It’s summer and millions of Americans grill regularly throughout the warm summer months. Backyard barbeques are a summer tradition, but feasting regularly on grilled meats — or any seared or overcooked meats — can increase your risk of developing cancer.

This is hardly new information — it has been known for over 20 years and evidence continues to accumulate. When meats, fish or even vegetables are overcooked in a frying pan or on a grill, special chemicals called “heterocyclic amines” form on the seared surface (my son used to call this charred material “burnts”).

These chemicals have been shown to cause cancer in a number of animals. The disease was generally found in the gastrointestinal tract (stomach and colon) but was also located in the liver, lungs, and breasts. Even lymphomas formed.

The latest studies have determined that women who eat grilled meats every day have a 350 percent higher incidence of breast cancer, while both men and women are in even more jeopardy of developing colon cancer.

Fortunately, there are ways you can protect yourself. Vitamin C slashes the risk, but more impressive is the ability of plant flavonoids (some 5,000 exist in fruits and vegetables) to neutralize the cancer-causing ability of heterocyclic amines.

At least one study found that eating three to five servings of fruits and vegetables with grilled or pancooked meats and fish dramatically reduced risk. Various studies have also shown that flavonoids in teas (especially green tea) can powerfully inhibit carcinogens. But the problem with drinking green tea is that it is high in fluoride, which is a carcinogen itself.

Nitrosamines are another nasty substance — they take shape in the stomach, evolving from nitrites in the foods we eat. Nitrites are used as food preservatives — especially in bacon, hot dogs, and other processed meats.

They pose a major threat as they are prone to induce stomach cancer. But vitamin C neutralizes a good deal of their cancer-causing ability.

Since vitamin C was added to a number of foods, this supplement is thought to have accounted for the disease’s rather dramatic regression. However, the presence of carcinogens in overcooked foods and nitrites in pregnant women’s diets may explain the 430 percent increased risk of brain cancer (especially the deadly medulloblastoma) for children who don’t eat any fruits or vegetables in the first year of life. Other studies have established a link between a mother’s nitrite intake and her child’s susceptibility to brain cancer.

Aside from vitamin C, two flavonoids found in fruits — caffeic and ferulic acid — have proven powerful in preventing nitrosamine formation. High concentrations of these flavonoids are found in plums, blueberries and apples.

Then there is ellagic acid, which is found in strawberries, raspberries and blackberries and is 80 to 300 times more effective than vitamin C in neutralizing nitrosamines. It is important to keep in mind that deep-frying, baking, broiling, or roasting meat and fish will produce significantly fewer carcinogens.

Source: Newsmax.com

DQ's notes:

Try to grill at lower temperature and avoid searing as much as possible.  Remember, in all foods a general rule is that raw is best, steamed is next best, then low temperature baking, then frying and lastly grilling or cooking at high temperatures.  The lower the temperature and the less well done, the healthier your food will genearlly be (although ham should be cooked thoroughly).

For the healthiest diet, raw organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, roots and tubors (including healthy whole and fermented grains) should make up the bulk of your diet, with modest amounts of free-ranging non processed meats.  However, grilling is a holiday tradition for most people.

Here is another tip for the 4th of July:  Too much fun, food, heat and sun can make for a dangerous combination, especially for those who have not been used to very much heat and exertion.  Make sure that such guests (and yourself if applicable) stay well hydrated with water, and don't over exert themselves and get too heated during fun and games.  Just in case, keep some liquid or powdered cayenne pepper handy.  A tablespoon of cayenne pepper will stop a heart attach in less than two minutes flat!