Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C5ty_m6Ll32/ You might say: Doc….We’ve heard over and over that charcoal grilling produces carcinogenic compounds that might later trigger cancer.  Now, though, Stanford University chemists have uncovered yet another genetic risk associated with cooking foods at high temperatures.   We know that our food comes from plants and animals, but we never think about the fact that the food contains its own DNA.  The researchers have studied the considerable damage that occurs to this food DNA when you heat and super heat it.  They then proved with tracer studies that fragments of this damaged food DNA is incorporated into mammalian cells not only in the test tube but also in the lining cells of test animals.  The higher the cooking temperatures the greater the DNA damage.   So think about this the next time you are grilling or, for that matter, cooking pizza in a high temperature oven.  We don’t yet know what harm this damaged food DNA may trigger over time.  But…..This latest