Barbecuing can increase the risk of cancer by 60%?

I suspect that the Minnesota study has been reduced to a punchy but meaningless headline. What does a 60% increase mean? 60% over your lifetime? Over one year? Over the entire population, or only a small sample? Also consider the word 'can': this implies that 60% (whatever that means) is the absolute maximum, and could even mean that most of the study was negative.

Hello, (ANS) Sorry! but this is just total 100% TWADDLE and scare mongering. Look humans have been eating meat for many thousands of years and IF these claims were true we would have known about this already a long time ago. NOTE:- The highland tribes people of Papua New Genuine have been eating barbaqued Pig since the dawn of time. They DONT get cancer. **Here in the UK the government has an entire department that is dedicated to testing & researching the facts around food safety. ONLY products that have been tested scientifically are allowed to be consumed. This also applies to the health standards around raw or killed animal products. Of course if you get sick because the food was badly stored or badly cooked thats a different issue entirely. But freshly killed pig meat which is butched correctly and cooked with care on a barbaque is quite safe for human consumption and there is no risk of any type of cancer from this. Ivan

I feel the same way about this study as I do all the others – it’s a study and it means nothing. When there is something conclusive than I pay attention.

I would wonder where they came up with the 60% figure. Mankind has been eating BBQ since man has been eating meat, it just wasn't called BBQ, it was called "cooking". Usually, as you know, it was over an open fire and I am sure there was a lot of black/burned/charred meat served and eaten. There were no records of cancer of the pancreas kept over the ages so it's hard to say how many of our ancestors developed it due to eating charred meat. I'm with you on eating burned meat - who wants it? No one in my family would eat it and I can't see where this is a major health threat. Are more people are developing cancer now days due to the pollutants all around us and in our foods? I think probably yes but, I also think more people are developing cancer merely because more people are living much longer giving cancer more time to grow also. Plus, diagnosing cancer as a cause of death is probably more frequent because science over all has improved immensely in the past 50 years or so.

Everything in moderation is ok, as long as you don't BBQ your food all the time we shouldn't feel guilty about having the occasional treat

Shocker .. Apparently so does smoking and sun worship ...

It has been studied and proved many times that BBQ increases the risk of cancer. If you want to reduce the probabilities of getting cancer then logically you should stop eating BBQ food. What sounds simple may be difficult to execute because the old habits and the social incentives get reduced. Choice is yours!

No one seems to be listening to the 60% claim. I always cleaned the BBQ and avoided char on the sausages but I still got it. Quite clearly the carbon is carcinogenic it probably depends on your diet with it or just dumb luck. I guess they still haven't found the cause of cancer yet. The researchers are still talking about percentages and likelihoods:(

A relative of mine was told by her doc not to eat BBQ after having breast cancer about four years ago, she was also told not to eat the skin from jacket potatoes, presumably the skins are more likely to carry germs?