
It wouldn’t be crazy to give up grilled, smoked, or fried food - rfreytag
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/01/cancer_risk_from_grilled_meat_is_it_time_to_give_up_smoked_and_fried_foods.html
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Zigurd
Let's take apart the specific supporting paragraph here:

 _Giving up grilled, smoked, and fried meats seems equally bizarre today, but
population-wide changes in dietary staples have dramatically affected cancer
rates in other parts of the world._

OK, good so far, we're going to get a case that illustrates why grilled food
is bad.

 _In the early 1970s, liver cancer killed nearly one in 10 adults in Qidong,
China, a region located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Two factors
contributed to the astonishingly high prevalence: widespread infection with
Hepatitis B, and food contaminated with aflatoxin._

Aflatoxin? OK. Known carcinogen. But how potent compared to the result of
grilling?

 _The soil in Qidong didn’t support rice cultivation, so the population relied
on corn. Growing and storage conditions encouraged the growth of a mold that
produced the potent carcinogen._

That sounds VERY bad. Bad enough to show a large regional difference in
outcomes.

 _When food trade between regions opened up, the residents of Qidong largely
switched to rice. By the late 1980s, exposure to aflatoxin in the area had
dropped more than a hundredfold, and the liver cancer rate has halved._

So a 100X normal exposure to aflatoxin doubled liver cancer. This leaves me
puzzled. I'm not searing a hunk of red meat over wood every meal. Both the red
meat and the open flame are probably a Bad Idea. But how much do I have to do
that to move the outcome by a measurable amount? At what point does it matter
more than simply eating less? Or eating less processed food?

If you are grilling your meat, you at least bought some meat, and perhaps
other unprocessed ingredients of a meal, instead of some processed concoction.
Is this a first world foodie problem?

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new_test
Be mostly vegetarian, with high percentage of diverse raw leafy stuff and non-
modified oils (olive, sunflower, etc), everything else in moderation, and
you'll be fine. Avoid any chemicals whose purpose is to increase yield,
protect from plant/animal diseases, or augment taste.

/thread

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cylinder
Article is lacking. Does "frying" mean deep frying, or also pan frying? All
types of oils? In the end, which way should we be cooking meat?

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jsilence
There goes my 'grilled soylent patties' startup idea. bummer.

