Reasons to Avoid the Combination of White Rice and Grilled Ham

Everyone knows that processed meats such as ham, sausages, and bacon are bad for the body. While it’s impossible to completely avoid eating them, if you do consume them, it’s better to avoid eating grilled ham on white rice. Otherwise, you end up consuming the already harmful ham in an even more detrimental way to your health.

 

Processed meats are harmful to the body because carcinogens are produced when meat is processed through various methods such as smoking, salting, and curing. For example, curing meat with nitrite produces N-nitroso compounds, and smoking meat generates carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). N-nitroso compounds damage DNA in the body and induce oxidative stress, promoting cancer cell growth. PAHs are known to be associated with lung cancer, breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer.

It has been proven by various studies that processed meat increases the risk of cancer development. In 2018, a large-scale study tracking 260,000 women over seven years confirmed that processed meat raises the risk of breast cancer in women. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization (WHO), classified processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen based on research showing that consuming 50 grams of processed meat daily increases the risk of colon cancer by 18%.

 

There is still a way to minimize the risk of cancer caused by processed meats. It involves changing cooking methods. If visible fat is present in processed meats like bacon, remove it as much as possible. This is because meats with higher fat content tend to contain larger amounts of PAHs. Whenever possible, avoid direct flame cooking. According to an analysis by Professor Hung-jae Park's team from the Department of Environmental Engineering at Inje University, the PAH content increases with direct flame grilling. The PAH levels in processed meats cooked in a pan without direct contact with fire ranged from below detection limit to 22.1 ng/g, whereas those grilled over charcoal with direct flame contact ranged from 12.7 to 367.8 ng/g. The best way to prepare processed meat is to blanch or boil it so that heat does not directly contact the meat. If grilling is desired, use a frying pan, pot lid, or other grill surfaces to prevent direct contact with fire.

 

Foods eaten with processed meat are also important. Eating them with vegetables instead of carbohydrates is less harmful to the body. According to a study by a research team from Bordeaux University in France, people who eat processed meat with complex carbohydrates such as potatoes and grains have a higher risk of developing dementia than those who eat it with fruits, vegetables, seafood, and poultry.

 

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I eat ham if I have it.

If you don't have it, it's not really worth buying.

 

Children love it very much.

They give it to you blanched in hot water.

It would probably be better to eat less.