But the key difference between overcooked veggies and overcooked meats is that over-doing veggies makes them flavorless and nutritionally bereft, while overcooking meat makes it flavorless… and dangerous. The possible carcinogenic effects of overcooking meat and eggs are fairly well documented.

Cooking eggs and meat at high temperatures produces a chemical compound called PhIP, which many believe can cause DNA changes, or can metabolize harmless bodily enzymes into carcinogens — especially those that cause breast cancer.

Now, a new report by researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and Masonic Cancer Center claims that regular consumption of well-done, charred meats could boost the risk of pancreatic cancer by a frightening 60 percent.

This new research indicated that overcooking also created heterocyclic amines (H.A.s), which contribute to increased risk of pancreatic cancer, an especially lethal cancer. H.A.s are generated by the high-temperature immolation of amino acids.

The researchers suggested maintaining low heat while grilling, frying or barbecuing in order to cut down on “excess burning or charring of the meat.” Doing so will help cut down on the cancer risk, since the burned portions have the highest HA concentrations.

This is something you should keep in mind before you fire up the backyard barbeque. But by all means, don’t let it stop you from eating meat. You just need to think twice about how long you cook it.

It ought to be criminal — and if the Federal Trade Commission has anything to say about it — it soon will be.

Brand-name drugs have a set amount of time during which they have exclusive rights on a certain formula. After this time, it’s up for grabs. At that point, other drug companies are free to produce the same drug, but without the slick brand name. Generic pharmaceuticals are generally significantly cheaper than their brand-name counterparts.

But the brand-name makers do so well with their inflated profits that they can afford to pay other drug makers millions NOT to produce generic forms of the drugs — leaving you no choice but to pay an arm and a leg for certain medications.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), that alone is costing consumers an extra $3.5 billion a year. And since the government pays for about one third of all prescription drug costs, it costs Uncle Sam about 1.2 billion extra per year.

No wonder the government is stepping in to put a stop to these pay-for-delay deals.

European researchers loaded some clogged-up Finns with one of several non-remedies: laxatives, buttermilk with some probiotics, white wheat bread, and enough rye bread to stuff a turkey. A fifth group got both the rye and the probiotics.

The researchers found the rye bread eaters improved “intestinal transit time” by 23 percent over the white wheat bread group and 41 percent over the laxative group, according to some bathroom reading I found in the Journal of Nutrition. The probiotics, meanwhile, did nothing at all — but that says more about the bacteria they chose than probiotics in general.

That might sound encouraging until you realize that these bread-eaters had to choke down around 240 grams of the stuff a day to increase their output — that’s around 7 slices, or more than half a pound of bread.

You could make sky-high Dagwood sandwiches all day long with all that bread. Too bad you won’t have any room left for the kinds of food that would really solve your intestinal traffic jam.

Rye bread is rich in the insoluble fiber the mainstream loves to push as a cure-all to digestion problems — but the fact that the cramped patients in this study had to eat loaves of this stuff to make it work should tell you they’re on the wrong digestive tract.

So skip the rye, insoluble fiber supplements, laxatives, enemas and everything else they throw your way. Instead, get some more soluble fiber in your diet from natural sources like barley, oatmeal and lentils.

If you still have problems when you’re sitting on porcelain throne, take a psyllium supplement. You can get it in nearly any form you want — pills, powders, wafers, etc. This stuff absorbs water like a sponge, so drink more when you take it.

Then feel free to smoke a good cigar and enjoy a stiff drink after supper — both of these aid digestion.

And for more tips on healthy digestion, take a look at the February issue of the Douglass Report, where I give you the lowdown on the kind of digestion protection that will give you a stomach of steel. Click here to sign up now.

If you leave it alone, chances are you’ll never have a problem with your prostate — and the latest study shows that vitamin B6 could help keep it that way.

Swedish researchers studied 525 prostate cancer patients who got different amounts of this great nutrient. Those at the low end had between 1.3 and 1.9 milligrams daily, which is right around the recommended amount.

But some in the study received between 2.2 and 2.9 milligrams each day. And when you’re done reading this, you’ll probably want that amount too — because the researchers found that the extra B6 boost improved prostate cancer survival by 29 percent.

If that can help even one man skip the scalpel, I’ll celebrate.

Ever since surgeons and hospitals discovered they could make a quick buck by slicing and dicing prostates all day, the “early diagnosis, early treatment” mantra has been repeated so often that everyone just assumes it’s true.

They’re even willing to overlook the side effects such as incontinence and impotence, thinking it’s a small price to pay when you’ve just been “saved.”

Sorry, pal — I feel for you, but you weren’t saved. You were had. Prostate cancer is one of the most over-treated conditions out there. On its own, its often survivable with nothing at all — not even that vitamin B6.

