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.)

Re:Marinade, add beer to the marinade

[Anonymous Coward]

Give him a break. Someone had to finish the keg after making the marinade.

Re:From what to what?

[khallow]

And perhaps you shouldn't be grilling your colon on the barbeque anyway for other reasons than PAH exposure.

Re:As far as colon cancer is concerned

[Neil_Brown]

Concentrate on the elephant in the room

That would need one heck of a lot of marinade...

Re:Marinade, add beer to the marinade

[HornWumpus]

Boiling food. aka English BBQ.