Grilled foods?

[gmattson]

I like this guy. A medical doctor who isn't pushing drugs for the pharma industry!

Your body’s not made to punish you for eating what you like.
You like the taste of protein because it’s good for you. You like sweet fruit because it’s good for you. My basic philosophy of eating is to eat foods that you enjoy in their natural, unadulterated forms and they’ll be good for you.
That includes grilled foods. Some patients have come to me saying they’ve read advice telling them not to grill their food. Humans have been grilling food since before we had any other way of cooking it. We’ve cooked food on an open fire for hundreds of thousands of years. It burned the outside.
Plus, that tastes delicious and I’m sure it tasted delicious to our ancestors, too. Even my dog likes meat when it’s charred a little bit.
What my patients were concerned about is something that’s mistaken for a byproduct of grilling, but that’s really a part of modern food processing, and which our bodies weren’t really built for.
They’re called “advanced glycation end products,” or AGEs. Sometimes this happens when you “brown” food – like when you caramelize vegetables on the stove, or get a “golden” or brown crust on baked goods.
It also happens when you cook meats for a long time, like with lunch meat or cured meat.
When you eat foods with AGEs, they can gather in any number of tissues. The basic result is that your endothelium gets “stiffer” and doesn’t work efficiently.
AGEs block nitric oxide activity in the endothelium, keeping your blood vessels from relaxing and flowing freely. Stiff blood vessels that don’t let blood flow feely are a major cause of high blood pressure and can lead to heart disease.
Processed foods aren’t the only source of AGEs in today’s world. In just a minute, I’m going to show you a tool that can help you get rid of AGEs in any form. My friend Jonny Bowden developed it. And it’s important that you have this tool in order to help stop AGEs, because they’re very harmful.
A recent study looked at how well your blood vessels function before and after a meal containing AGEs. People who ate the high-AGE meal had their blood flow reduced by 62%! The ability of their larger vessels to dilate decreased by 36%.1
As I mentioned, AGEs don’t only come from food. Pollutants like exhaust and smoke can cause AGEs to form too. And did you know that fructose undergoes glycation at about 10 times the rate as glucose? Now think about all those products that have high fructose corn syrup. Is it a surprise we’re seeing skyrocketing rates of diabetes and other chronic inflammatory diseases?
To prevent buildup of AGEs in your body, follow these three easy steps:
Take Thiamin – Thiamin is an important part of processing any carbs you eat and avoiding producing AGEs.2 In the study from above, researchers gave some people a kind of thiamin (vitamin B1), and it completely prevented the detrimental effects on blood vessels. And you don’t need much. Take 1.5 mg a day.
Do Some Mineral Magic – The mineral selenium helps your body make one of its most powerful antioxidants, glutathione. This might be why, in scientific studies, cells treated with selenium are able to eradicate AGEs. All you need is 55 mcg of selenium a day. Eating one Brazil nut each day more than does the trick.
Eat Fresh – This one comes from my friend Jonny Bowden, a top-flight nutrition specialist and fitness instructor. He’s got a great new program called New You in 22. It’s a guide that will help you transform your health and metabolism in just 22 days. The reason I mention New You in 22 here is because Jonny has a lot of very pertinent advice on conquering excess sugar and AGEs.
We both agree that you should avoid foods that have been heated for prolonged periods of time, like cured or processed meats. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat quality meat, or that you shouldn’t grill. If you give me the choice between a glistening piece of lunchmeat, or eating meat from a real animal cooked on a grill and charred black on the outside, I’m going to pick the latter.
Put a good char on the outside of your chicken and forget the processed meats. And, New You in 22 goes a step further and shows you how to eat to avoid AGEs from other sources as much as possible. It’s a comprehensive guide to stopping sugars from sabotaging your health. For example, you get a high fat, moderate protein and low-carb program that would fit right in here at my wellness center.
New You in 22 helps direct your body to have low blood sugar, lower blood pressure and a fast metabolism so you never have to worry about the harmful effects of dangerous hidden sugars like AGEs ever again. And, if you click here, Jonny has a special offer just for my readers.
To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD
1. Negrean M. “Effects of low- and high-advanced glycation endproduct meals on macro- and microvascular endothelial function and oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 May;85(5):1236-43.
2. Li YB, Han JY, Jiang W, Wang J. “Selenium inhibits high glucose-induced cyclooxygenase-2 and P-selectin expression in vascular endothelial cells.” Mol Biol Rep. 2011 Apr;38(4):2301-6.

[Bill Glasheen]

It is true we need to watch what we eat.

It is true that we should avoid food with preservatives, or processed food. Shop on the outside aisles of the grocery store as much as possible. The fresher the better. The closer to the sun, the better.

