Expert warns burnt toast poses serious health risks
It might be time to adjust your toaster...
It might be ludicrous to those who enjoy a lightly toasted piece of bread, but there are others who like their toast to closely resemble charcoal.
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Like tea or coffee with or without milk, there is a toast colour chart as well.
As it turns out, those who toast lightly might have some health advantages that are not associated with darker toast.
Professor Robert Thomas is a consultant oncologist at the Bedford and Addenbrookes hospitals and a teacher of Cambridge students. He also does all kinds of research when he is not busy with his patients or students.
Professor Thomas recently wrote an article in which he discusses the importance our lifestyle choices can have on our bodies and in preventing certain diseases.
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While traditional medicine has come a long way and some illnesses cannot be cured without the help of medicine, there is no doubt that our lifestyle choices also play a role in our health.
It has long been common knowledge that smoking causes serious damage to your body and that non-smokers have less risk of illnesses such as lung cancer.
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Something that Prof Thomas addresses in his article is burnt toast.
It might seem so insignificant, but according to him, eating burnt toast should be avoided at all costs:
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. While one piece of burnt toast won’t matter, consistently eating chargrilled or baked starchy foods over time will certainly help to increase your cancer risk.
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Even brushing your teeth can help you in the long run.
This might seem obvious but generally, you would brush your teeth twice a day to prevent cavities or to make sure you have fresh breath.
As it turns out, oral hygiene is more important than you might think:
A review of over 60 studies from around the world links poor dental hygiene with cancers of the mouth and throat. And two other studies recently analysed more than 100 samples of healthy and cancerous bowel tissue and found that the DNA from bacteria found in dental cavities was also present in bowel cancer genes - but not in normal genes. This led researchers to believe that bacterial DNA from the mouth travels down through the body, where it interacts with the gut, causing cells there to become cancerous.
This has led researchers to believe that bacterial DNA found in the mouth travels to the gut and interacts so that cells can then become cancerous.
So next time you're waiting for your toast to finish, don't get too distracted and keep an eye on your bread.
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Main image courtesy of iStock/Алексей Филатов