Experts find there's a serious health risk behind eating burned toast

An expert has warned against eating burned toast, because too much of the stuff could pose a serious risk to your health.

Let’s start with a bit of admin here – you aren’t going to die from eating too much burned toast, what we’re discussing here is a mere increase of risk, and that risk – we regret to inform you – is pretty high already.

However, there are ways to lower health risks, such as not smoking or drinking less alcohol, and perhaps taking your toast out of the toaster just a wee bit earlier might be a small change you can make that will marginally minimise your risk of getting cancer.

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Yes, burned toast contains compounds that can increase your risk of getting cancer over time, and the darker the toast, the more of these compounds are present.

So, in the interest of adding greater information to your lifestyle choices, we’ll let the doctor explain it to you.

Professor Robert Thomas is a consultant oncologist at the Bedford and Addenbrookes hospitals, and he’s been looking into how our lifestyles can have an effect on our overall health and chances of developing serious illnesses later on down the line.

It turns out that – on top of being pretty horrible to eat – burned toast also poses a cancer risk.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Thomas explained: "This is because grilling or baking starchy or sugary foods (such as bread) at high temperatures produces toxic compounds called acrylamides which can damage your DNA and put a big strain on your immune system over time.

“And, as a rule of thumb, the darker brown they are, the more acrylamides they contain."

It isn’t just toast, too many chargrilled foods and baked starchy foods can be a factor in serious health issues later down the line.

Basically, everything in moderation, and try to be healthy – that’s pretty much all any of us can do.

Unfortunately, there are some pretty bad statistics about the amount of people who are going to get cancer over the course of their lifetime, so there’s only so much you can do, but anything you can do, you probably should try.

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That means eating less sugar – also a risk – drinking less booze, and eating less red meat.

Problematically, there isn’t much that isn’t without risk.

However, there are things you can do.

One thing that Thomas suggests is to brush your teeth every single morning and night.

To be fair, you should be doing that already.

But, more than 60 studies around the globe have linked bad dental hygiene to mouth and throat cancer, and two other studies discovered that DNA found in tooth cavities is also present in bowel cancer genes, though not in normal ones.

Topics: Science, Health, Weird, Food And Drink

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim