Is there any practical use for the far end of the toaster dial?

[DeSwiss]

15. One acronym: PAHs

PAHs...Why is burnt food bad for you?

The smell of burnt toast is suggestive of a change in chemical composition of bread. As the name 'polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons' indicates, there is a recognizable aroma when particular substances are heated to a burning point, such as burnt toast.

When starchy foods like bread or potatoes are cooked at a high temperature they produce a carcinogenic substance called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are a group of over 100 chemicals resulting as a byproduct of combustion. These chemicals can enter the bloodstream through breathing air contaminated with PAHs,such as incinerated trash or cigarette smoke or ingesting foods that contain PAHs such as grilled, charred, burnt or pickled foods.

In the laboratory, studies have found PAHs to cause lung, stomach, and skin cancer as well as adverse reproductive effects in female mice fed a diet with high levels of PAHs. The offspring of mice fed a diet with PAHs had higher levels of birth defects and lower birth weights than mice with a diet absent of PAHs.

Center for Disease Control - PAHs Factsheet

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