I love grilling out in the summer. It’s always been a win-win: I spend less time in the kitchen and I lose 10 to 20 pounds because I stick to lean meat and veggies. But a friend just insisted that grilling meat can lead to cancer…should I be worried?

You don’t need to put away the grill just yet. Carcinogens are only formed during grilling when fat drippings burn and smoke in the fire or meat is cooked over extremely high heat. That means you can reduce your exposure to these harmful compounds by taking two precautions:
(1) Opt for lean cuts of meat like pork chops or sirloin to keep fat drippings to a minimum.
(2) Marinate the meat in a solution like ¼ cup of olive oil, ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar, ¼ cup of lemon juice, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. of mustard and 2 Tbs. of brown sugar for at least 20 minutes before cooking. One study at Kansas State University found that soaking raw meat in a similar mixture reduced carcinogenic compounds in the cooked meat by 87 percent.

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