Is electric food smokers bad for you?!
Question: Is electric food smokers bad for you!?
Is smoking food with an electric smoker a bad thing!? Does smoking food this way put chemicals in the food!? Thank you from a "health nut" trying to live chemical free!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Answers:
News flash!.!.!.everything is "chemicals", whether man made, or nature made!. The body can't tell the difference!. Smokers just produce smoke for preserving and flavoring foods!. The nitrates in smoke from whatever source are potentially harmful however!. People who eat a lot of smoked meats have increase risk of esophageal and stomach cancers over their lifetime!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Well, there are varying levels of "bad for you"!. An electric smoker is commonly used to dry foods and/or add flavor to them (commonly meats), depending on the particular model!. Any time you would add heat to a nutrient, you run the risk of damaging the nutritional integrity of the nutrient!. That being said, herbs, veggies, and other similar plants tend to be most susceptible to heat, so smoking any of those would have more of a negative impact than meat, for example!. Most all foods would get some negative impact from heating (including increased levels of Nitrates), so it's up to each person if they would want to heat/smoke the food!.
Granted, some foods need to be heated to make sure they are prepared in a healthy way (like cooking meat, for example)!.
For those smokers that dry out the foods as well, it does help the food to last longer, so it's beneficial for longer term storage while taking away some of the health potential!. Ultimately, that difference is a personal preference of if someone wants it to last longer or be more nutritious!.
Smoking the food would add a very minimal amount of chemicals into the food, mostly being whatever is in the smoke (like burning wood chips or whatever), but there could be minute trace amounts of whatever is in the container (plastic is usually the main concern when it comes to heating things)!. There is a lot of debate as far as how much damage plastics in the air may cause, but most people say it's not good overall!. Take that for what it's worth!.Www@Answer-Health@Com
Granted, some foods need to be heated to make sure they are prepared in a healthy way (like cooking meat, for example)!.
For those smokers that dry out the foods as well, it does help the food to last longer, so it's beneficial for longer term storage while taking away some of the health potential!. Ultimately, that difference is a personal preference of if someone wants it to last longer or be more nutritious!.
Smoking the food would add a very minimal amount of chemicals into the food, mostly being whatever is in the smoke (like burning wood chips or whatever), but there could be minute trace amounts of whatever is in the container (plastic is usually the main concern when it comes to heating things)!. There is a lot of debate as far as how much damage plastics in the air may cause, but most people say it's not good overall!. Take that for what it's worth!.Www@Answer-Health@Com