Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Meat Will Murder You





With the weather here in the Boston area having finally turned the corner, a carnivore's thoughts naturally turn to the backyard grill (please stay away from the flowers though).

Now we ponder the eternal question: How do you like your burger? If you said "rare" (and we likes 'em rare around here) then you are going to get sick from E. Coli, make the bathroom stinky, and possibly die.

So, just grill all the bad stuff out of it, right? Sure, unless you want to die of cancer. Turns out, people in white coats at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health have discovered that high consumption of carcinogens from overcooked meat is correlated to an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. Basically, you up your risk of getting cancer by 60% if you eat all the blackened stuff on your burgers.

A Straight Dope column from a few years back goes into a lot of the gory details, but it was written before the latest studies came out.

2 comments:

Bijoux said...

It does make it difficult - overcook or undercook? I suppose I could send Husband outside with the meat thermometer, but next thing you know, there will be warnings about inserting stainless steel into your meat.

Mike said...

I think I cover both bases. I burn the outside and leave it a little pink on the inside...