A new study has found that women who favour flame-grilled foods may be at a much higher risk for developing breast cancer than women who do not.
Can't give up that flame-grilled taste? Then it might be wise to take an aspirin with your char-broiled meal, as the findings also suggest that aspirin may negate the potentially harmful effects of flame-grilled foods.
"Cooking meat at high temperatures in direct heat over an open flame can lead to the production of cancer-causing chemicals known as heterocyclic amines, or HCAs," Dr Kala Visvanathan from Johns Hopkins University, explained at a cancer prevention conference sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research.
By studying the eating patterns of 312 women with breast cancer and 316 women who were cancer free, Visvanathan's team found that breast cancer was increased a significant 74 per cent in women who ate flame-grilled foods more than twice per month compared with women who never ate flame-grilled foods.
"We saw similar results for increased meat consumption" in general, Visvanathan said.
Women who ate more than 64 grams per day compared with those who ate less than or equal to 64 grams per day had a 43-per cent higher risk of breast cancer.
However, a woman's ability to activate cancer-causing HCAs modified the risk of developing breast cancer.
The NAT2 enzyme, short for N-acetyltransferase, activates HCAs, Visvanathan explained. Slow NAT2 metabolisers tend to produce less active HCAs than fast NAT2 metabolisers.
Visvanathan reported that women who were "rapid metabolisers" of NAT2 who ate more flame-grilled food and consumed more meat daily were much more likely to develop breast cancer than slow metabolisers who never ate flame-grilled food and meat.
Interestingly, in rapid NAT2 metabolisers who consumed flame-grilled food or a lot of meat, aspirin completely attenuated the increased risk of breast cancer, the researcher said.
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