Toastgeddon

[Shaker]

Now even eating toast which is a shade too dark may be a potential cancer risk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38680622

[SusanDoris]

I've just heard that too! One of the distinct advangtages of being old is that I shall not give it another thought!

[Rhiannon]

That one was doing the rounds ( ) years ago, along with the one about overdone barbecues being carcinogenic.

I am safe however as I like my toast a kind of honey colour.

[Brownie]

Yeah but something else will get you Rhi, you can be sure of that.  A bite from a stray horse fly or a loose tile falling from the roof and landing on your head perhaps.

I also read about the toast scare and roast potatoes that are too well done.   Ridiculous.

[Rhiannon]

The sun's coming out. Better pull the curtains.

[floo]

Now even eating toast which is a shade too dark may be a potential cancer risk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38680622

I heard that on the news this morning, YE GODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Harrowby Hall]

But Floo, the important word here is "potential".

There is a theoretical risk - which may actually be extremely small - of a cancer risk. Nobody has yet given any indication of its likely incidence of cancer caused by this burnt sugar candition. I have reached an age greater than the biblical lifespan eating burnt toast and well-done roast potatoes, I'm not stopping now.

[floo]

But Floo, the important word here is "potential".

There is a theoretical risk - which may actually be extremely small - of a cancer risk. Nobody has yet given any indication of its likely incidence of cancer caused by this burnt sugar candition. I have reached an age greater than the biblical lifespan eating burnt toast and well-done roast potatoes, I'm not stopping now.

Exactly!

[ippy]

Now even eating toast which is a shade too dark may be a potential cancer risk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38680622

Give it another week or two and there will be another article saying that these things are good for us.

Breathing too much could wear your lungs out.

ippy

[Udayana]

Of-course those foods are "good for us" in a considered diet.. The advice is on how to cook them to reduce risk - but then there are other risks that might increase eg. Risk of food poisoning from inadequately cooked foods.

The problem with acrylamide has been understood since 2002, and the estimated risk level is about the same as normal background radiation. Of-course you have to look at risks in perspective but a tiny reduction in an overall risk is still a reduction. Apparently millions have gone into reducing acrylamide in processed foods, so why not minimise it in home cooking?

Just surprised that a piece of potentially helpful information should now get an immediate "typical idiot scientists" kind of reaction. May well be because the media over-hype it to get attention anyway: "Step away from the toaster", "Should we give up toast" etc. Media trolling invites incredulity and overreaction? Or, just that we all know what we like and are sticking with it whatever?

[Rhiannon]

I think it's more about quantifying risk. Reading the article, it seems that the scientists aren't decided how much this transfers to human anyway. And personally I find it difficult to take the government's concern seriously when known human carcinogens such as formaldehyde are routinely used in everything from furnishings to toiletries.

[wigginhall]

I thought that the burnt toast warning had been around for ages, well, at least ten years.  I tend to follow these warnings, for example, I stopped eating ham.   But I reckon that as you get old, you get more worried about stuff like this, as you can see the edge of the grave yawning!   Eh, is that what graves do? 

[Rhiannon]

At a time like this we need the Daily Mail. They do science brilliantly.

http://www.anorak.co.uk/288298/keyposts/the-daily-mails-list-of-things-that-give-you-cancer-from-a-to-z.html/

[Shaker]

At a time like this we need the Daily Mail.

... said no one ever.

[Brownie]

I also heard about ham and bacon, especially smoked bacon;  cured, processed meat of any kind generally.  However, most people don't eat that sort of thing in large enough quantities for it to be any sort of problem.  A little here and there isn't going to hurt, even if there is potential for danger.

To echo floo, Ye Gods!

I wonder what will be next?  Wouldn't be surprised if we were told to give up booze and fags!  Just imagine.

[Outrider]

I remember thinking, at the time that the hype about bacon and sausages was blowing up, that cutting out bacon and sausages to reduce the cancer risk wasn't so much living longer as dying more slowly.

Why would I want to spend fifty years not enjoying bacon or sausages for the potential to spend two extra years not enjoying bacon and sausages!!!

Carpe diem! Carpe arvina!

O.

[Rhiannon]

Because the pigs might get another couple of years?

[Shaker]

Because the pigs might get another couple of years?

That was my first thought too, although given the conditions they have to endure, an early bath might not the worst case scenario.

[wigginhall]

Two extra years?  Blimey, at my age, that is manna.   Bugger sausages.

[Dicky Underpants]

Now even eating toast which is a shade too dark may be a potential cancer risk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38680622

I wonder if this applies to dogs too. When I go walking with a friend's dogs, I always make sure the sausages I provide are very well cooked. And with added spears of garlic - that's probably a lethal combination.

[Dicky Underpants]

I also heard about ham and bacon, especially smoked bacon;  cured, processed meat of any kind generally.  However, most people don't eat that sort of thing in large enough quantities for it to be any sort of problem.  A little here and there isn't going to hurt, even if there is potential for danger.

To echo floo, Ye Gods!

I wonder what will be next?  Wouldn't be surprised if we were told to give up booze and fags!  Just imagine.

What would the Spanish do without their chorizo, or the Polish without their Krakowska sausage? What would I do without them, for that matter.

[wigginhall]

There are sausages without the chemicals in them, I don't know whether they still present a health hazard.   Also ham, although it has a ton of salt in it.

I forgot to say that one of the great pleasures of old age is hypochondria, so I can settle down in front of a log fire, studying E numbers, bliss.

[wigginhall]

Good sausages here:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/33/a8/c1/desert-inn-and-restaurant.jpg

(Alternative caption: 'Hmm ... where to eat?').

[Brownie]

Pigs in this country are well treated now, I'm happy to say.  They root around and have little huts to sleep in.  When we go up to Norfolk we often pass pig farms or pig fields, whatever they are called and see them wandering around freely.  Times have changed and there was much outrage about intensive farming a few years back which put me off for a long time (don't get me started on Bernard Matthews bootiful turkeys and cheap eggs).

Can't answer for imported pork or pig products.  Danish bacon used to be very popular but I wouldn't trust the animal farming standards.

I can't see how having a bit of processed meat once a week does any harm, different if you had it every day but who does that?

[Jack Knave]

Now even eating toast which is a shade too dark may be a potential cancer risk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38680622

We're all safe as EU toasters are shit!!!!