It’s time we stop buying into the Great Prostate Swindle, the biggest scam in modern medicine — and if B6 can help you do that, then I’m all for it.

You can get this great nutrient from many meats, fish, beans and peanut butter, and it’s entirely possible to get up to 2.9 milligrams daily from food alone. But doing so might be a chore — if you want the make sure you’re getting enough each day, choose a multivitamin with some extra B6 or work in a supplement.

In one of the most irresponsible government programs I’ve ever heard of, clinics in Birmingham, England, are bribing teenage girls to get vaccinated.

Believe it or not, they’re offering girls up to $70 in “Love2Shop” mall vouchers in exchange for getting one of the most dangerous vaccines ever approved: Gardasil.

They call this an incentive; I call it physical assault on a minor. They want a pat on the back; I want them pat down and tossed in jail.

And if, as a parent, you don’t like it… tough. In Jolly Old England, your daughter doesn’t need your permission to get vaccinated… so you’ll only find out when she comes home showing off her new earrings… or when you get a call from the emergency room after she suffers one of this dangerous drug’s many side effects.

I’ve been crusading against Gardasil from Day One. The media calls it a “cervical cancer vaccine,” but don’t be fooled by this fancy nickname. This vaccine doesn’t protect against cervical cancer — it protects against certain forms of HPV, an STD that can cause cervical cancer.

It’s far from 100 percent effective, and it’s even farther from 100 percent safe. But do you expect these teenage girls to know that? Do you think they’re going to go home and do the research before accepting their shopping bribe?

Sadly, most of them have no clue that Gardasil has been linked to dozens of deaths and thousands of reactions ranging from anaphylactic shock and grand mal seizures to coma and paralysis. Some girls have come down with the incurable nerve disorder Guillian-Barre Syndrome after getting vaccinated, as I’ve warned before.

And according to a stomach-turning report I found in the Daily Mail, officials in Britain are already talking about expanding the Birmingham mall scheme nationwide.

If you think this won’t happen here, you’re only partly right. Health officials might not be bribing girls at shopping malls, but the approach they’re taking could be far more devastating.

Big Pharma is hard at work pressuring local officials across the country into making a requirement for school.

The worst part is that all of this hoopla is over something that’s completely preventable. Vaccine or no vaccine, the only surefire 100 percent effective means of preventing HPV infection is abstinence. You can’t spread a sexually transmitted virus without sex. It’s as simple as that.

Shrinks are in the middle of updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. That’s their list of ordinary character traits and flaws wrapped up in fancy names to make them sound like diseases.

One of the proposed new conditions is “temper dysregulation with dysphoria.” Symptoms: “severe, recurrent outbursts of temper” that are “grossly out of proportion to the situation” several times a week in kids under 10.

Sound familiar? Of course it does — it describes just about every kid who ever existed. A parent’s job is to teach them, over time, how to behave like human beings.

But that doesn’t make much money, does it?

Shrinks want you to believe these kids are mentally damaged monsters… and they’re ready to give your child an early lesson in drug addiction instead of the firm, guiding hand they need.

But what did you expect from this shady industry?

They’re also looking to turn laziness (“cognitive tempo disorder”) and anger (“intermittent explosive disorder”) into full-blown adult mental illnesses. They’re even looking to reclassify teen “irritability” as a new psychiatric disorder.

Forget the shrinks — these new “disorders” are simply part of growing up. If you do suspect a real problem in your child’s brain, visit a neurologist.

And for Pete’s sake, keep your kid far away from the local psychiatrist.

That’s right, folks. You can’t make this stuff up.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that smokers create toxic particles that linger long after their cigarette has been snuffed. The researchers are suggesting that smokers carry a little invisible cloud of these particles around with them wherever they go, kind of like that dust cloud that always follows Charlie Brown’s friend Pig-Pen.

In other words, smokers are constantly contaminating everyone, everywhere, all the time with their filthy habit — whether they’re actually smoking around anyone or not.

I’m sure you can see where this is going. More rules, more laws, and less personal freedom — all in the name of health. And sure enough, the researchers claim that the only solution is 100 percent smoke-free places. And to assure a victory, they’re pulling out their ace in the hole: the children.

The scientists claim that since these particles linger on floors, walls and furniture, children who crawl around touching everything are in grave danger. Never mind that they can’t present a single child — not one! — who’s ever been harmed by this supposed health risk.

It’s pure bunk designed to scare more people away from the healthy use of tobacco.

Don’t believe a word of it. The truth is, smoking can save your life — and I’ve got all the science to prove it. Click here to find out more.

No? Then don’t let Coke lecture you on heart health.

