While Canadians are getting excited about the start of barbecue season, a new study is suggesting that grilling food over an open flame may not be the healthiest cooking method.
Grilled, broiling or frying meats seems to create a class of toxins called "advanced glycation end products" (AGEs). As well, foods that have been pasteurized, such as cheeses, have AGEs which form when fats or protein in the food react with sugars.
Over the years, AGEs build up in the body, causing oxidative stress -- damage by rogue oxygen molecules.
AGEs also increase the likelihood of inflammation, which leads to a range of conditions from arthritis to heart disease.
The new study at Mount Sinai School of Medicine reveals that AGE levels are generally elevated in older individuals than in younger people. But much to the researchers' surprise, the study also showed that AGE levels could be very high in young healthy people who consumed a lot of AGEs in their diet.
"AGEs are quite deceptive, since they also give our food desirable tastes and smells," says the study's author Dr. Helen Vlassara, the director of the Division of Experimental Diabetes and Aging at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
"So, consuming high amounts of grilled, broiled, or fried food means consuming significant amounts of AGEs, and AGEs in excess are toxic."
The study measured AGE levels in 172 healthy men and women who were divided into two age groups: those between the ages of 18 and 45 and those between the ages of 60 and 80.
The blood tests showed that AGE levels were 35 percent higher in individuals age 65 and older compared with those younger than age 45, suggesting the lifetime accumulation of AGEs.
The study also showed that in all of the participants, the higher the consumption of foods rich in AGEs, the higher the blood levels of AGEs -- and the higher the levels of markers of inflammation.
The study found that AGE levels could be very high in young healthy people.
"Excessive intake of fried, broiled, and grilled foods can overload the body's natural capacity to remove AGEs," Vlassara notes, "so they accumulate in our tissues, and take over the body's own built-in defenses, pushing them toward a state of inflammation.
"Over time, this can precipitate disease or early aging."
Once AGEs enter the body, it becomes more difficult to get them out, especially as people age. Older people have a reduced capacity for removing AGEs from the body, the researchers explain, most likely because kidney function slows as the body ages.
The study, done in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), is published in the April issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
Canada AM nutrition expert Leslie Beck says average Canadians should already be cutting back on the most worrisome foods.
"So your broiled hamburgers, your fried meats, your fried steaks, french fries, a lot of the fast foods you buy, so anything like that," she says.
While we likely can't avoid AGEs altogether, Beck says, "you want to really prevent consuming an excess amount that your body can't handle."
She offers these tips:
- Steam, boil and stew your food, when possible.
- Slice foods into small pieces so that food can be cooked for a shorter amount of time.
- Use lower heat to maintain the water content of food.
- Use olive oil or lemon juice instead of butter.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables which are naturally lower in AGEs
