Lung Cancer "Foodie Friday" - Prevention Week - Onions!

Perhaps I still feel somewhat guilty about raining on everyone’s picnic – writing about an increased risk of lung cancer with the consumption of grilled red meat at the onset of summer. Today I will redeem myself!

Grilling vegetables doesn’t result in the formation of carcinogens as does grilling red meat. In addition, certain vegetables appear to lower the risk of developing lung cancer. The winner in one study was onions, with a 50% reduction in risk for those consuming the most onions versus the least. For any of you that are former smokers or current smokers, the strongest association was with squamous cell lung cancer, a type of lung cancer strongly linked with smoking.

This weeks recipe is provided by Diana Ray, About.com’s Guide to Southern Food.

Whole Grilled Onions

Being a little bit of a health food nut, I substituted olive oil for the butter. Delicious!

_Source:

Le Marchland, L. et al. Intake of flavonoids and lung cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2000. 92(2):154-60.