London - To the sweltering chef at a summer barbecue, there are few things more welcome than a cold beer.
So plenty of home cooks will be glad – if a little surprised – to learn that those perfectly charred pork chops might be healthier with a liberal helping of ale.
Scientists found grilled meat is better for you if it is soaked in beer for hours.
The process cuts down on chemicals that can cause cancer, they said – and the darker the beer, the better. Marinating for four hours in bitter got the best results, while even lager was better than nothing.
The food chemists found that meat cooked at very high temperatures, such as over a barbecue flame, is more likely to contain potentially cancer-giving substances.
These polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs for short, form in extreme heat. They are also found in car exhaust fumes.
Doctors have previously linked eating a lot of grilled meat with colorectal cancer.
Now the researchers from the University of Porto, in Portugal, say beer can prevent the formation of PAHs on grilled meat.
They tested pork cooked on a charcoal grill in various beer marinades.
Professor Isabel Ferreira told the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that meat marinated in ale had half the PAH levels of meat cooked without marinade. - Daily Mail