Is burnt food really that bad for you? The real risks and how to avoid them

The air outside is crisp — but your meal shouldn’t be.Frigid temps often drive cravings for warm, comforting and high-calorie foods.That’s one reason why people tend to pack on the pounds between November and January.Warm fare is fine — but food that’s cooked, toasted or smoked well beyond perfection carries some health risks.

Namely, it may contain chemical compounds that can trigger DNA changes that raise cancer risk.“Burning food, especially meats, can result in the formation of some carcinogens, chemicals that have been shown in laboratory studies to cause cancer,” Christine B.Ambrosone, the Jayne and Phil Hubbell Family Endowed Chair in Cancer Prevention at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, told The Post.Scientists have long studied the health effects of consuming scorched food.Charring or grilling meats such as beef, fish, pork or poultry at high temperatures has been shown to produce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs).HCAs form when amino acids, creatine and sugars in muscle meats react at temps above 300 degrees Fahrenheit, while PAHs occur when fat and juices from meat drip onto open flames, creating smoke that coats the meat with these compounds.Burning or over-browning starchy foods such as bread, potatoes or root vegetables generates high levels of acrylamide.The chemical process happens between the amino acid asparagine and reducing sugars such as glucose or fructose at temps above 248 degrees Fahrenheit.PAHs, HCAs and acrylamide are well-established carcinogens in rodents, but the human cancer risks from dietary intake are unclear.“While some laboratory studies have shown that ingesting the chemicals that form when food is burnt or cooked at high temperatures may cause colon tumors and may also be linked to breast cancer, there is very little evidence that this is true for humans,” said Ambrosone, chair of the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control.Beyond cancer concer...