As summer approaches, grilling and barbecuing will become a mainstay of many families' meals. A landmark new study from the University of Arkansas shows that adding spices to ground beef burger meat can reduce the amount of carcinogenic compounds that are produced when the meat is cooked. By spicing up your burger patty, you may in fact be lowering your cancer risk.

Cancer-Causing Substances in Burgers

When muscle meats such as beef burgers are cooked, they produce carcinogenic substances known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs). These HCAs can increase your risk for colorectal, stomach, lung, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer. While many kinds of meat (including pork and chicken) produce HCAs, the greatest number of them is found in cooked beef, making your summer barbecue burger perhaps the greatest culprit in your exposure to HCAs.

HCAs increase with higher cooking temperatures and longer cooking times, with the fewest HCAs found in meat cooked for less than four minutes at under 352 degrees F. However, it is a food safety risk to cook meat at low temperatures and to undercook meat, especially ground beef, which can carry dangerous and potentially fatal bacteria such as E.coli.

Add Spices to Prevent Carcinogens From Forming

Now, research has found that adding spices that are high in antioxidants into your ground beef can prevent HCAs from forming as the meat cooks. After investigating six spices, including cumin, coriander seeds, galangal, fingerroot, rosemary and turmeric, scientists found that the antioxidants in fingerroot, rosemary and turmeric were the most effective at blocking the formation of cancer-causing HCA compounds.

Rosemary may be the most accessible spice for many burger lovers, and the study showed that some commercial rosemary extracts could reduce HCAs by as much as 61-79 percent. Thai spices also proved almost as effective for inhibiting the formation of HCAs. The same team found that marinating the meat in a marinade containing rosemary and thyme also effectively reduced the formation of HCAs.

If you want to use rosemary but don't want a strong rosemary taste, you can try using some rosemary extract (which can be found commercially on the Internet) and rubbing it into the surface of the steaks before grilling.

The greatest amount of HCA forms on the surface of meats that are charred and cooked at high temperatures. Using these antioxidant herbs and spices can prevent the cancer-causing compounds from forming, while still allowing you to use high cooking temperatures.

This post was included in the The Homesteading Carnival #147.