Carcinogens in the Smell of Frying Bacon
Frying bacon outdoors decreases the concentration of airborne nitrosamine carcinogens.
Topics
Supplementary Info
Carcinogens in the Smell of Frying Bacon,
Sources Cited
Mitsakou C, Housiadas C, Eleftheriadis K, Vratolis S, Helmis C, Asimakopoulos D. Lung deposition of fine and ultrafine particles outdoors and indoors during a cooking event and a no activity period. Indoor Air. 2007 Apr;17(2):143-52.
Lijinsky W. N-Nitroso compounds in the diet. Mutat Res. 1999 Jul 15;443(1-2):129-38.
Acknowledgements
Images thanks to Renee Comet for the National Cancer Institute via Wikimedia commons and anemptygun.
Transcript
The level of nitrosamines in bacon is so high that these carcinogens have been discovered even in the vapours from fried bacon—you know than smell of frying bacon that everyone loves so much? Well, one of the more potent carcinogenic nitrosamines is in those fumes. You're breathing it in.
In fact if you are going to cook something like bacon and eggs the barbeque people have the right idea—do it outdoors in the fresh air. The amount of deposited particles deep into the lung of an individual indoors exceeded by up to 10 times the amount received by an individual at the same time period outdoors. which ends up depositing significantly fewer particles in your lungs, compared to cooking indoors.
Just don’t run around or play Frisbee or anything near the grill, as the number of deposited particles significantly increases with exercise, just because you’re inhaling greater lung volumes.
It's like the second-hand smoke of the meat world.
What about tempeh bacon? Tempeh is probably the closest plant-based thing to cured meat; it’s a fermented soybean product. Airborne mutagens produced by frying beef, pork and a soy-based food. What did they find?
Airborne cooking by-products from frying burgers, bacon and tempeh, were collected, extracted, and tested for mutagenicity, the ability to damage and mutate DNA. The fumes generated by frying pork and beef were mutagenic, especially the bacon—found 15 times worse than the beef, but no mutagenicity was detected in fumes from frying tempeh burgers.
The researchers suggest that this may explain both the increased risk of respiratory tract cancer among cooks as well as the lower proportion of deaths from respiratory diseases and lung cancer among vegetarians.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.
To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org
Doctor's Note
For more on the dangers of processed meats, see yesterday’s video, When Nitrites Go Bad and Bacon and Botulism. For more comparisons between meat and veggie meats, see Chicken vs. Veggie Chicken, What Is Really in Hot Dogs? and Carcinogens in Roasted Coffee. And for more on… more, enjoy the hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects.
For some context, please check out my associated blog posts: Using Greens to Improve Athletic Performance, Kiwi Fruit for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Is Caffeinated Tea Really Dehydrating?
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Michael Greger M.D.
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Food Pharmacist
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Laloofah
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