Add Spices to Meat Helps Cut Cancer Risk

NB from herbalYODA: Adele Davis always suggested cooking meat at 300 degrees F and that was in the 1940s!
UPDATE: 5/31/10 - "Spices top the list of foods rich in antioxidants, explained Marianne Gillette, a vice president at McCormick & Company, whose background is in experimental taste research. One half teaspoon of ground cinnamon has as many antioxidants as a half cup of blueberries; a half teaspoon of dried oregano rivals three cups of raw spinach." Complete article

Spicing up red meat doesn’t just add oomph to hamburgers on the grill.
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans. 5/24/10

A new study suggests that when sprinkled on ground beef during cooking, spices like cumin, tumeric and rosemary help lower its cancer-causing carcinogens.

Lead author J. Scott Smith, a food chemistry professor at Kansas State University, has for years been working on methods to cut the amount of carcinogenic compounds known as heterocyclic amines, or HCAs, found in barbecued ground beef patties and other so-called “muscle foods.”

HCAs are produced when the meat is either grilled, barbecued, fried or boiled. Eating it means ingesting the dangerous compounds, which have been linked to increased risk of cancers of the stomach, lung, prostate, mammary glands, colon, rectum and pancreas, according to a news release.

In research backed by the Food Safety Consortium, Smith found that some spices containing antioxidants can reduce the levels of HCAs in ground beef patties by about 40 percent — if they’re added during cooking. “Cooked beef tends to develop more HCAs than other kinds of cooked meats such as pork and chicken,” Smith said in a statement. “Cooked beef patties appear to be the cooked meat with the highest mutagenic activity and may be the most important source of HCAs in the human diet.” Smith didn’t immediately return requests for comment from AOL Health.

Prior research he has done showed that rosemary extracts for sale online can stop HCAs from developing by 61 to 79 percent, and Thai spices can block the compounds by 40 to 43 percent.

Other studies indicate that meat cooked for fewer than four minutes in temperatures under 352 degrees Fahrenheit had low levels of HCAs, levels of which seem to increase as cooking temperatures and times rise.

The spices with antioxidants can block the HCAs before they even form during the heating process, but still allow for higher temperatures. In addition to cumin, coriander seeds, rosemary and tumeric, Smith also says he saw the same benefits in fingerroot and galangal.

The highest levels of antioxidant activity were found in tumeric, rosemary and fingerroot, with rosemary being the most effective at inhibiting HCA production, the study found.

Smith said he plans more studies on the potential benefits of marinades and powders when added to cooked beef patties.

More on Meat and Your Health: Well-Done Meats Increase Bladder Cancer Risk
Study Suggests Adding Spices to Meat Cuts Cancer Risk - AOL Health

Growing Healthier Food

I would encourage everyone to make a point to see FOOD, Inc.

Millions Against Monsanto

It is enlightening if you are new to learning about the ways Big AG and the corporatocracy controls your food supply. And it isn't just regular foods sold in regular supermarkets, its the organic market as well.

I look back on the food I was provided growing up and cannot imagine the way is grown and or processed today. My mother shopped at the Amish Farmer's Market, we had eggs and butter delivered from the farm, our milk wasn't homogenized, and in the summer we had lots of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and fresh seafood.

I think real food makes a difference in how healthy you can be. I also don't think it is a terrible thing to eat meat, basically because some people do need to eat meat to insure there metabolic needs are met. (Find out your metabolic standard with our self-test, $40)

The key to the health of the meat you eat is based on what and how it is raised.

Just like the oft-misunderstood insanity of pH in humans, pH in animals makes a difference too. It becomes more important because you are directly impacted by what animals are fed.

We know about hogs that are fed sugar coated corn flakes to fatten them up; cows that are fed corn, soy, ground up cows and chickens; and chickens that are altered to get fat fast. It is that assembly line mentality applied to farming that seems to have lead us down the path to the current level of terribly poor health status.

One thing struck me while re-viewing FOOD,Inc. This one thing is something I have never heard in news reports about E.coli problems with meat.

Its the corn!

First it is most likely to be GMO, and it is raised with an over abundance of toxic chemicals.

Secondly, when ruminant animals that are - by nature - known to rely on grass as their food, feeding them corn and any other add-in you might think of changes their gut pH.

When you change the pH, you foster E. coli.

When you utilize crowded feed lots and faster and faster processing methods, you foster E. coli.

When you over dose animals with antibiotics and hormones aimed at a fast fix for this problem, you haven't considered the real issues.

Not considering the real issues leads to all the problems, and the concept that it is cheaper to pay the fine than correct the cause.

You can make a difference. Healthy food begins with your voice. Tell your grocer you want naturally raised meats and eventually that's all that will be sold.

In the interim, join an "own a cow-pig-poultry-sheep" group that feeds only what comes naturally.

 Stop Factory Farm Production of "Organic" Poultry & Eggs

Eating LESS Meat is the way to lose weight ? NOT!

When I saw this article circulating the airways and media venues, as well as the numerous tweets I received from the raw foodies and vegans I was laughing so hard my sides hurt.

Hard to say who paid for this room of alleged researchers to come up with the findings, but you really do have to question this.

When choosing your food plan there is quite a lot more that goes into selecting what is correct for you.  Relying on mass media isn't always the best place to start.

I use a specific test that helps you learn what type of metabolism you have, based on twelve types.  These types were developed 50 years ago based on solid nutrition research that preceded this method by another 30-40 years.  And at that time research had "meat". It was based on solid scientific guidelines and it wasn't usually tainted.

Another approach I use is an old and proven food program that will re-balance your biochemistry.

Then I look at your personal nutritional deficiencies, in an approach I developed over many years in this work and with many people of differing backgrounds.  I have a patent application pending.

Of course I defer to organic food, but I also provide information so you can select the healthiest food even when organic isn't available or you cannot afford it.

Some people can eat meat, some cannot.  The same follows for vegetarianism and veganism, raw or cooked fanciers.

I also into consideration the issues of feed lots and mass production of meat, hormones, and antibiotics, as well as the type of feeding used in this wing of the food industry. 

So you get a tailored plan, and you get educated.  You'll receive support and get some balanced exercise information too.

Because I charge for this service I know that not everyone will take advantage of it, or any of the parts of it. 

And ultimately because my work is based on education you might like to read the opinion of a trusted colleague on this latest babble.

TIP:  One serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, or as others may say, the size of the palm of your hand.

Sorry Dr Atkins