After six months of age, babies start eating other foods besides breast milk, the most common being fruit, vegetables, cereals and the meat. Of all of them, the latter is the most important because of a need: from six months onwards, babies begin to need an extra supply of zinc and iron and meat is a good source of both.
However, meat can be carcinogenic for babies, for children and even for parents depending on the way we cook it. Let's say that it is not that meat is carcinogenic, but that depending on how it is cooked, phenomena occur in it that make it so. As the last thing we want is to eat anything that increases the risk of cancer and as the last thing we want is to give it to our children, we will explain below how to cook meat so that it is not carcinogenic.
What meat can cause cancer?
Yes, it is, or yes, that seems so. Several studies have found that meat may be related to some types of cancer and, although more studies are still needed that can definitely confirm it, it seems increasingly clear that such a relationship exists.
As I have already commented, it is not that meat per se can cause cancer, but when cooking it creates some compounds that are. I am referring to aromatic heterocyclic amines, which are compounds that form when meat is prepared at high temperatures and in greater proportion when the meat is very cooked. The phenomenon that produces it is the Maillard reaction and the aspect that takes the meat is darker, like toasted (those harder areas, like caramelized, that give the meat a good taste and smell, in fact). The objective, then, is to prepare the meat at a lower temperature and cooking it less time so that it does not arrive is so done.
How to cook meat to be less carcinogenic
Continuing with the premise mentioned, we will explain what are the different ways of cooking the meat, ordering it from best to worst. The first ones are the ones that create less amines and as we lower the risk, the greater the risk:
- Microwave or boiled.
- Stew or pressure cooker.
- Roast
- Fried with plenty of oil or in a deep fryer.
- Fried with little oil.
- Grilled.
- Grilled coal.
As you can see, the more we go down the higher the cooking temperature and the longer the meat is in contact with the heat source. This does not mean that the child can never eat meat if we barbecue (or that we cannot eat it). Let's say it is a general recommendation for day to day, to be clear that the last types of cooking are better left for specific days.
