Food preparation methods increase the risk of cancer
According to American research, cooking at high temperatures can destroy food's DNA, affecting the eater.
Usually what we eat affects our health.healthSome foods can increase your risk of developing the disease, while others can reduce it. Scientists believe that the way you prepare your food can increase your risk of cancer.
Authors from Stanford University (USA) discovered the reason why regularly eating foods cooked at high temperatures - such as red meat and deep-fried dishes - can cause this disease.
According to research published inACS Central Science, DNA components in food that are destroyed by heat can be absorbed during digestion and integrated into the eater's DNA. This directly damages human DNA, potentially causing gene mutations that lead to cancer and other diseases.
According toExpressThe analysis was conducted on mice and lab-cultured cells, but the team believes the effects are similar in humans.
“We have shown that cooking can damage DNA in food and that consuming this DNA can be risky,” said study author Eric Kool. “These findings could really change our understanding of food preparation.”
Any food we eat contains the DNA of the original organism along with vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and carbohydrates. For example, a 500g beef steak will contain more than 1g of cow DNA.
This suggests that human exposure to DNA is potentially damaging due to heat.
The team cooked minced beef, minced pork and potatoes in two different ways – boiling or steaming for 15 minutes or baking for 20 minutes.
They found that all three foods showed DNA damage when boiled and roasted. High temperatures damaged DNA more in most cases. Even just boiling – a relatively low cooking temperature – still resulted in some DNA damage. It is unclear why potatoes showed less DNA damage at high temperatures than meat.
A solution containing heat-damaged DNA was then fed to mice and exposed to cells cultured in the laboratory.
The results showed that cells were significantly damaged when they received DNA from heat-damaged food. In the mice, DNA damage was mainly found in cells in the small intestine, where most of the digestion of food takes place.
The authors now plan to test it on other foods with a number of different food preparation methods.
“Our study raises many questions about the unexplored chronic health risks of eating foods that are grilled, fried, or cooked at high temperatures,” said scientist Kool.
