Barbecue alert!

As barbeque season kicks off, go easy on charred-to-a-crisp backyard barbeques. A 10-year study of more than 90,000 women published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has found that women who ate more than 1½ servings of red meat daily were twice as likely to develop breast cancer.

Researchers believe there are two culprits involved, both of which you can control. The first is cattle growth hormones; so, when you eat red meat, choose organic. The second is heterocyclic amines (HCAs), compounds which form when meat is grilled at high temperatures.

Animal studies show that these barbeque byproducts can cause cancer of the colon, liver, oral cavity, and skin, while human studies link grilled meat to breast and colorectal cancers. Roast your meat instead. Barbequeing produces more HCAs than roasting, according to the USA’s Toxicology Program.