Science Says Marinating Meat with Beer Can Reduce Your Cancer Risk

There’s nothing better than a cold one and some hot steaks on the grill. What’s not so fun is having Debbie downer tell you about all the carcinogens you’re inserting into your food along with the smoky, meaty flavor. Now you have a shot back. Turns out that pouring beer on your meat before grilling it makes it less likely to form carcinogens in the first place.

According to the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, marinating with beer reduces PAHs or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — the carcinogens that form on meat cooked on a grill or BBQ. Limiting exposure to PAHs is recommended as they’ve been linked to cancer in other animals.

Researchers conducted what could go down in history as the tastiest experiment ever.  In the name of science, they marinated several pork loin steaks in different beers, while maintaining a control with no beer. They found that dark beers reduced net PAHs by 53 percent, compared to a control with no beer.They also compared results from a non-alcoholic pilsner, which reduced only 25 percent, and an alcoholic pilsner which performed the worst, reducing only 13 percent.

Time to break out some Guiness and steaks. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.

H/T PS Mag + Picthx freecandy13