Paleogal wrote:

>Slow Cooking May Be Key to Health, Study Finds
>Mon Nov 11, 5:01 PM ET
>By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
>
>The culprits are called advanced glycation end products or AGEs for short.
>They are made by the interactions of sugars, fats, and proteins and form
>quickly when food is cooked at high temperatures.
>

Doesn't this suggest, as Craig just noted, that the presence of sugars
may be the culprit?

>"We tend always to cook our food under high heat. And because most foods
>consist of proteins, lipids and sugars, when we heat them under high heat
>for a long time, those reactions are accelerated. We end up absorbing
>those," she said.
>

I'd like to know about AGE levels when protein and fat are cooked and
consumed alone.

>Animal products rich in fat are the worst culprits, she said.
>

If sugar is also present, I think the fat would accelerate the
caramelization of the sugar.  This is how caramel is made, isn't it?  By
cooking sugar in butter?  I think "production of AGEs" is just another
term for caramelization.  We do the same thing, for example, when we
"brown" onions in oil, prior to cooking something else, i.e., we
caramelize the onions.

It would be helpful to know whether proteins are caramelized in the same
way, although the word "glycation" in AGE suggests not.

Todd Moody
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