reply to post by marg6043
It's not that they didn't find heterocyclic amines. It's that they're
supposed to be in cooked meat. They're created by cooking certain
meats, chicken included. What would have been startling would have been to have not found them!
This is absolutely misrepresented. Total spin, if you want to use it like it's a political game, and the way it's being played here, it is. It's
deliberate ignorance (on the part of the people who published this report) to further some political goal, because any biochemist and hopefully
physician could tell you how common and natural heterocyclic amines are. A heterocyclic amine is created, in case you don't know (and I'm going to
go out on a limb here and assume you don't have any training or knowledge relavent to chemistry or biochemistry), by the reaction of an amino acid
(this is the building block of a protein) which is obviously fundamental to the meat itself and a creatine, an organic acid found in muscles. This
reaction takes place spontaneously at high temperatures, and is therefore an unavoidable consequence of cooking meat at these temperatures.
Essentially, this study is testing the ocean for traces of water, and then screaming that you have toxic dihydrogen monoxide that is deadly when
inhaled. If you really want to avoid these heterocyclic amines, then
don't eat cooked meat!
Sensational at best, malicious at worst.
[edit on 3-7-2009 by Johnmike]