A UNIVERSITY OF Wisconsin professor says he has found chemicals in fried beef that actually protect against cancer.
The finding is a switch on the 20-year-old debate over the cancer risk of chemicals in cooked beef.
``There`s been a lot of interest in carcinogens in beef since 1964, when eating a well-done charcoal-broiled steak was equated to smoking 600 cigarettes,`` says Dr. Michael W. Pariza. ``Though it was found that those cancer-causing compounds were formed by fat drippings on hot coals, a problem you can solve by putting aluminium foil between the meat and the coals, other researchers started looking into the subject.
``They found potential carcinogens were formed even in beef fried away from charcoal, though the levels were very low. We were continuing research on this topic when we found the chemicals that protect against cancer.``
Pariza says the chemicals isolated from ground beef prevented formation of tumors in mice exposed to a cancer-causing compound called DMBA, the standard carcinogen for a well-studied and widely accepted cancer model.
``After 14 weeks, the mice treated with the protecting beef chemicals averaged only one-third as many tumors as the untreated mice,`` he says.
How important is the finding?
``At the least, we have some good news to balance out the bad news about fried hamburger,`` Pariza says. ``At the most, we may come up with
recommendations on more healthful ways of preparing food and leads on new drugs to treat cancer patients.``