Are there carcinogens in grilled foods?
I do a lot of grilling (various vegetables and meats), but was recently told this will have similar effects to smoking. Is there much merit to the concerns over grilled foods containing carcinogens?
Best Answer
Short answer: yes. Long answer: depends on what you're cooking.
Grilling some popular food items can produce cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs)
HCAs, a family of mutagenic and cancer-causing compounds, are produced during the cooking of many animal products, including chicken, beef, pork, and fish. In January of 2005, the federal government officially added HCAs to its list of known carcinogens.
Cancer Project nutritionists determined that many commonly grilled foods contain alarmingly high levels of HCAs. This table lists the five foods containing the highest levels.
Pictures about "Are there carcinogens in grilled foods?"
Quick Answer about "Are there carcinogens in grilled foods?"
Cooking meat at high temperatures produces cancer-causing chemicals called heterocyclic amines. Cooking meat at high temperatures produces cancer-causing chemicals called heterocyclic amines (HCAs), particularly if it produces char marks, explains Dr.Are grilled foods carcinogenic?
Grilling with charcoal, and grilling in general, is associated with creating carcinogens and increasing your risk of cancer. The risk is highest when you cook meat high in fat at high temperatures. There are ways to decrease this risk.How do you reduce carcinogens when grilling?
6 Grilling Tips to Avoid CarcinogensDo grilled vegetables have carcinogens?
Nope. The carcinogens you're talking about, called heterocyclic amines (HCAs), are specific to meat; they show up when beef, pork, poultry and fish are truly charred. Veggies are less of a concern.Is grill smoke carcinogenic?
Inhalation of carcinogens In addition to the dangers of ingesting chemicals on grilled food, the inhalation of smoke from the grill is also a health risk. Barbecue smoke contains PAHs that are carcinogenic and easily absorbed into the lungs.Grilled Meat Causes CANCER?? (Watch before you grill again) 2022
More answers regarding are there carcinogens in grilled foods?
Answer 2
The risks are low and mainly come from burning animal fat. There's little risk associated with grilling vegetables. Leaner meats are better. It applies to fatty fish also. I've also read that natural lump charcoal is better than treated briquettes. You can google this stuff and find tons of references and articles talking about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), but there's not a lot of science saying specifically how much of it will hurt you. And people have been doing it for thousands of years, though evolutionarily it was probably less meat, most of which was lean meat from game and more vegetables in the diet.
Answer 3
The source of @Todd is fairly accurate on what can be grilled or not: basically, nothing, if you want to eat healthy stuffs.
However, the Cancer project website gives a link to a list of things that you can put on the grill and I attest that they give tasty nice meals.
Answer 4
Here in South Africa we are grill, or barbecue (we call it "braai") nuts. We grill anything from vegetables to red and white meat to fish and shellfish, using charcoal, wood and gas. I've been eating grilled-food by the bucket loads since I can remember. The average South African braai's at least once a week.
Unfortunately I don't have a scientific source or cite-able reference for you, but to my knowledge South Africa doesn't have a specifically higher percentage of cancer cases than the rest of the world as caused by eating grilled food. So my answer would be a definite no. At least no more than cooking your food in any other method or anything else you do in your day-to-day life, in any case.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Yasir Gürbüz, Yasir Gürbüz, ΛLΞX KOZLΞNKO, Ravish Maqsood