When summertime hits, the grill becomes a regular fixture in dinner prep.

For many folks, it's the essence of summer eating - the smoky, slightly charred flavor of food right off the fire. But if you like those tasty brown bits and charcoal broil lines on your burger when you barbecue, watch out. You've actually cooked up a good dose of cancer-causing compounds.

Cooking meat at high temperatures (broiling, frying and barbecuing) triggers an interaction between meat proteins and the heat that results in the formation of heterocyclic amines (HCAs). HCAs are known carcinogens implicated in an increased risk for colon cancer. ^[1]

However, while HCAs may make the barbecue more dangerous than ever, there are ways to mitigate this potential health threat.

The most reliable way to protect yourself from this barbecue threat is to take meat out of the equation.

Marinate some tempeh or firm tofu and put it on the grill or try some of the veggie burger and hotdog alternatives at the grocery.

Or, instead of grilling the main protein for the meal, get your taste of fire and smoke in the sides. Try marinating some peppers, onions and squash in a mixture of olive oil, cider vinegar and spices. Then grill them over a medium fire.These meat-free alternatives can still give you a satisfying smoky flavor without the HCA threat.

But if you don't want to give up the meat, there are other ways to mitigate the danger of HCA's . . .

While any form of meat has the potential to create HCA's, fish and beef seem to produce much less than chicken.

In one Brazilian study, salmon pan fried without the skin on produced close to a third of the amount of HCAs found in pan fried chicken without skin. ^[2] Pan fried beef had only slightly more HCAs than the fish.

In a review of studies posted on the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine website, grilled chicken breast without the skin produced more than 100 times the amount of HCAs found in a well-done hamburger, close to 70 times the amount of HCAs as grilled salmon and 17 times the HCA's of a well-done steak. ^[3]

Many of the common ingredients in marinades have been proven to help minimize the number of HCAs formed:
-Both wine and beer work to reduce the formation of HCAs, but beer is more effective than wine. Virgin olive oil has also been shown to help reduce HCA formation.^[4]
- A marinade combining garlic, onions and lemon juice reduced HCAs by 70% and a turmeric-garlic marinade reduced them by 60%.^[5,6]
- Rosemary extracts also help minimize HCAs from developing. Some rosemary extracts have been shown to reduce HCA formation by as much as 90%!^[7]

In addition to adding some chlorella chlorophyll power, you can also indulge in some traditional BBQ sides. Many other fruits and vegetables reduce HCA's toxicity inside of you.

Have some fruit salad. In research on 15 different fruits, cherries were the most effective in fighting HCA toxicity, followed by kiwi, plum and blueberry juice. If you want to stick with tradition, watermelon hung in there as moderately suppressive too. ^[11]

And if you love coleslaw, keep eating it. Cabbage and other vegetables in the cruciferous family like radishes, kale, mustard and broccoli produce special sulfur-based compounds that can neutralize cancer causing toxins in the body. Research on 20 young men showed that eating cruciferous vegetables made a marked difference in HCAs' cancer-causing effects on the body. ^[12]

Finally, you've got one good reason to swill down a beer, here. Beer - particularly dark stouts - also seems to cut HCAs down to size once they get inside of you. Simply mix some beer with your burger in your stomach to enjoy the effects. ^[13]

Finally, more HCAs are formed the longer you cook meat over high heat.

In one study published in the journal Meat Science, well-done meat had 3.5 times the amount of HCA's found in medium-rare meat.^[14] Simply by flipping meat more frequently, allowing it to stay cooler, you can reduce the formation of HCA's.

Concern about contamination of undercooked meats has caused more outdoor chefs to play it safe by cooking meat longer. However, if you'd like to go back to rare, chlorophyll-rich chlorella can help you once again.Chlorella has a strong track record of minimizing E. coli, salmonella and listeria infections.

Don't Let This Grilling HCA Hazard Ruin Your Summer

Maintaining good health doesn't mean you have to give up the pleasures of life. It simply means you have to be more strategic. HCAs may increase your risk of colon cancer, but they're not invincible.

With some careful choices and tactical food preparation you can reduce or even eliminate your HCA exposure . . . without giving up the flavor of the grill this summer.

About Randall E. Merchant, Ph.D.
Dr. Randall E. Merchant and his team of colleagues have conducted several clinical investigations on the the effects of dietary supplementation with chlorella in patients with various chronic illnesses. Dr. Merchant continues to be in the forefront of double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical research on chlorella. He is also an esteemed member of the Sun Chlorella USA advisory board.

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Sources: 
[1] Research update: Cooked meat and cancer risk, American Institute for Cancer Research Newsletter, 1997 Summer; 56. 
[2] Iwasaki, M et al. Heterocyclic amines content of meat and fish cooked by Brazilian methods. J Food Compost Anal. Feb 1, 2010; 23(1): 61-69. 
[3] The Five Worst Foods To Grill. Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine website. July 3, 2010. Viewed 6/13/14 at http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/the-five-worst-foods-to-grill 
[4] Persson E, Graziani G, Ferracane R, Fogliano V, Skog K. Influence of antioxidants in virgin olive oil on the formation of heterocyclic amines in fried beefburgers. Food Chem Toxicol. 2003;41(11):1587-1597. 
[5] Gibis M. Effect of oil marinades with garlic, onion, and lemon juice on the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines in fried beef patties. J Agric Food Chem. 2007;55(25):10240-10247. 
6] Nerurkar PV, Le Marchand L, Cooney RV. Effects of marinating with Asian marinades or western barbecue sauce on PhIP and MeIQx formation in barbecued beef. Nutr Cancer. 1999;34(2):147-152. 
[7] Puangsombat K, Smith JS. Inhibition of heterocyclic amine formation in beef patties by ethanolic extracts of rosemary. J Food Sci. 2010;75(2):T40-47. 
[8] Guo D et al. Inhibition of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo [4,5-f]quinoline (IQ)- DNA binding in rats given chlorophyllin: dose-response and time -course studies in the liver and colon, Carcinogenesis, 1994; 15(4): pp. 763-66.
[9] It's Not Easy Being Green, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1995. 
[10] Yun CH et al. Non-specific inhibition of cytochrome P450 activities by chlorophyllin in human and rat liver microsomes, Carcinogenesis, 1995; 16(6): pp. 1437-1440. 
[11] Platt KL et al. Fruits and vegetables protect against the genotoxicity of heterocyclic aromatic amines activated by human xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes expressed in immortal mammalian cells. Mutat Res. 2010 Dec 21;703(2):90-8. 
[12] Murray S et al. Effect of cruciferous vegetable consumption on heterocyclic aromatic amine metabolism in man. Carcinogenesis (2001) 22 (9):1413-1420. 
[13] Nozawa H et al. Inhibitory effects of beer on heterocyclic amine-induced mutagenesis and PhIP-induced aberrant crypt foci in rat colon. Mutat Res. 2004 Apr 11;559(1-2):177-87. 
[14] Puangsombat K et al. Occurrence of heterocyclic amines in cooked meat products. Meat Sci. 2012 Mar;90(3):739-46. Epub 2011 Nov 9.