Some cooked or processed foods with burnt or browned proteins can trigger inflammation in certain immune cells in a lab dish, but not all of these foods do — so some are more likely to cause trouble...

Scientists found that when they fed sugar-coated proteins to certain immune cells, the cells got inflamed—but adding a substance that traps bacterial toxins (LPS) calmed them down, even though there was almost no LPS around. This makes them wonder if the inflammation was actually caused by tiny, unnoticed LPS leftovers, not the sugar-coated proteins themselves.

When certain cooked or processed foods trigger inflammation in immune cells in a lab dish, blocking a specific protein called RAGE doesn’t help calm it down—so something else must be causing the problem.