To maintain optimal health, not only are foods and their combinations important, how they are prepared also matters. For example, any food can go from being beneficial to being unhealthy when fried, toasted or overheated…

The healthiest cooking method is boiling (steaming is best), ollowed by grilling, but for a short time and with almost no oil. Stews made in a pressure cooker or casserole, cooked slowly and with liquid are also very healthy. Cooked foods: fried, baked at high temperature, roasted or barbecued, are the most harmful.

Benzopyrenes, heterocyclic amines, acrylamide… The smoke from wood, coal, petroleum products and greases contains benzopyrenes that can contaminate foods. Particularly ones that are in direct contact with the smoke, as in barbecuing, baking in a wood-fired oven and smoking.

In addition, these toxins can also form in certain industrial processes and when high heat is applied to any type of food (meat, fish, milk, oils, potatoes during frying, sugars, etc.). These substances practically do not form when food is steamed or grilled without excessive heat or burning.

The more well done a food is, the higher its fat content and the more toxic substances formed. Thus, a rare hamburger contains 0.09 ppb of benzopyrenes, a medium-rare one 0.56 ppb, and a well-done one 1.52 ppb; chicken baked in an electric oven contains 0.08 ppb, when fried 0.12 ppb, and when barbecued 4.57 ppb.

High levels of benzopyrenes are also found in tobacco smoke.

Benzopyrenes are highly toxic and accumulate in the body, altering the immune system. They are also highly carcinogenic, causing lung, stomach, bladder, liver, pancreatic, ovarian, bone, breast, skin, tongue and lymphatic cancers.