WHO: Benzopyrene is a level 1 carcinogen, often hidden in 3 kinds of food, eat as little as possible
"Why is your meat so burnt? Be careful, it will cause cancer."
"What, the charred part is the essence, okay? If you don't eat charred barbecue, you will have no soul!"
"I read the news a few days ago that the burnt part contains carcinogens, and eating too much will really cause cancer."
"I haven't eaten barbecue for almost half a year. It's not a big problem to eat it once or twice once in a while. Okay, okay, pass me a chicken wing..."
Some people eat barbecue outside, and when they see the burnt part, they will cut it off with a knife, or bite it off before eating; Can the burnt part of the food be eaten?
1. If the food is burnt, you can’t eat it. Will it cause cancer?
Article 8 of the "Twelve Articles of Anti-cancer and Cancer Prevention" issued by the National Cancer Treatment Center of Japan clearly points out that you should not eat food that is too burnt, because the tryptophan contained in the food may cause cancer after being burnt. substance.
Japanese scholars have also conducted special research on this. The researchers fed the blackened product of tryptophan contained in fish and meat to mice, and found that it could induce liver cancer in mice.
But in hamsters, no cancer was found in hamsters after being fed for 2 years (the life span of hamsters is only about 2 years), and the amount of charred black matter used in hamster experiments is very large . Ingestion of more than 1 ton of scorched black matter may cause cancer .
In other words, it is important to control the amount you eat. In addition, the temperature of food can also affect the appearance of carcinogens.
Heating to 120°C:
When cooking food, the Maillard reaction is prone to occur when the temperature reaches above 120°C. This reaction will turn the color of the food brown and produce aroma substances such as furan, pyrazine, thiazole, etc., making the food look more appetizing.
However, when the Maillard reaction is produced, the food will also produce acrylamide, which has certain neurotoxic effects , and its content is higher in fried and baked high-starch foods.
Heating to 200°C:
When food is cooked to reach this temperature, heterocyclic amines are likely to be produced, which are carcinogenic and mutagenic , and have a certain relationship with the occurrence of liver cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer.
When heated to 300°C:
Once the food is heated above 300°C, the lipids in it will undergo a thermal cracking reaction, and then polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons will be generated, the most typical being benzopyrene .
This substance is a strong carcinogen, and its content will increase greatly when the food is burnt or burnt. Long-term exposure to benzopyrene will increase the risk of lung cancer, digestive tract cancer, and bladder cancer.
2. The primary carcinogen "benzopyrene" is often hidden in 3 kinds of food
The WHO has long listed benzopyrene as a primary carcinogen, that is, a substance that is clearly carcinogenic to the human body. What exactly is it?
As mentioned above, benzopyrene is a strong carcinogen. Long-term exposure to benzopyrene will not only increase the risk of various cancers in the body, but also has strong teratogenicity and mutagenicity , which can affect the next generation through the mother's placenta, and then cause premature birth, teratogenic The risks are greatly increased.
Where does benzopyrene usually hide?
1. Barbecue and smoked meat
This type of food needs to use burning charcoal when cooking, and the charcoal itself contains a small amount of benzopyrene, which will invade the food with the smoke when burning. In addition, when the food itself reaches a certain temperature, the sugar and fat in it will also crack into benzopyrene, so the content of benzopyrene in this type of food is not low.
2. Fried food
Over-fried, stir-fried and high-temperature vegetable oil cooking foods will produce benzopyrene. If occurs during cooking, the content will increase by 10 to 20 times compared with ordinary food .
3. Cooking fumes
According to data, when cooking oil is heated to 270°C, compounds such as benzopyrene can be produced, and long-term inhalation of these fumes is very harmful to health.
For the sake of health, we should minimize exposure to benzopyrene in our daily life. How should we do it?
For example, when cooking food, choose steaming and other methods as much as possible. When cooking, avoid waiting for the oil to smoke before cooking, and try to heat the pan with cold oil.
The choice of edible oil also has some knowledge. Choosing a good oil can help reduce benzopyrene from the source, and you can choose high-grade, less added, cold-pressed oil .
3. Three delicacies that many people love to eat are also carcinogenic
There is a great relationship between the occurrence of cancer and our daily living habits. These foods that many people love to eat are actually very unhealthy.
1. Processed meat
Foods such as bacon, ham, hot dogs, and sausages are all processed meat, and processed meat has long been listed as a class I carcinogen by the World Health Organization. There is a clear relationship between long-term intake of processed meat and the occurrence of various cancers.
2. Chinese style salted fish
Chinese-style salted fish is also a type I carcinogen, because a large amount of salt is added to this type of food during the curing process, which in turn makes the nitrite content in the food exceed the standard. After entering the body, nitrite will be converted into nitrosamine, which is a strong carcinogen and will increase the risk of cancer in the body.
3. Alcohol
After alcohol enters the body, it will increase the risk of gastrointestinal cancer, such as oral cancer, esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, etc., and alcohol will damage the health of the liver and increase the risk of liver diseases, including liver cancer.
Although the above-mentioned foods are Class I carcinogens, it does not mean that they will definitely cause cancer after eating. There is a great relationship between carcinogenicity and the amount and frequency of intake. As long as it is not consumed in large quantities for a long time, there will generally be no major problems, and there is no need to worry too much.
There is a great relationship between diet and our health. We should reduce the intake of the above-mentioned foods with cancer risk and eat more natural foods.
References:
[1] "Will eating those burnt places in food cause cancer?" ". Human Health. 2020-09-03
[2] "Eating burnt food is easy to get cancer? These 3 situations may be more dangerous! Develop 5 cooking habits, which are equivalent to "saving lives". Popular Science China. 2022-05-10
[3] "WHO Published! 7 kinds of cancer-causing bombs are hidden on the Chinese dinner table! ". Health. 2021-10-17
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