Eating toasted bread could increase the risk of cancer

Toasted bread, french fries, hamburger, corn flakes and pizza are very delicious food. However, these foods contain chemical compounds called acrylamide that can cause cancer in our body. Interestingly, one of European countries, Luxembourg, has banned foods containing acrylamide to bring health to the society. But, the browning color that alters the taste of the food also enhances the taste.

Toasted bread contains acrylamide which is carcinogenic
(image is downloaded from www.depositphotos.com)

Browning food occurs when the food is heated up and produce chemical reactions. The reaction alters the color and the taste and the changing of these two characteristics is known as Maillard reaction. The reaction apparently is begun when the temperature rises above 140 centigrade. During this temperature, the food is started to become brown which means there is interaction between the carbonyl group with amino acid compounds.

The Maillard reaction actually produces the chemical compounds called acrylamide which has been considered as toxic and carcinogenic. The products resulted from Maillard reaction have potential to inhibit the cancer cell by the presence of the reactive agents. These agents might have been occupied since the breakdown of polymer during the heating. However, many studies suggested that the acrylamide is responsible of cancer after consuming Maillard products in high quantity.

How acrylamide penetrates to human’s body and causing cancer

As it is mentioned previously, that Maillard reaction causes the presence of acrylamide for certain food. There are certain foods (Science of Cooking, 2017) that have been considered as Maillard products such as:

1. Caramel which is a brown colored sugar is produced from milk and sugar
2. The toasting bread after being burned from toaster
3. Beverages that are coffee, beer and maple syrup are classified as Maillard products, and the same thing also occurs on chocolate
4. Self-tanning products
5. Grilled and fried meat or food

These five type of foods contains acrylamide. But more importantly, the discovery of acrylamide was astonishing because no one would have been expected that this toxic and carcinogenic chemical compounds could be found inside the foods until 2002 (Wikipedia, 2017). The Eritrean scientist found the presence of acrylamide in the food particularly in starchy foods such as potato chips and French fries which are heated higher than 120-140 centigrade.

However, the discovery of acrylamide in human body and even on the smallest parts such as tissue was shocking. Acrylamide actually can be solved in water, ethanol, ether and chloroform. When eating the French fries, the acrylamide is solved during the chewing process and so on. Interestingly, the significant content of soluble fraction of acrylamide occurring inside the gastric digestion system existed after eating crackers, sweet biscuits, battered foods and potato products (Sansano, Heredia, Peinado, & Andres, 2017).

How to prevent Acrylamide in order to decrease the risk of cancer

Based on the list that considered as the Maillard products, the behavior of eating toasted foods and drinking coffee in the morning must be avoided. The lifestyle must be changed by consuming many of fruits and vegetables juices in the morning and evening. It also does not mean that consuming toasted foods such as toasted breads and grilled meat is prohibited, however it does have to be reduced for around once in one-two days.

Unlike the western European and American countries that consume lots of beer at the same time of consuming toasted bread, grilled meat, potato products, eastern society must be thankful because they consume least of that.

References
[1] Sansano, M., Heredia, A., Peinado, I., & Andres, A. (2017). Dietary acrylamide: What happens during digestion. Food Chemistry, 58-64.
[2] Science of Cooking. (2017, July 24). Why Food Browns. Retrieved from Science of Cooking: http://www.scienceofcooking.com/maillard_reaction.htm
[3] Wikipedia. (2017, July 24). Acrylamide. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamide