Barbecue: Is it as good as it tastes?

You are more likely to be hit by a bus than die from barbecuing; however, you should be aware of the dangers of one of our favorite pastimes- backyard barbecues.  Barbecued meats, fish and poultry can form two different types of carcinogenic substances.  One is called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and it forms when fat drips down onto an open flame, sending up a column of smoke (as well as a tantalizing aroma) that coats the food with carcinogens.  And the smoke itself may contribute to lung damage. 

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are created when meat, poultry and fish are cooked at high heat until well done, common with barbecuing.  It is the food’s natural amino acids reacting with creatine (a chemical in muscle meats) that produce the HCAs.  These compounds are mutagens, shown to damage the DNA in laboratory-test bacteria, and the mutations may lead to cancer later in life.

While the surgeon general has not yet labeled briquettes with a health warning and there is no federal agency monitoring the HCA risks or content in cooked foods, the National Cancer Institute, as well as several other researchers, has linked lab animal cancers with meat cooked at the high temperatures.

Richard Adamson of the National Cancer Institute places the risk from HCAs somewhere between the damage caused by alcohol and the possible danger of drinking chlorinated tap water.  There are many strategies you can easily employ to reduce the possible risks:

• When cooking, it is best - wherever possible- to use lower temperature methods such as steaming, boiling, poaching, stewing, casseroling, braising, baking, stir frying, or roasting. Although it is important to thoroughly cook a hamburger and chicken to eliminate bacteria, it should be cooked only until it is done, not charred.  This requires a balancing act because you don’t want to trade carcinogens for salmonella or E. coli.

• Use cooler burning fuels-briquettes or hardwood charcoal instead of mesquite.

• Bank the fire onto the sides of the barbecue and place a drip pan under the cooking meat to keep the fat out of the fire.

• Don't allow meat to become heavily charred, since the carcinogens concentrate in the blackened portions.

• Grill only vegetables. (Yeah, right!)

• Marinating the food minimizes the formation of HCAs.

• Use foil to wrap the food for barbecuing to prevent PAHs in the smoke from being deposited on food.  Place a sheet of foil under the food to shield it from smoky byproducts.

• Precook food to reduce time on the grill.  Also when you precook food, you avoid food that is burned on the outside and raw on the inside.

• Drink dark beer. (Did I just suggest drinking alcohol during your BBQ?!) Japanese researchers, in an article published in the January 1999 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, showed that the 24 beers they tested showed "potent inhibitory effect" against mutagens found in several types of HCAs. Dark beer worked best.

• Other sources of protein (milk, eggs, tofu, and organ meats such as liver) have very little or no HCA content naturally or when cooked.

It is not too difficult to modify your grilling techniques to produce few or no carcinogens in your foods.  Keep on barbecuing, just do it healthier.