"Toxic products found in blood of BBQ lovers"
No high heat? Are you mad!? With BBQ season just around the corner, this is not what I wanted to read. :(
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tastyjon
Apr 29, 2007 08:53 PM
Since cavemen days we've been grilling most everything. There's not a corner of the world, from Pacific islanders to Mongolia (BBQ) to Africa where fire and food doesn't meet, and in many cases those toxic dishes have been central to the culture/tradition of the people. It's amazing we've managed to survive given the recent media findings.
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re: tastyjon
You, know, I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered there was a Scientific American article a couple of years ago which suggested that it was probably eating plants that led to cooking and that most meat was consumed raw. Sounds wierd and doesn't fit with our image of the cavemen cooking meat over the fire, I know, but I didn't make this up.
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Living will kill you. What are you gonna do? I'm more concerned about the air that I breathe than the food that I eat. At least I have some modicum of control over the latter, although, with the recent food poisoning incidents concerning organic food, that is probably an illusion as well.
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amandine
Apr 29, 2007 10:26 AM
This is a PRIME example of media spin and mistaken logic to create mass hysteria. YES, cooking foods creates advanced glycation end products (AGEs). YES, AGEs are harmful to the body. (one of the reasons why diabetes is so harmful-- so much sugar in your blood, more reacts to make AGEs --> can cause damate)
But just because A is true, and B is true, that doesn't mean A AND B PUT TOGETHER are true. For one, AGEs are being formed through natural reactions with free radicals in your body all the time. But fortunately for us, we are endowed with very competent endogenous mechanisms for clearing AGEs and protecting us from oxidative stresses that accumulate as a part of metabolizing food and everything else that goes into our bodies. The process of smoking food or using charcoal probably only gets "toxic" to you if you're eating it every day, several times a day.
The big lesson here is beware of what you read, especially when it's coming off of a popular news media site. For any health announcement, FIRST thing you should look at is WHO is this information coming from, WHERE was this research done, ARE they reputable, did they publish in REPUTABLE journals? I can't tell you how much garbage research is going on out there, just to get grants, make a name for oneself, or whatever. In this case, the research looks reputable, but the journalist's take on it (just look at the title of the article) is blowing things out of proportion.
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re: amandine
paulj
Apr 29, 2007 11:14 AM
Headlines rarely give a good picture of the relevance of an article. They are meant to catch your attention, not to inform. Often they are written by editors, not the journalist.
amandine writes:
"But fortunately for us, we are endowed with very competent endogenous mechanisms for clearing AGEs and protecting us from oxidative stresses that accumulate as a part of metabolizing food and everything else that goes into our bodies"
but the article adds:
"AGE levels tended to be higher in older people, whose bodies seem to have less ability to remove the chemicals, the researchers found."Also this research focused on 'high temperature cooking'. Toxins due to smoked food and charcoal use were not directly a subject of this research - at least I don't get that idea from this summary. A lot of news sources printed articles on this research, but I have not checked whether they work from the same source (e.g. AP) or independently summarized the work.
paulj
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Davwud
Apr 28, 2007 08:35 PM
So who cares??
Low and slow, REAL bbq is gonna kill you.
Fried foods are gonna kill you.
Yada, yada, yada.Now wouldn't it just piss you off if you gave up all the good stuff that's gonna kill you and you end up getting food poisoning and dying from tainted bean sprouts??
I totally agree with Leper.
DT
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bkhuna
Apr 27, 2007 08:23 PM
Well, since the article specifies that the toxic chemicals are a by product of cooking at high heat (frying, broiling and grilling), the statement "Toxic products found in blood of BBQ lovers" is absolutely deceptive. BBQ is cooked at low temperatures. Grilling, frying and broiling (yuck) is done on high temperatures. Besides, if I start looking like that numbnuts in the article, you can just go ahead and shoot me now.
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re: bkhuna
paulj
Apr 27, 2007 10:06 PM
A web search on 'bbq glycation' turns up many publications of this story.
Here's an article that is different, and goes into more depth on the Maillard reaction, with a mention of Age (advanced glycation endproducts) toward the end. While the higher heat of grilling may produce more AGE, it is not obvious that they are missing from true BBQ.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/onli...
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The last paragraph mentions marinating barbecue can reduce the harmful chemicals. I've heard this before relating to cancer studies and barbecue. Sometime like even a 1/2 hr of marination reduces the harmful chemicals...something related to marination reduces burning or carbon.
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Yes, the periodic story surfaces again. If steamed asparagus, carrots and broccoli were to become very popular, we'd be getting health warnings about that, too. The moral, as per puritan tradition, is that anything you actually enjoy is bad for you.
My folks enjoyed all this deadly, toxic, killer food and lived into their 80s.
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