Sylvia Ley Part 2, BBQ’d Meats and Carcinogens

In part 2 of this Exclusive Interview, Sylvia Ley talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed about BBQ’d meats and carcinogens, and the impact of using high heat when cooking meat and the cancer implications.

Sylvia H Ley, PhD, RD, is a research scientist at Harvard University.

Transcript of this video segment:

Freed: We talked about red meat and processed red meat a little bit. But now, we’re learning that when you cook the meat, depending on how you cook it, it’s actually going to increase your risk for diabetes and also cancer. And so, what kind of science — I mean, you’re telling people they can’t barbecue anymore. So, that hurts most people whether they have diabetes or not because it’s not just diabetes, it’s cancer. So, what kind of science is behind that fact?

Ley: Yeah. So, it’s been shown. It’s pretty well known that when you barbecue red meat it produces carcinogens. And of course, that is a concern for cancer but also has implication on those products, the chemicals that have been produced can have impact on the insulin sensitivity as well as the inflammatory pathways which we know are associated with the progression to type 2 diabetes and it’s within its pathogenesis. So, for that context it’s important to choose slower cooking, lower temperature cooking methods if you are to have red meat. But of course, the science, the more population-based, prevention for diabetes, science is based on comparing people who have been consuming barbecued meat less than once a week, compared to those who are cooking high temperature meat — cooking meat at high temperature almost every other day or more often, and the risk is increased by almost 40%. So, by saying that, if you are using barbecue choices less often it may not have as much of an implication. So, if you’re having a special party and have a guest over or it’s July 4th and you want to have some barbecue and if you don’t participate in those activities you may get depressed and that may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes anyway. So, those are the choices you will have to consider.

Freed: Does it makes a difference what you eat with that?

Ley: Of course. So, it’s not just about red meat. The science says if you increased your red meat intake as an adult, it increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But there really hasn’t been much evidence supporting that if you actually reduced your total red meat intake as an adult it improves your risk of developing diabetes. And more evidence is supporting towards if you change your overall diet quality, so we’re talking about eating whole grains, more vegetables, fruits, and eating less sugar-sweetened beverages and the whole dietary patterns, if you improve the total dietary patterns that really helps your risk of developing diabetes and it reduces it.

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