recall reading about it: 

certain cooking methods (roasting, baking, etc) of certain foods above 250F for a long time creates certain cancer-causing chemicals called acrylamides. 

Wow! that's scaaaary!  That would mean not eating almost everything that's tasty and restricting food to just boiled or raw food. 250F is low cooking temperature. Many tasty food in a  restaurant or home is at that temperature or with that method. 

It is also counter intuitive to human evolution. Humans learned to eat delicious food from that sweet smell that comes from browning i.e. Maillard reactions.

Since browning food contains acrylamides that causes cancer in rats, are we perversely designed to like food that kills us? What an affront to Intelligent Design!

My view:

1. the FDA does not recommend that we change our diet drastically because of the acrylamide scare in food. Instead, go for a balanced healthy diet 

2. acrylamide studies are done on non-humans (rats) at very high doses:

    a. rats are not humans and humans do not have the same reaction as rats to certain chemicals

    b. acrylamide doses in the studies are much higher than what humans normally consume. 

3. 99% of humans have acrylamides in their bodies already! 

4. Acrylamide formation need many conditions including asparagine (potatoes, wheat etc. i.e. not all food have asparagine), temperature, heat, frying oil, food        additives/seasoning, water content in food etc. In other words, browned food does not equal elevated acrylamide levels

5. Blanching (soaking food e.g. potatoes in boiling water for a short time)  before frying reduces acrylamides. Fortunately, many Chinese restaurants does it. I also do that at home to reduce frying times

6. reduce sugars when cooking. The standard cooking practice of adding sugar last before cooking helps. 

7. Limit use of microwave oven. Microwaving potatoes produces more acrylamides than frying!

8. Boiling/steaming vegetables for a short time cuts down on acrylamides production

Common sense

Foods low in sugars and high in antioxidants have lower levels of acrylamide i.e. standard dietary advice.  Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and don’t eat too much junk food, and you can cross acrylamide off the list of food issues you need to spend much time worrying about.

Look further:

Deep frying: the role of water from food being fried and acrylamide formation

The Effect of Domestic Preparation of Some Potato Products on Acrylamide Content

The latest on acrylamide