As you go on with the fight to control your Type 2 diabetes and blood sugar levels, you might be interested to know how you prepare your meat could impact your risk factor for complications. By now you probably know taking in enough protein is key to controlling your blood sugar at every meal. So you are trying hard to include a reasonable amount of meat in your meal plan. However, are you cooking it healthily?
You could have also read grilling or barbequing your meat can increase the cancer-causing substances you have in your body and even eating a lot of red meat could increase your risk of developing certain cancers as well.
However, did you know there could be a connection between high-heat cooking and Type 2 diabetes? Researchers out of the Health Hospital at Harvard are finding just that. They noted the frequent use of high heat cooking methods including…
- broiling,
- barbequing,
- grilling and
- roasting
were all increasing the risk factor for Type 2 diabetes based on research carried out on over 289,000 participants. Those who often consumed meats prepared this way were more likely to be also suffering from Type 2 diabetes, showing this direct correlation. Note this may have not necessarily been just the cooking method, but how the food was cooked using sauces and so forth, and the link to weight gain. The test subjects were also more likely to be obese or very overweight, which in itself also increases the risk factor for developing Type 2 diabetes.
What is interesting to note is broiled fish seemed to be okay in the study. While there was not as much information on this, those who ate broiled fish often didn’t show an elevated risk, which can lead us to believe it is not just the broiling but the type of protein being cooked that particular way.
Researchers also pointed out another of the reasons why this could be problematic is because there are potentially harmful chemicals that form during this type of cooking which can lead to an inflammatory response in our body. This then sets you down a chain of events that could lead to insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes.
The take-home message in all this? Try alternative ways of cooking…
- slow cooking,
- baking,
- boiling,
- steaming,
- stewing, and
- stir-frying
are all healthier ways to cook your meat and help to prevent it from going past its succulent endpoint. When you overcook any meat, you are eliminating the fat and liquid, so all you are left with are the toughened muscle fibers.