Cooking meat 'may be dementia risk' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Browning meat in the oven, grill or frying pan produces chemicals which may increase the risk of developing dementia, US researchers suggest.

Advanced glycation end (AGE) products have been linked to diseases such as type-2 diabetes.

Mice fed a high-AGEs diet had a build-up of dangerous proteins in the brain and impaired cognitive function.

Experts said the results were "compelling" but did not provide "definitive answers".

AGEs are formed when proteins or fats react with sugar. This can happen naturally and during the cooking process.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26323720

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/02/19/1316013111

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_glycation_end-product

[elleng]

1. So tasty food may drive us nuts???!!!

(Don't mean to be mean. Wondering how this study was done. Test group: Those who don't cook vs. those who do???)

[KurtNYC]

2. also a carcinogen

but that browned stuff (fond) is what makes it good. Browned butter on ANYTHING is delicious; like the taste on popcorn.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. So do we have to eat our meat raw?

Or just make stew? Or maybe stop eating meat altogether - I've considered becoming a vegetarian just to keep my cats from snatching food off my plate (ever see a cat steal a whole ham sandwich?), and here's yet another reason.

[Warpy]

6. That's not a cat

It's a hairy seagull. Those things will steal steaks right off a BBQ grill.

I used to buy chicken livers as an occasional treat for my cats. They'd hunker over the dishes and growl for about half an hour before it finally dawned on them that the liver was both dead and edible.

[CFLDem]

4. I'm getting Alzheimer's whether I want to or not.

Cant fight genetics, you know what I mean?

[Warpy]

5. Watch those weasel words

Humans aren't mice and mice are designed to gnaw raw flesh from bones. We're not.

"May" is one of the main weasel words used in health scare reporting.

Go ahead and keep doing the Maillard reaction. Meat doesn't taste very good without it.

[SheilaT]

7. Thank you.

This is exactly the sort of research that shouldn't be misinterpreted. So now we know that cooked meat isn't good for mice.

But modern humans evolved eating cooked meat, probably as a result of eating cooked meat. Catching Fire, How Cooking Made us Human by Richard Wrangham is worth reading.

[LeftishBrit]

8. Mice are predominantly herbivores, and obviously they don't cook.

Not to mention, they have far shorter natural life expectancies than humans.

I don't think one can extrapolate from mice to humans in a study like this.

If you do take these studies seriously, then you may consider going vegetarian; but it is not a good idea to eat raw meat.