Charred foods,cancer limiting meat consumption

[Peacemamalove]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8629358.stm

After reading this I was wondering what you all thought. I agree that charring your food is bad but what about limiting your meat consumption? What about bowel cancer? What about all the studies coming out that suggest meat is bad for you and is the cause of cancer?

I would love to know peoples thoughts on this.

[UrbanSimplicity]

I don't really have any answers, but I thought I'd post something that might interest you. I just read in "Fiber Menace" that burnt meat is not digested, it is expelled in feces. The author says basically all other fat and protein is absorbed 100%. So it seems your body knows the charred meat is not good for you.

[Zenzero]

I would agree about the charred meat but I would really like to know (like with many other studies of this type) where the meat they used came from (bet it wasn't pastured!) and also what they fried the foods in. If it was veg oil, I think that + poor quality meant + nitrates etc in bacon or whatever is probably more likely to be the culprit!

[Peacemamalove]

Interesting..I was just wondering because I keep hearing a lot about meat and cancer , how we should all be eating less meat etc.

[covertlycrunchy]

I like what I heard about red wine neutralizing the carcinogens in charred meat....drink up!

[NoTiGG]

Just from memory I remember reading that potato skins also neutralize the toxins from charred meat and marinating the meat in a sugar/acid/oil combination also helps with high temperature cooked meats

[barefootmommy]

This is why I eat a lot of my red meat raw. It's cooked meat that causes cancer. Raw protein is digested differently, even contains some enzymes, minerals and vitamins that are hard to get in other foods which are important for good health - like CoQ10.

I eat raw or rare steak at least once a week. Never well done. The next best thing would be to eat it with broth, according to NT.

[barefootmommy]

Oh also marinating the meat for about 6 hours in an acid medium makes a dramatic difference (read about this in the Canadian Naturopathic Newsletter...), I know a lot of people also take Vitamin C with the meal or add garlic and onions to the meat for this reason.

[Rasa]

Originally Posted by NoTiGG

Just from memory I remember reading that potato skins also neutralize the toxins from charred meat and marinating the meat in a sugar/acid/oil combination also helps with high temperature cooked meats

You're making me feel better about the grilled steaks + baked potato with skins my parents used to serve us as kids ;-)

[fresh_veggie]

The China Study is a great read comparing animal foods, %cal from protein, and cancer rates in different populations from around the world.

[rayo de sol]

The China Study is a biased, inaccurate, and flawed book that just wants to promote the vegan diet.

[mamadelbosque]

And Nurturing Traditions is also a biased, inaccurate, flawed book according to some, promoting its own brand of traditional-foods diet.

Following one diet dogmaticlly, and believing everything one organization puts out w/o question is pretty silly. WAPF has some good points. So does The China Study. Neither is the be-all-end-all of diets.

[rayo de sol]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

And Nurturing Traditions is also a biased, inaccurate, flawed book according to some, promoting its own brand of traditional-foods diet.

Following one diet dogmaticlly, and believing everything one organization puts out w/o question is pretty silly. WAPF has some good points. So does The China Study. Neither is the be-all-end-all of diets.

The book you're thinking of is Nourishing Traditions, and what's with all the assumptions? Where did I say that every word in Nourishing Traditions must be followed to the letter?

You realize this is the Traditional Foods forum, right? You can't exactly expect people to have a positive reception to The China Study.

[snowbunny]

Originally Posted by fresh_veggie

The China Study is a great read comparing animal foods, %cal from protein, and cancer rates in different populations from around the world.

The China Study was hands-down one of the worst analyses on nutrition I've ever read, and I read it as a *vegan* looking for scientific evidence supporting my dietary philosophy and the poor science behind the book was deeply dismaying to me at the time. Despite its name, it never gave a solid look at the foods eaten by healthy, rural Chinese villagers; moreover, its connections between cancer and protein consumption were largely based on studies conducted on rats fed a diet of entirely casein. And I'd fully agree, no living thing (rats or humans) should eat a diet of entirely casein. The best to come from the China study was the connection made between peanut butter, aflatoxin and liver damage.

As for the OP, we usually eat our meat seared, stewed or roasted and generally avoid grilling or burning it. It's also important to note that meat and milk from ruminant animals (cows, bison, goats, sheep) is a source of CLA a fatty acid known to actually *fight* cancer. The meat and milk of pastured or grass-fed animals is particularly rich in this healthy fat.