It is the Maillard reaction that makes the golden brown crusts in fried and fried foods so irresistibly delicious. But what does that have to do with aging?

What is the Maillard reaction?

The Maillard reaction is not, as its name implies, a single chemical reaction. It’s a whole series of complex chemical processes. The name is just a collective term. It summarizes all the flavor-forming reactions that take place when you heat a food.

The Maillard reaction owes its name to the French biochemist Louis-Camille Maillard. In 1912 he was the first to describe the reaction that occurs when you heat carbohydrates and proteins together.

The Maillard reaction is a multi-phase reaction that leads to many different end products. For example, if you heat a steak, the proteins contained in the meat unfold and gradually break down into their individual amino acids. The released amino acids then attach themselves to free sugar molecules and form the so-called Amadori products.

Some of the Amadori products are then converted into flavoring and roasting substances, depending on the reaction conditions and the food. A well-known roasted product is maltol, for example, which tastes like caramel. It gives many baked goods and confectionery their characteristic aroma. 2-Furfurylthiol, one of the main aroma components of roast coffee, is also formed in this way. However, 2-furfurylthiol is not only found in coffee, it is also a key flavor component of fried meat, sesame oil and popcorn.

When Amadori products are broken down, not only are tasty flavorings created, but also compounds that are harmful to health. The best known are the substances classified as carcinogenic:
acrylamide
and hydroxymethylfurfural, HMF for short.
Acrylamide is found increasingly in:
French fries
roasted coffee
toast
Foods with elevated HMF levels include, for example:
sweet wheat bread
cereals sweetened with honey

What does the Maillard reaction have to do with aging?

The Maillard reaction also takes place in our body and plays a crucial role in diabetes and aging processes. Scientists discovered this in the late 1980s.

Proteins and sugar molecules can combine directly in your body at body temperature. This is similar to cooking. The reaction is much slower than in a 200 degree oven. Nevertheless, as you age, more and more so-called “Advanced Glycation End Products”, or AGEs for short, accumulate in your body. AGE is a collective term for all proteins in your body that are permanently congealed with sugar.

A particularly large number of AGEs are found in the body of diabetics because they have an elevated blood sugar level. This means, for example, that diabetics increasingly suffer from a clouding of the eye lens, the cataract. How cataracts develop is sometimes not fully understood. However, studies indicate that the AGEs formed in the course of the Maillard reaction could cause clouding of the eye. In addition, it is suspected that the increased concentration of AGEs in the body of diabetics is responsible for the fact that they suffer more and more early from typical diseases of old age.

The AGEs even have their own receptor in our body.  When AGEs bind to the RAGE receptor, an inflammatory response is triggered in our body. Chronic inflammatory conditions in our body can lead to the development of various civilization diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis and allergies over the long term.

What can you do to reduce the build up of AGEs in your body?

The fact that AGEs form in your body is a completely natural process and is usually not harmful. However, it is scientifically assumed that our modern diet means that we ingest a large excess of AGEs with food. In grandmother’s time, soups and stews were still often eaten on a plant basis. This has changed with increasing prosperity. A piece of meat fried in oil or in the oven often represents the main part of a meal in our society.

The proportion of AGEs in a meal depends on two factors:
the origin of the food and
the preparation method.
The foods that have particularly high levels of AGEs mainly include products of animal origin such as:
Red meat
eggs
butter
Cheese
cream
This is because animal foods have a higher protein and fat content than plant foods. This makes them more susceptible to the formation of AGEs.

Preparation methods that favor the formation of AGEs include:
frying
Bake
Roast
Toast
sauté
grilling
These are all ‘dry heat’ and high temperature methods.

On the other hand, particularly few AGEs are
blanch
braising
steam cooking
educated.

The reason for this is that the temperature is significantly lower with these preparation techniques. Water cannot be heated above 100 °Celsius. The food is therefore gently cooked. But that doesn’t mean that the Maillard reaction doesn’t take place. Anyone who has ever burned the béchamel sauce can certainly confirm this. First, the milk creates a pleasant cooking aroma. But then it burns when the heat is too high and tastes bitter.

As a rule of thumb it can be said:
The darker the crust of a food, the higher its AGE content.

For the sake of your health, it is therefore better if you eat mainly plant-based foods. Also, avoid fried processed foods and sugary baked goods. As a result, you consume fewer AGEs and at the same time protect the environment. Animal foods have a much higher ecological footprint than plant foods.

Of course, you don’t have to do without grilling in summer or toasting your bread in the toaster. As described in the first section, the formation of Maillard products is also important for aroma formation. Nevertheless, you are doing something good for your health if you cook more stews or stews.