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To Reduce the Health Risk of Barbecuing Meat, Just Add Beer
PolygamousRanchKid (1290638) writes "Grilling meat gives it great flavour. This taste, though, comes at a price, since the process creates molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which damage DNA and thus increase the eater's chances of developing colon cancer. But a group of researchers led by Isabel Ferreira of the University of Porto, in Portugal, think they have found a way around the problem. When barbecuing meat, they suggest, you should add beer. The PAHs created by grilling form from molecules called free radicals which, in turn, form from fat and protein in the intense heat of this type of cooking. One way of stopping PAH-formation, then, might be to apply chemicals called antioxidants that mop up free radicals. And beer is rich in these, in the shape of melanoidins, which form when barley is roasted."
(The paper on which this report is based, sadly paywalled.)
Whoever posted this summary really should have added that. There are other places where one might consider adding beer that would be less effective. You don't have to get past the paywall to find that.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
What a stupid article. Beer is hardly the best source of antioxidants. Blueberries would be a far better choice.
"Eat antioxidants to prevent cancer" ....well thank you captain obvious, we have known this for many years!
Except beer makes an excellent marinade for meats and can be incorporated into BBQ sauce as well.
Don't use the good beer. Use the Miller Light that's been sitting in your fridge since someone brought it over months ago.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
"Eat antioxidants to prevent cancer" ....well thank you captain obvious, we have known this for many years!
Except we do not "know" that. The link between anti-oxidants and cancer is not clear. Eating fruits and vegetables (high in anti-oxidants) is correlated with lower cancer rates. But if the anti-oxidants are isolated and taken as supplements, they are NOT correlated with cancer reduction, and in some cases make it worse. So maybe it is something else in the fruits and vegetables that is beneficial. Exercise is also correlated with cancer reduction, and exercise causes an increase in the supposedly harmful free radicals that anti-oxidants suppress. The interplay of these factors is complicated and poorly understood. So it is not at all clear that anti-oxidants "prevent cancer".