Don’t do this to your bread

perfectly toasted bread

When my husband toasts his bread in the oven to where it’s dark brown and on the verge of burning, I cringe and ask him if I can scrape off the dark spots. He says he likes it that way. When you cook bread or any food at really high temperatures, those burnt and darkened spots turn into carcinogens.

In bread, a toxic chemical called acrylamide forms when the bread is cooked at high temperatures (1). Per Cancer.Org “Toasting bread to a light brown color, rather than a dark brown color, lowers the amount of acrylamide. Very brown areas contain the most acrylamide.” Bread is a processed product that’s over-consumed, high in calories and not that nutritious. Don’t make your bread less healthy than it already is!

Sources:

1. Prevention magazine, February 2014 issue titled “Three ways to cut back on acrylamide.” Pg 26
2. Cancer.org article “What is acrylamide?” link: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/acrylamide