To grill or not to grill?
Many Americans still do not know that grilling can be unhealthy. The cancer risk from grilling, however, is real, but it changes dramatically with what you grill and how you do it. The problem with traditional grilling comes from the combination of meat with intense heat. 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. Some studies do find that a general preference for, or high daily consumption of, well-done or very well-done red meat (black on the outside, gray in the middle) is a risk factor in prostate, stomach, breast and colorectal cancer. For example, a 2002 study of 1,658 men and women from North Carolina found that those who ate 2 ounces of well- or very well-done meat a day had a 70% increase in colon cancer risk. Similarly, a 1998 study of nearly 42,000 women from Iowa found that those who preferred to eat their steak, hamburgers and bacon very well-done were 4.62 times more likely to get breast cancer than women who liked their red meats rare or medium done.