Welcome to Dishing Gum Nutrition's Ask a Nutritionist podcast brought to you by nutritional weight and wellness.

We're thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on air discussing the connection between what you eat and how you feel

while sharing practical real-life solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition.

Thank you all so much for your support and listenership over the years.

Now let's get started.

On today's show, I'll be answering a nutrition question we received from one of our

Dishing of Nutrition listeners. So today we'll be discussing the topic of whether or not

eating burnt food or smoked foods can increase your risk for cancer. So the original question was,

I recently lightly burned my toast and my spouse

told me not to eat it because that black char is an oxidant. I had not even thought about

foods that were oxidants. We just always hear about antioxidants. So do black charred marshmallows or charred vegetables also carry oxidants?

So I thought this was a pretty interesting question, especially as we're entering grilling season.

This might actually be on some of your minds lately.

And along those same lines, another listener wrote,

are smoked foods like smoked salmon or smoked ribs, safe to eat.

So I'm going to try to tackle these questions today

so that you can feel confident in how you're preparing your food

and know that it is safe.

And this time of year, as we're entering the summer, grilling and barbecuing is a lot more popular.

And I think it's a great way to cook and it's a great way to spend time outside.

And I really want to encourage you all to do it.

So I'm going to let you in on some tips how to prevent food from being overcooked, which can damage the food and actually create some issues.

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