Before you fire up the grill this summer, throw a few herbs onto whatever it is you’re cooking. Marinating steaks with herbs and spices has been found to drastically reduce the amount of cancer-causing heterocyclic amines (HCAs) that are formed when fish and meats are cooked at higher temperatures (375 degrees F and up).

When a powdered marinade containing rosemary and thyme was added to steaks before cooking, HCAs in the cooked produced went down by 87 percent. Other herbs that were nearly as effective included oregano, garlic, onion, basil and parsley.

If you are going to cook your meat, particularly if you plan to cook it at a higher temperature, this is an incredibly easy way to reduce some of the risks. Adding cherries, blueberries or vitamin E to ground meat has also been found to have a similar protective effect.

Of course, an even healthier option is to cook your food only at very low temperatures (around 200 degrees F) or just sear it quickly on the outside, leaving the inside mostly raw.

Science Daily June 28, 2007