Is Smoked Food Bad For You?

The summer is about to come and people are getting ready to start grilling, one of the favorite pass times for many millions of Americans.

But just like any popular trend, there is always controversy behind it. For example, the media’s new role in keeping you away from grilling comes in with a warning that smoking or grilling your food can cause cancer.

And as always, as media giants start pushing a topic, a lot of people start fearing and they give up on their favorite habits.

Is grilling or smoking your food really cause cancer?

After reading a lot of careful research, we guarantee you that it doesn’t. However, there’s a catch (1).

What causes cancer through smoked food?

The biggest causes of cancer through smoking food come through the two carcinogens present when smoking food. These are Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) (2).

Yes both of these are present when you smoke your meat. But read on and you will find out how you can cook so that these don’t appear in your food.

How to avoid HCAs and PAHs in smoked food

In a research sturdy, it was found out that when meat is cooked at a very high temperature, combination of sugars, creatine and amino acids from the meat form a new substance that is HCA. This is mostly possible when charring food at very high temperatures (3).

So in other words, if your smoker is blackening your food, you are probably eating carcinogens. Black food, or charred food is when these harmful agents are born and that is when food becomes bad for you.

So the best way to stay healthy and not eat carcinogens is by cooking meat at low temperatures and making sure you don’t blacken your meat.

But it isn’t as simple as it sounds.

There are so many cookers available in the market that it is almost impossible to find a smoker that is safe for cooking.

By safe we mean that the smoker should be able to control the temperature so that your food doesn’t get burnt.

Most of the times it isn’t the fault of the person who is cooking the food, it is in fact the fault of bad smokers available in the market.

We highly recommend reading reviews of smokers before you decide to buy one. Read on the reviews so you find out that the temperature control of the smoker stays consistent and doesn’t burn food.

Other ways to keep safe from cancer

If your smoker isn’t capable of controlling temperature consistently, you can also buy a digital meat thermometer that you can use to manually control the temperature.

Even the biggest chefs of the food industry recommend manually controlling the temperature with the help of a meat thermometer.

There are only a few smokers available that are capable of automatically keeping temperature at bay. So don’t expose your health, get a thermometer and start manually controlling the temperature so the food doesn’t get charred and you don’t get cancer.