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(Rinnovabili.it) – Red meat and fried foods are certainly not a panacea for health. What was not yet known is that the cooking at high temperatures can even damage DNA.
The latest studies seem to go beyond the well-known health risks – including cancer – of some foods and it seems that prolonged cooking at high temperatures is no less harmful.
Do foods cooked at high temperatures trigger genetic mutations?
A study conducted by researchers from the Stanford University in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Maryland and the Colorado State University showed that heat-altered food DNA components can be absorbed during digestion and incorporated into the consumer’s DNA.
The absorption of foods with altered DNA from cooking at high temperatures appears to damage the consumer’s DNA. This means that with foods, genetic mutations potentially leading to cancer or other diseases could be triggered.
Some studies link the consumption of charred foods (for example the burnt part of grilled meats) and fried foods to DNA damage and attribute the damage to certain small molecules that form so-called reactive species in the body.
However, those small molecules produced in cooking are many thousands of times less than the amount of DNA found naturally in foods.
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The implications for public health
If the results of the studies are confirmed, there would be important implications for the public health and you should consider the opportunity to different food choices.
All the foods we eat – meat, fish, cereals, fruit, vegetables, etc. – they contain the DNA of the original organisms but we don’t know itbecause it is not part of the nutritional information contained in the labels (fats, proteins, fats, vitamins, etc.).
Yet the quantities are far from negligible. For example, a 500 gram beef steak contains more than one gram of cow DNA. So exposure to potentially damaged DNA from high-temperature firings is not insignificant.
Low-temperature cooking also damages DNA
The researchers cooked ground beef and pork and potatoes (boiled for 15 minutes at 100° and roasted for 20 minutes at 220°), then extracted the DNA and examined the samples.
It turned out that boiling at a relatively low temperature also damaged the DNA; Furthermore, potatoes suffered less damage than meatalbeit at higher temperatures (but the reasons are unknown).
Both types of cooking and DNA damage can promote genetic mutations that cause cells to replicate uncontrollably, as is the case in cancer. Subsequent examinations have highlighted greater damage to the small intestine, where much of the digestion takes place.
The study is still ongoing. So far, researchers have observed the uptake of heat-damaged DNA components and DNA damage in cells and lab-grown mice, but there is still no evidence of the effects on people.