Take Time to Care: Try not to char your food.

For me, summer time means grilling and grilling means a nice, hardy sear on my food. I wrote a post last week about how I LOVE charred hot dogs. I always tell the chef, "Please char it until it looks burned!" It wasn't until recently that I read how bad that is! As it turns out, it can lead to cancer!!!! Is nothing safe?

For the interest of not completely boring you with the research I've done, I'll sum it up:
1. Grilling causes HCAs and PAHs to be found on your foods.
2. There are techniques that can be used to minimize the carcinogens.

For specifics on how to minimize the carcinogens, check out MIT's or NPR's pages for ideas. For specifics of the scientific tests performed to come to the conclusion that cooking with fire causes cancer, visit some of the links on the NYTimes site.

So basically, scientists have done it again: what we thought was natural and human turns out to be cancer causing. Yes. That's right, cooking with fire can kill you. Or something like that. I guess they'll tell us the egg is unhealthy again soon, too!

For me, I'm still going to enjoy my charred hot dog! It all boils down to moderation. I rarely eat hot dogs so when I do, I want it how it tastes best to me!