Plus, when fat drips into the grill, the resulting flames can cover food with polyaromatic hydrocarbons PAHs , another chemical linked to cancer. Despite these potential risks, no one is suggesting you should ditch your barbecue.
Instead, next time you hit the grill, consider these 6 tips for healthier meals:. When fat hits an open flame, it produces PAHs. So, instead of grilling fatty burgers or brats, opt for grass-fed steak, chicken, or fish. When you cook muscle at high temperatures—whether beef, pork, fish, or poultry—it mutates and creates HCAs.
But fruits and vegetables don't have protein muscle or fat, both of which become problematic when exposed to high temps. So, in terms of potential health risks, grilling produce is a safer way to enjoy your barbecue.
Read: Grilling? If you're cooking meat and veggies together, fat dripping from the meat can fall into the flames and coat your produce with cancer-causing chemicals. Foil-wrapping fruits and veggies can protect them from high heat and the harmful effects of grilled meats.
You can also wrap meat in foil to prevent fat from dripping into the hot coals. Sauces and marinades are often loaded with sugar. That can be especially problematic for people who are trying to follow a low-carb diet, says Dr. Acidic rubs and marinades, on the other hand, may help break down some of the muscle in the meat and reduce the number of HCAs on your plate.
Also, unlike grilling, a barbecue heats the meat from below. As the fat drips onto the hot coals it burns, and the smoke rises up and coats the meat. This smoke contains lots of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs from the partially burned fat.
PAHs are another group of chemicals that are known to cause cancer. Grilling may be a summertime staple, but there are health concerns associated with firing up the BBQ. Namely: cancer risk. The worry stems from the discovery that barbecued meats can form two chemicals-heterocyclic amines HCAs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs -which have been shown in lab studies to alter DNA in a way that increases the odds of developing various forms of the disease-including breast cancer.
The first, HCAs, are found in the char on meats cooked over an open flame. High temps create a reaction between amino acids, sugars and creatine in muscle.
PAHs occur when fat drippings fall onto hot coals or heating elements and create smoke-which then rises up, causing the chemical to cling to your food. Some human studies have found an association too. A meta-analysis published in the journal Nutrients showed that the more HCAs and PAHs participants ate over time, the higher their risk for colorectal adenoma-the benign precursor to colorectal cancer. But the National Cancer Institute points out that human studies have been mixed, and no definitive link between exposure to PAHs and HCAs from grilled meat and cancer has been established.
That's in part because the amount of these chemicals you might consume from a piece of barbecued chicken or seared steak is "1,fold lower than what animals are exposed to in lab studies," says Cynthia Rider, Ph. In these trials, scientists used high doses so that they were sure to see an effect-like a tumor-that they could study.
0コメント