Grill Smart and Lower your Cancer Risk
Cheryl Phillips, GoLocalProv Health Correspondent
Grill Smart and Lower your Cancer Risk
The combination of meat with intense heat and a high flame is the culprit. Whether you are using red meat, poultry or seafood, substances in the muscle proteins of these foods react under high heat to form carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). HCAs can damage the DNA of our genes, beginning the process of cancer development.
Those are heavy words for what's supposed to be a good time. However, there are some simple ways to lower your risk and enjoy your grilled food.
Cook at Lower Temperatures
This is the easiest way to decrease the formation of carcinogenic HCAs. You do not need to cook that steak over a blazing fire - use a lower temperature and you'll get the same great taste and less risk. Turn the gas down or wait for charcoal to become low-burning embers.
Raise the Grilling Surface
When you raise the grilling surface from the heat source, you can also reduce black char that can form on meat. This char has a high carcinogen content. That is not a healthy side dish that you want to serve.
Buy an instant-read thermometer to be sure meat is thoroughly cooked but don't cook it past that point. If you like your food well-well done, you might want to change that. The further you cook meat past that point, the more HCAs will form. A higher consumption of well-done meat is linked with two to five times more colon cancer and two to three times more breast cancer.
Use Rosemary
That's right, rosemary. A recent study indicates that mixing some rosemary extract into your burgers before grilling them reduces the production of high-heat compounds by up to 90 percent. Great taste and an added benefit of lowering your cancer risk.
Grill Fruit and Vegetables
Yes, that grilled meat is delicious, but did you know that if you grill fruit and vegetables, they don't form dangerous HCA's? Plus they supply a bunch of cancer-fighting nutrients. Try peaches, pineapples, mangoes, zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant....getting hungry yet?