We can to some extent use supplements as - for lack of a better description - natural drugs. Just be careful. Supplements aren't regulated, so buyer beware. You never know if what is advertised on the label is what you're getting. Best to stick with reputable brands - especially those whose contents are validated by independent laboratories.

Be very, very careful. Some "fashionable" supplements (e.g. fish oils) turn out to cause harm, causing increased risk of some conditions. You're better off getting the vast majority of your nutrients from real food. That said, I do have my own supplements that I take. Most are all about managing my bad knee, helping with my vision (I have an odd eye issue), and just fiddling around the edges with the "alchemy" of supplements.

In general it's not a good idea to eat a lot of char-broiled meats. The smoky flavor - from burned proteins - is slightly carcinogenic. It's OK as a treat now and then, but avoid regularly eating grilled meats. And do you really need to put all that barbecue sauce on perfectly good meat and fish? IMO it's criminal. Just don't. Less is more. The fewer the spices you use, the more you can tell if the food you're eating is fresh - or not. This is one very good reason why I love eating raw fish. Some spices - particularly the ones with color - are good for you. Sugar isn't. Salt isn't.

Oh and yes... sugars are bad. Consume them only in your nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed foods that are loaded with all kinds of easily-recognized and highly-disguised SUGAR. It doesn't take a degree in chemistry to know that you're eating junk food, and it can't be all that good for you. Don't believe me? Do people watching in a Walmart, or any place that sells a lot of junk food. I rest my case. As for your own litmus test, just look at your nude body in the mirror. A picture is worth the proverbial 1000 words. The more your body looks less like an hour glass and more like an apple, the more trouble you have ahead.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

I thought I would bring in an outside source - with a lay perspective - to validate my post.

This is from a website I highly recommend for the curious - HowStuffWorks.

Bill

You can increase your cancer risk by eating too much grilled red meat or chicken or even meat pan-fried at a very high temperature. Meat or chicken that is well-done or burnt appears to be the most problematic.

Based on the existing research, the best approach may be to enjoy grilled meats occasionally, but not on a regular basis. This is a judgment call, but it makes sense to limit your exposure to carcinogens (chemicals linked to cancer), which are found in these grilled meats.

The worrisome chemicals created by grilling meats are called heterocyclic amines (HAs). They form during grilling, broiling or even searing meat in a very hot frying pan — when the very high temperatures break down the amino acid creatinine. There is also some concern that fats from the meat dripping onto coals create additional chemicals in smoke that may land back on the meat.

When you do grill or broil meat, you can minimize your consumption of unhealthful chemicals in a few ways:

• Don't eat blackened or burnt parts.
  ....
• Precook meats in the oven or microwave, and then finish on the grill for just a few minutes.
  ....
• Substitute grilled vegetables or fruits for part of the meat in your meal.
  ....
• Eat smaller portions of grilled meats.

Many of the chemicals created when meat is grilled are not formed during the grilling of vegetables or fruits, so people can enjoy grilled flavor without unhealthful chemicals. Fruits and vegetables that work well on the grill include onions, green and red bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, pineapple, papaya or mango. Skewers that alternate small bites of meat with vegetables or fruit are an easy way to maximize flavor and minimize unhealthful chemicals. Don't substitute processed (luncheon) meats for grilled meat, though. Processed meats contain different kinds of carcinogens that may be even more harmful.

What you eat is even more important than how it's cooked. The best advice is to follow a diet in which foods from plant sources predominate.

For more information, the ACS book Cancer: What Causes It, What Doesn't provides an educated perspective on what cancer health hazards people may face in everyday life, and what's not worth worrying about.

Also see Heterocyclic amine.

[gmattson]

I remember having an argument with a teacher from Harvard relating to the subject of sugar in our diet/foods. She called me all kinds of names because at the time I was involved with Mishio Kushi and his Macrobiotic diet, that believes sugar is the main cause of cancer and a host of other ailments. She defended sugar because of all the sugar industry sponsored studies which "proved" sugar was actually good for you!

I wonder if the pharma industry's money helps promote drugs in the same manner?

If the only way to cook meat was by grilling it, I suspect the meat industry would be funding all kinds of "studies" to prove that grilling is wonderful and very healthful.

[Bill Glasheen]

The most important thing to do is to get beyond the hysteria and let the facts tell the story.

Sugar doesn't cause cancer, but that doesn't mean consuming it is good for you. As an alternative to nutrient-dense food, it isn't. Considering that the vast majority of people get too much of it and suffer long-term health consequences from it, there are serious problems with adding it (via sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, or other forms) to a majority of processed foods. The makers of processed foods put sugar and salt in their products because it makes people eat more of it and that translates to dollars. Again... it's difficult to convince the average consumer to shop on the outside aisles of the grocery store. They'd rather have their donuts.







- Bill