The world’s largest peddler of sugary drinks has purchased a partnership with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, giving Diet Coke a prime role in a bit of nonsense called the “Heart Truth Campaign,” allegedly to raise awareness about heart disease among women.

The NHLBI is part of the National Institutes of Health, which would explain their complete lack of judgment.

And it doesn’t stop with Coke. When it comes to bad marriages, the NHLBI is a polygamist — they’ve also climbed into bed with snack queen Sara Lee and the pretzel king Snyder’s of Hanover for this program.

Any awareness of heart health should begin here: Soda and carb-packed snacks will leave you fat, sick, weak and prone to heart disease — and switching to diet soda won’t save you.

Since the word “truth” is right there in the name of this cockamamie campaign, they should put that right on the product labels.

Of course, they’ll do no such thing. You won’t sell much soda with honesty.

Instead, they’re decorating Diet Coke cans with little hearts… and because there’s nothing like a big star to obscure the real issues, they’ve named supermodel Heidi Klum the official “Diet Coke heart health ambassador.”

Talk about doublespeak.

Coke defends its sponsorship, claiming its money is paying for free heart screenings for women… which is kind of like Jack the Ripper offering free abdominal examinations.

But what would you expect from these people? Coke has been trying desperately to buy credibility. Last year, the company paid its way into the American Academy of Family Physicians, causing members of the group to resign in protest. (Read “The great Coca-Cola rebellion.”)

This newest effort is just one more step over the line… and another reason why you can’t trust any piece of medical advice from the mainstream — especially if it comes from our own government.

By the way, I’m not the only one critical of the NHLBI’s partnerships. The deals have led to a wave of bad press. Since it’s a government body, you’d think they’d have to be accountable for this one, right?

WRONG!

When contacted by CBS News, the NHLBI refused to talk about it. So much for open government and change we can believe in.

And as usual, you can thank Big Pharma for lighting the way.

A new report pegs tens of thousands of deaths on the diabetes drug Avandia. No real surprises there — anyone paying attention knows this med is bad news, even if the FDA still refuses to pull the plug on it.

No, the real shocker here isn’t the report itself… but the fact that it came from the Senate Finance Committee.

Now I’ve seen everything!

If we have to rely on grandstanding D.C. politicians to save us from Big Pharma’s riskiest meds, then we’re in it even deeper than I thought.

The bipartisan report says the FDA’s own numbers show 83,000 heart attacks caused by this drug between 1999 and 2007. Government numbers obtained by the New York Times find that simply switching diabetics to a rival med would prevent 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure every month.

And two of the FDA’s own epidemiologists — including Dr. David Graham, the hero who blew the whistle on Vioxx — are calling for this drug to be pulled from pharmacies.

So where’s the FDA on all this? They’re urging patients… to keep taking the drug! They say they’re still reviewing “new” numbers that were delivered to them last summer… and hope to hold a meeting on this in July.

Going by the conservative numbers in the Times, that means at least 2,500 unnecessary heart attacks and 1,500 preventable cases of heart failure will have happened between now and then.

Nice work, guys. America’s safe in your hands.

Of course, they’re just doing what they do best: Buying time for Big Pharma to sell more meds before the party comes crashing to a halt.

After all, there will probably be some legal bills to pay when all’s said and done.

Canadian health officials are telling pharmacists to pull thousands of perfectly natural supplements from store shelves, as new regulations kick in that they claim will bring order and safety to the vitamin industry.

In reality, all they’ve done is give Big Pharma a chance to tighten the death grip it has on modern medicine. And as those drug companies pad their profits, supplement makers are caught up in a bizarre Catch-22 that could lead to job losses and business failure.

The new rules require supplement makers to have a license to sell their vitamins. But the bureaucrats who issue those licenses are either so overwhelmed or so inept — or both — that they can’t get them out fast enough

Canada’s National Post tells of one little company that makes just two supplements. One’s a homeopathic treatment for diabetes pain, the other is a vitamin. I have no idea if either work — but it may not matter, because neither one’s been given that government blessing yet.

If those two products get the Canadian heave-ho, the company will be toast — or whatever else it is that they burn for breakfast up there.

I hate to break it to them, but they should probably polish up those resumes: There’s an estimated backlog of 10,000 vitamins and supplements waiting for approval.

That’s one hell of a waiting list.

Over six years, the regulators issued around 18,000 licenses. I’m no math whiz, but that’s 3,000 licenses a year — which means it’ll take more than three years to get to everyone still waiting.

This is the precisely the kind of disarray and “regulation” that Big Pharma lives for… because while you can’t get many completely ordinary vitamins and supplements in Canada now, you can still get Avandia.