In order to maintain physiological health in the human body, cells must grow and multiply in a controlled manner. There are many factors that can lead to the uncontrolled proliferation and change of some cells, and these are called carcinogenic factors. It is possible that these carcinogenic factors occur during the processing and cooking of foods.
In other words, the type and proportion of the foods consumed during the day are as important as the cooking methods. While we are happy that we are consuming useful food, harmful changes can be achieved with cooking methods. While cooking foods, our first aim is to minimize the loss of nutritional value and to prevent the formation of cancer-causing and harmful substances, and various cooking methods are applied for this purpose. Boiling, stewing, steaming and baking methods should be preferred as the healthiest cooking methods. When cooking with these methods, the nutrient loss of foods will be less, the digestion will become easier and the health risks that may occur with cooking will decrease.
Methods such as frying, smoking, barbecue should not be used. These cooking methods, which cause cancer-causing substances to form in the food we eat, play an active role in the formation of cancers of the intestine, lung and stomach in the future.
Cooking Methods and Cancer Relationship
Elements to Consider in Cooking
Heterocyclic amines (HA) are compounds formed by cooking red meat, fish and poultry at high temperatures. Frequent consumption of these meats leads to increased risks of colon, prostate and breast cancer. It has been argued that black pepper added to meatballs made from minced meat containing 30% fat prevents the formation of HA at a rate of 48.8-65.8% (Öz and Kaya 2011).
Boiling is the easiest and fastest cooking method. You can only cook with water. However, using too much water and high temperature leads to loss of water-soluble vitamins.
Food should not be cooked with the frying method. However, if you are going to fry, do not use frying oils more than three times, this will cause the oil to burn, burnt oil contains carcinogens.
The healthiest method is to steam the vegetables. A special container is placed over the bowl filled with boiling water, and the food can be placed in this special container or cooked in steam machines, so you can prevent the loss of vitamins while cooking vegetables.
You can consume vegetables such as purslane, broccoli, spinach, carrot, celery, pepper, onion, cauliflower raw in salads without losing their nutritional value.
Cut the vegetables into pieces just before cooking. Vitamin C loss will be less in vegetables cut just before cooking. Apart from foods such as lettuce, beans, and spinach that can be shredded by hand while chopping vegetables, the others should be cut into larger pieces with less contact with the knife as much as possible.
In the cooking process of meat, the burned parts create carcinogenic substances and should never be consumed.
Try not to add extra fat when preparing meat dishes.
Onions and garlic are effective in preventing cancer. It is beneficial to add it to your meals abundantly, but do not fry the onion with oil at the beginning, after cooking the onion with water or tomatoes, add oil to the food last.
You cut down on adding excess fat and salt to flavor your meals; instead, flavor it with tomatoes, various vegetables, and spices.
Frozen foods (especially meat) should not be thawed at room temperature or under the sun, should be thawed by keeping them on the lower shelves of the refrigerator, should not be re-frozen after defrosting, but should be cooked immediately without waiting.
Legumes should be thoroughly washed to remove pesticide residues before cooking. To ensure that legumes are cooked well, 8-10 hours of pre-soaking should be done. Pour out the soaking water, but pouring the boiling water reduces the nutritional value.
Pasta, noodles etc. Contains B vitamins. Since vitamin B is a water-soluble vitamin, pouring pasta water reduces its nutritional value, so pasta etc. Enough water should be added to cook.
Stay away from mold and toxin-produced foods (such as aflatoxin). For example, if foods such as hazelnuts are not stored well, aflatoxin can reproduce. Do not consume any food you suspect.