Barbeque or Burn?
Food is to enjoy – or is it? In our endeavor to look to a leaner diet where we consume much less fat that our forefathers did, (and many of us continue to even though our bodies no longer need the same level of saturated fats to survive) many have opted for barbequed or grilled foods as a means of lowering the fat content in their diet. This seems to be a reasonably simple and safe option and while this appears to be a wise move on the surface, as with all things in life - there is a balance and while we gain a positive on one hand, we gain negatives on the other.
The process of grilling has limited negative nutritional impact on foods, with any loss of nutrition easily out weighted by the increased desirability. However when grilling - temperatures of over 1000ºC can be experienced compared to around 250ºC in an oven; this increase in heat may cause some foods to cook ‘quicker’, but it also causes the fat on surface of meat to quickly burn away, releasing acrid fumes. With the smoke generated from fat dripping into the fire containing carcinogens, grilling must be done in a well ventilated area (or better still – outdoors). Eating grilled (or fried) meats increases the body’s exposure to harmful DNA damaging chemicals by over 50 times in comparison to boiled or baked meats.
Researchers at the University of Chicago have demonstrated that a single well-done char-grilled steak contained as much benzopyrene or cancer causing soot as the smoke from 100 cigarettes.
Hydrocarbons and carcinogenic nitrosamines form when grilling meat, and again in the digestive tract when bacon and other foods that contain nitrite are cooked or eaten. However Vitamin C and E block the chemical reaction that causes nitrosamines in the digestive tract. Wheat bran binds with nitrites and makes it unavailable to form nitrosamine. So if you have a glass of orange juice with your meal and a slice of bran fortified bread, then any health risk from nitrosamines is significantly reduced. Bioflavonoids in vegetables and fruits bind directly to carcinogens thus preventing any reaction with the DNA. Fibre will also assist in the speedy removal of carcinogens from the digestive tract by either binding with or diluting them.
Despite all this, there is still no direct correlation between the chemicals that damage DNA in bacteria and these same chemicals in the human body.
Grilled foods that have been favoured by generation after generation of a wide cross section of the world’s communities do not constitute a threat if they are consumed as part of a healthy diet. To minimize any possible negative impact on your health by grilling your food, trim meats of all visible fat and boil or bake all items until they are half cooked and then finish the cooking on the grill so you get the crusty BBQ’d finish on the outside, while retaining the moisture on the inside. If you are not prepared to have a vegetarian BBQ, then at least always have lots of leafy green vegetables, salads, whole-grain breads and fresh fruits available to ensure a maximum amount of vitamins and fibre is included to balance out any health risk as mentioned above.
Do not stop eating grilled foods because of what you have learnt here – there are health risks from the polluted airs we breathe, from the contaminated water we drink, you can get cancer from working in the sun, or killed driving your car, so any reduction to your health or enjoyment of life as a result of eating grilled foods will be minimal compared to any of these health risks - providing it is all taken in moderation.