Marinate your chicken...

I'm dieting for a show right now and of course that means that I eat a lot of chicken. I'm around a lot of cancer research so I find myself trying to avoid little things that are thought to increase my chance for getting cancer. The thought of tanning makes me break out in a cold sweat-LOL... I heard a while ago that grilling chicken (and other meats) can increase the heterocyclic aromatic amine content and HAAs are thought to be carcinogenic in people. This morning as I was putting my 15 chicken breasts on the grill I was wondering if I should start baking my chicken instead-but I LOVE the taste of chicken right off the grill.

I found a great article about the effects of marinating chicken before you grill it. It seems that even if you marinate the meat for half an hour before grilling, there is a significant decrease in the formation of HAAs! You can marinate in sugar, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar or olive oil and get the decrease. My favorite marinade just happens to contain sugar and lemon juice. The authors of the study think that exposure to these different marinades somehow changes the surface of the meat and makes it less likely to form HAAs.

We get a little bit of flavor and protection all in one, enjoy!

What is HAAs?

KRL-Sorry for confusing you, I just abreviated the heterocyclic aromatic amines with HAA. They're just a class of compounds that are formed when you cook meats and they're known to cause cancer so its good to avoid 'em!

i like to marinade everything!!! (almost )

Marinating is good.

My 2 cents on things that cause cancer......

Just about everything causes cancer..... so unless I want to live in a bubble, I just don't worry about it..... and live life to the fullest.

Of course this doesn't mean I do things like smoke because I don't worry about it..... it just means things liek being in the sun, and stuff like that I don't worry about too much.

crankin'stein said:

Marinating is good.

My 2 cents on things that cause cancer......

Just about everything causes cancer..... so unless I want to live in a bubble, I just don't worry about it..... and live life to the fullest.

Of course this doesn't mean I do things like smoke because I don't worry about it..... it just means things liek being in the sun, and stuff like that I don't worry about too much.

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good point of view

I am bubble-girl...j/k.
I totally agree with you Crank, you can link so many things to cancer its ridiculous and personally I think that most of your risk has to do with your genetics anyway(smoking, of course, being the exception). I was just looking for an excuse to avoid the blandness of plain chicken.

Redrocks said:

I am bubble-girl...j/k.
I totally agree with you Crank, you can link so many things to cancer its ridiculous and personally I think that most of your risk has to do with your genetics anyway(smoking, of course, being the exception). I was just looking for an excuse to avoid the blandness of plain chicken.

Click to expand...

Well that excuse works..... but a simple... "I am bored with bland chicken" would have convinced me....

Marinating is great tho, and it is definitely nice to have a different taste to your chicken.

I think we all must have cancer in us and certain thing trigger it?
Who knows - I know a guy who lives the "cleanest" life I know and he just had a tumor removed from his throat.

Just to be sure, I'm marinading my cigarettes from now on. Masterpiece BBQ sauce, of course. ("Best barbeque sauce they make.")

-Randy