Cooking (even boiling) food damages its DNA which gets absorbed into the body's cells, which damages their DNA

#1

From FB Messenger:

An additional source of aging from cooking food has been discovered.

It has long already been known that adding heat to foods causes sugars to randomly attach to proteins in an uncontrolled version of glycosylation called glycation via heat increasing random reaction rates. Because our bodies posttranslationally modify proteins with different chemical groups including sugars to accomplish their functions, sugar mods can prevent proper breakdown of amino acids and lead to problematic incorporation of glycated endproducts which our kidneys help filter with RAGES (receptor for advanced glycation endproducts).

A new paper demonstrates that a similar process appears to occur with heat-damaged DNA in food, whose alternative bases also become incorporated into bodies after consumption. This was a suspected potential damage pathway before, but for me this study confirms it. Animals ingesting cooked food compared to uncooked food had elevated levels of double-stranded break regions and genetic rearrangements, and incorporation of alternative bases.

Cooking has long been a tradeoff between killing microbes with improving flavor versus nutrition and carcinogens and production of toxicity.

This information won’t change what I’m doing by too much I’m already on uncooked meal replacements like soylent and pills, but might be interesting to others.
h/t Denis Odinokov
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.2c01247


1 Like
#2
2 Likes
#3

Is this the old glycation issue and burned food issue?

1 Like
#4

particular, within many phylogenetic groups, organisms with
larger cells and lower metabolic rates generally have larger genomes (e.g.,
Gregory 2001, 2002a,b; Vinogradov and Anatskaya 2006)

#5

Steam or boil food to cook it is best.

3 Likes
#6

And add some Carnosine Supplement to your daily routine to fend off the glycation issues.

#7

Why do you mostly consume soylent?

#8

^that was a quote in a Messenger thread, not my quote

Short version: Yes. Plants and tofu contain DNA, high heat damages it, and the same “salvage → incorporation” pathway shown in the 2023 Stanford/NIST paper can, in principle, operate. But vegetables/tofu generally contain far less DNA per gram and are cooked more gently, so the dose of damaged nucleosides is far smaller than from a heavily seared meat serving.

How much DNA is in these foods?

  • Red meat (muscle): ~1.4 mg DNA per gram of meat (wet weight). Seal meat shows ~0.6–1.1 mg/g; primate muscle ~0.96 mg/g—same order of magnitude. (Wiley Online Library, ScienceDirect)
  • Plants (per dry matter) – examples from a compiled table: broccoli 5.1 g/kg DM, cauliflower 2.8, spinach (frozen) 2.6, potato 1.0, onion 0.7. Converting to wet weight using typical moisture contents puts vegetables at ~0.1–0.6 mg DNA per gram, i.e., several‑fold less than meat. (PMC)
  • Tofu: ~84–85% water. Legumes in that table (wheat 0.6, lentil 0.8 g/kg DM) suggest tofu will sit around ~0.09–0.12 mg DNA per gram wet before processing; tofu manufacture substantially degrades DNA, which is why GMO traceability drops along the process. (PMC, PMC, PMC)

How much damaged DNA after cooking?

The Stanford/NIST team measured ~300 deoxyuridine (dU) lesions per million bases in beef after a mild roast (15 min, 220 °C)—about a 0.03% mole fraction. They argue this yields milligram‑scale dU in a large cooked meat serving because meat contains so much DNA. (PMC)

Using their 0.03% figure just for ballpark comparison:

  • 200 g seared steak
    DNA ≈ 1.4 mg/g × 200 g = 280 mg DNA → dU ≈ 0.03% ≈ 0.084 mg (84 ”g). (Wiley Online Library, PMC)

  • 150 g fajita veggies (onion+pepper, sautĂ©ed 7–10 min, not charred)
    Take onion as a measured example: DNA ≈ 0.105 mg/g (0.7 g/kg DM × ~15% DM). For 150 g mixed vegetables, order‑of‑magnitude DNA ~15 mg, so dU ≈ 0.03% ≈ ~4–5 ”g—~10–20× lower than the steak example. (Likely even lower because fajitas are cooked shorter and cooler than 220 °C roasting.) (PMC, Chemical Engineering Transactions, ResearchGate, Culinary Hill)

  • 150 g tofu entrĂ©e
    DNA roughly ≀10–15 mg pre‑processing; actual salvageable DNA is lower due to fragmentation and whey removal during tofu making → dU plausibly a few micrograms or less. (PMC, PMC)

Mechanism & risk framing

  • The 2023 study demonstrated that damaged nucleosides (notably dU, 5‑OH‑dU, 5‑OH‑dC) can be salvaged and incorporated into intestinal DNA in mice, elevating γ‑H2AX foci; the effect scaled with dose and was strongest for pyrimidines. (PMC)
  • Vegetables/tofu do form damaged bases under high heat, but because they usually contain less DNA per gram and are often cooked at lower temperatures/shorter times, the exogenous lesion dose is much smaller than from well‑done meat. This is in addition to separate genotoxins from high‑heat cooking (PAHs, HCAs in meats; acrylamide in carb‑rich plant foods), which are managed by the same advice: avoid charring and excessive frying. (PMC, PMC, ScienceDirect)

Practical tips (apply to veggies, tofu, and meat)

  • Keep temps moderate; avoid char. SautĂ©/roast lightly; don’t blacken. Chipotle‑style fajita veggies are typically sautĂ©ed ~7–10 min to “tender‑crisp,” not heavily charred. (Culinary Hill, Reddit, FoodPrint)
  • Short cook times, flip often. Limits surface overheating and oxidation. (PMC)
  • Use acidic, polyphenol‑rich marinades (lemon, herbs) to suppress oxidation products. (ACS Publications)
  • Prioritize moist‑heat methods (steam, poach, sous‑vide) when convenient. (PMC)

If you’d like, I can put together a small table estimating dU micrograms per typical serving for: a 200 g steak (grill), 150 g salmon (baked 180 °C), 150 g fajita veg (sautĂ©), and 150 g tofu (stir‑fry), using the Stanford/NIST lesion rate and moisture assumptions above.

3 Likes
#9

Pressure cooker uses lower temperature and higher pressure. What are your thoughts on stewing in a pressure cooker?

#10

That would be interesting. However cooking at higher pressure means that also the temperatur is higher. In a good pressure cooker you can go up to 120°C. It is good for sterilizing things.

#11

I was mistaken I thought pressure allowed boiling at lower temperatures.

1 Like