http://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/facts/meat-consumption-and-cancer-risk
Carcinogenic Compounds in Cooked Meat
Heterocyclic Amines
HCAs, a family of mutagenic compounds, are produced during the cooking process of many animal products, including chicken, beef, pork, and fish. Even meat that is cooked under normal grilling, frying, or oven-broiling may contain significant quantities of these mutagens.6,7,8 The longer and hotter the meat is cooked, the more these compounds form. In some studies, grilled chicken has formed higher concentrations of these cancer-causing substances than other types of cooked meat.9
The major classes of heterocyclic amines include amino-imidazo-quinolines, or amino-imidazo-quinoxalines (collectively called IQ-type compounds), and amino-imidazo-pyridines such as PhIP. IQ-type compounds and PhIP are formed from creatine or creatinine, specific amino acids, and sugars.10 All meats (including fish) are high in creatine, and HCA formation is greatest when cooking meat at high temperatures, as is most common with grilling or frying. Consumption of well-done meat and PhIP has been associated with increased risk of breast cancer and colon cancer, as discussed in greater detail below. A recent case-control study at the University of Utah that included 952 subjects with rectal cancer and 1205 controls found that men and women with the highest consumption of processed or well-cooked meat had an increased risk of rectal cancer.11
I found this on the Cancer Research U.K. website. The IARC is the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
“” As Professor Phillips explains, “IARC does ‘hazard identification’, not ‘risk assessment’.
“That sounds quite technical, but what it means is that IARC isn’t in the business of telling us how potent something is in causing cancer – only whether it does so or not”, he says.
To take an analogy, think of banana skins. They definitely can cause accidents, explains Phillips, but in practice this doesn’t happen very often (unless you work in a banana factory). And the sort of harm you can come to from slipping on a banana skin isn’t generally as severe as, say, being in a car accident.
But under a hazard identification system like IARC’s, ‘banana skins’ and ‘cars’ would come under the same category – they both definitely do cause accidents.”
I was just about to posit something similar before I found the last quote. Eating grilled foods may bump your risk factors by a few percent but there’s no way to separate out which people in the group that has cancer got it from grilled foods. As I recall, the downwinders from the above ground nuke tests in the 50’s and 60’s had a slightly higher cancer rate but it was impossible to say weather the victim got it from exposure to fallout or other causes.
Also, this ignores the question of dosage and frequency of consumption. Artificial sweeteners may give you cancer, if you happen to drink a 55 gallon drum full every day for several years. Compare and contrast with how many diabetics live longer lives by not consuming sugar.