A new study
suggests a link between breast cancer and BBQ
consumption, according to a recent CNN news story.
This study linking breast cancer and BBQ
was conducted by Dr. Susan E. Steck of the University
of South Carolina in Columbia. Dr. Steck found
that postmenopausal women who had eaten a diet
high in grilled, barbecued, and smoked meats had
a 47 percent rate of increased risk for breast
cancer. The women at risk had consumed the heavy
meat diet over the course of their lives, not
just for the period of time the study was conducted.
The breast cancer and BBQ connection was
intensified in those ladies who ate only a small
amount of fruits and vegetables along with their
heavy meat diet. In those diets based mostly on
meats, the breast cancer risk rate was found to
be as high as 75 percent.
Although no particular ingredient or substance
in the meats was named as the cancer-causing culprit,
nitrites have long been known to cause cancer
in laboratory studies. A 1978 MIT study found
a high rate of lymph cancer in rats fed a diet
high in nitrites. The connection between cancer
and nitrites has been debated since the 1950s.
Nitrites are formed when the fat from the
meat drips onto smoldering charcoal or wood chips
used in the grilling, BBQ, and smoking processes.
The carcinogenic nitrites are then wafted upward
with the smoke and onto the meat being cooked.
Flames that occasionally flare up and directly
touch the meat produce nitrates, too.
The study supports the recommendation for
a more plant-based diet but even a strictly vegetarian
diet is no sure way to avoid the consumption of
nitrites. Food crops grown with the use of fertilizers
high in nitrogen introduce nitrites into the plants.
Cooks who are concerned about the breast
cancer and BBQ risk might not have to eliminate
backyard cookouts altogether. Health-conscious
chefs try to minimize risk by placing the meat
to the side of the flame or smoldering embers
instead of directly on top of it.
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