Burnt food?

[Tha Don]

My dinner was burnt tonight, tasted absolutley horrid, the potatos burnt at bottom of the steamer, so all the veg tasted burnt too, couldn't eat it!!

had to settle for a whey shake and some bran flakes, instead of... broccoli... sweet potatos and loads of healthy stuff!

apart from the nasty taste is burnt food bad for you? if something is a little burnt can you still eat it, or will it mess me up?

yeah its a silly question but i never know wheather to eat something if its burnt, or weather its useless?

can burnt food cause cancer, or is that a silly myth?

peace

 

[bandaidwoman]

Not a silly myth. The risk of cancer from these substances formed by burning depends on the amount present and the amount of food eaten. So a one time ingestion probably isn't going to amount for much.
The main group of carcinogenic substances in smoked and burnt foods is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). They are produced when organic materials such as food or wood are strongly heated. (Remember the wood smoke is used to smoke meat). There are other compounds but these are the known best carcinogens.
These polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can also be formed when meat is charred during grilling or barbecuing. The formation of polycyclic hydrocarbons can be reduced by removing as much fat as possible and not charring the meat. So burnt high fat meat is the greater danger vs. just burnt vegetables.

 

[Stickboy]

Oh man, I love smoked meats.

Normally, when you smoke meat though, you do it around 250 degrees. So I take it the PAH's come from the wood used to flavor the meat?

 

[Premo55]

My steak always has char marks from pan-frying it with Pam. I suppose that's not such a good thing.'

Peace.

 

[bandaidwoman]

Originally posted by Stickboy
Oh man, I love smoked meats.

Normally, when you smoke meat though, you do it around 250 degrees. So I take it the PAH's come from the wood used to flavor the meat?

Yes, unfortunately http://www.foodreference.com/html/fsmokedfoods.html