Q. While we were preparing a barbecue for some guests, one friend told me that we were all being exposed to cancer by eating the food I had cooked. Can you explain what this means?
A. While all the data isn`t in on this subject to many people`s thinking, some studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute link cancer in animals to foods cooked at very high temperatures.
While stove cooking may be done at more moderate levels, a blazing barbecue may produce a group of chemicals in the food called HAAs
(heterocyclic aromatic amines). These chemicals can damage the DNA molecule in laboratory test bacteria and are therefore identified as mutagens, for the changed DNA produces new strains of mutated bacteria.
The theory states that these types of mutations might possibly lead to cancer in humans after time. Another potential danger is from the result of fat dripping on the hot coal, producing a smoke that contains smoky hydrocarbons (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons), which are deposited on the surface of the food you`re preparing.
Here are some tips that will help you cut down on the amount of these chemicals in barbecue grilled food:
– Use cuts of meat and chicken with all the possible fat removed.
– Use cooler burning fuels, like ordinary charcoal, real hickory wood or maple, rather than mesquite, which burns at a higher temperature.
– Keep the food five or more inches above the coals to reduce the chance of charring, for the blackened meat contains the largest amounts of the undesirable chemicals.
– Precooking your foods, by microwaving, boiling or poaching before a final pass on the grill is another way to reduce the production of
hydrocarbons or HAAs.
All that said and done, unless you`re on a regular daily diet of barbecued meats and poultry, your risks are considered to be few even if you ignore these tips.
I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW: Education, education and more education is still considered by many experts to be the most effective weapon we have to combat the rising tide of AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. To be sure, we need cures as well, but prevention is the best of all medicines.
Now a new, descriptive and well-illustrated booklet is being made available to you by the American Social Health Association. It`s called
”Better Sex, Healthy Sex,” and it may be the just the material you have been seeking.
You can obtain your free copy by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the American Social Health Association, P.O. Box 13827 ”B,”
Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709.
———-
Dr. Allan Bruckheim welcomes questions from readers. Although he cannot respond to each one individually, he will answer those of general interest in his column. Write to Dr. Bruckheim in care of the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
