Barbecue Blues

Scientific studies have now revealed that barbecued food can be hazardous to your life! The following article entited, "Studies are revealing the dark side of barbecue" is taken from The Oregonian newspaper, July 13, 2004, published in Portland Oregon, USA.
"Animals develop tumors of the colon, breast and prostate when fed the same chemicals that are created in high temperature barbecuing", says Jim Felton, a senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
Of 40 studies of humans, about 70 percent have correlated increased cancer risk with high consumption of well-done meat cooked at high temperature.
The potential health problems arise from two factors inherent in the barbecuing process: high heat and smoke. Both create chemicals that can cause genetic mutations and unrestricted cell growth that signal cancer.
Barbecue grills get extremely hot, sometimes reaching 600 degrees. When meat is cooked well-done, chemicals known as hetero-cyclic amines or HCAs are formed in the food. HCAs are created when amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and creatine (a chemical found in muscles) react at high temperatures. In analyzing cooked muscle meats, researchers have found 17 different HCAs that may pose cancer risks.
In 1999, a National Cancer Institute study examined the eating habits of cancer patients. It concluded that eating a daily average of 10 grams of well-done or very-well-done meat cooked at high temperatures increased the risk of colorectal cancer by 85 percent.
In addition to cooking at high temperatures, grills create smoke when fat from meat drips onto hot coals. The burning fat results in hot flare-ups, and smoke curls around the food. The smoke contains benzopyrene, a potent carcinogen in animals, particularly in the gastrointestinal tract.
A 2001 National Cancer Institute study found levels of benzopyrene to be significantly higher in foods cooked well-done on the barbeque, particularly steaks, chicken with skin, and hamburger.
Lawrence Livermore's Felton says knowledge about health risks of high-temperature cooking began to evolve in 1977, when Japanese scientists showed cooked beef contained "mutagens" - chemicals that change the genetic structure of DNA.
Since then, Felton says, scientists have identified these compounds, learned to synthesize them in labs, and fed them to animals.
It turned out that the chemicals found in cooked beef were as good at causing mutations as any chemical ever found, Felton says "they do cause tumors, some especially early in monkeys."
The April 2004 issue of Readers Digest had the following to say about smoked meats. "Smoking was once essential for preserving meat and fish. But hundreds of compounds have so far been identified in smoke, including alcohols, acids, phenols, and several other toxic and possibly even cancer-causing substances...cured meats are high in nitrates - the same trouble-makers in pickling - which combine with amino acids during cooking and digestion to form cancer-causing nitrosamines. .. "
When you smell that barbecue, remember this article and ask yourself, "is the few minutes of eating pleasure worth the toll this food will take on my body?"