In some very important ways, science is finally starting to realize that the human body is very much like a walking chemistry experiment. Even as your body is helped by the cancer-fighting substances in foods -- read the first of our three-part series about nature's veggie superfoods -- the methods and substances we use to cook them can create all sorts of health hazards too.
Take, for example, processed foods -- baked foods, meats, beverages and cheeses -- full of inorganic phosphates, according to a late 2008 study, that may, not only, ignite the growth of lung cancer tumors, but spur their development in patients predisposed to the disease.
A more recent study warns folks to eat salty, fatty potato chips in moderation to limit their exposure to high levels of acrylamide, an industrial chemical that can also form when the amino acid asparagine -- contained in high amounts in some kinds of potatoes -- is heated to high temperatures.
Even the way foods are cooked at home or a restaurant matters. For example, frying meat can be very problematic, depending on the kind of heat used to cook it, the oils that swim around and permeate it and how the fumes emanating from that space may harm the person preparing it.
After heating 17 samples of steak in a pan with margarine or soya oil, European scientists detected the production of naphthalene (a banned chemical used to make mothballs) and mutagenic aldehydes in the air during the time all but one piece of meat was being cooked. Also of concern, the highest levels of naphthalene were measured in the air while meat was being cooked in margarine on a gas burner.
Although scientists were quick to point out the levels of naphthalene and other chemicals they measured were below acceptable occupational safety thresholds, cooking fumes are composed of many more harmful things, for which safety standards haven't been established. Unfortunately, cooking with gas appears to increase a patient's exposure to them.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine February 17, 2010
ScienceDaily February 18, 2010
The Independent February 18, 2010