True steak aficionados will insist that "rare" is the only way to order your meat, but recent research might back that up from a health point of view too.
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York have released findings that suggest how you choose to have your steak cooked could actually affect your risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
The research concerns compounds known as ‘glycotoxins’, formed when we brown or blacken certain foods.
The study, which was carried out on mice, found that a diet rich in glycotoxins was more likely to lead to dementia-like cognitive and movement problems.
Researchers then monitored the amount of glycotoxins in the blood of a small sample of New Yorkers over the age of 60, for a period of nine months, and found that subjects with high levels of AGE Glycotoxins in their blood experienced greater cognitive decline.
Speaking to
Dementia News, researcher Michael Woodward said: "These studies are only preliminary and more evidence is required in the form of large-scale epidemiological studies before we start recommending how to best cook our food.
"However, this study further adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests what you eat – for example highly fatty, fried and processed foods – can be linked to diseases such as dementia, diabetes and cardiovascular disease."
