ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. - As we head into the summer months, families are preparing to fire up their grills. And some people love charred meat. This time of year, we often see warnings about grilled foods creating carcinogens.

True or false?

We asked Monica Wilm. She is the director of nutrition and food services at Park Nicolet's Methodist Hospital Methodist in St. Louis Park.

“There is some evidence if you cook at a high temperature it could do that if that is all you ever ate over the course of a year or if you cook everything to a burnt state,” she said. “If you are cooking your meat to high and it gets a piece of hard burnt on it, you should cut that piece off and just discard that.”

Wilm says a flame “coming off your grill” burning the product is considered high temperature.

When cooking over open flames, Wilm says, compounds in meats undergo changes that could produce carcinogenic compounds. Most of the research was conducted in animals.

“The meat, is a piece of muscle, but there are proteins in it which there are amino acids and you can change the composition of that,” she said. “A lot of people like that taste of that charcoal burnt and actually it is not the best thing for us to eat. When you eat meat like that it can change your DNA composition. Can doesn't necessarily mean it will. You are changing the composition of your meat. You can get a piece of smoked salmon or meats that can cause the same effects.”

Wilm says it may cause cancer but there is no definitive evidence showing this happens in humans.

So what do we do? Boil everything?

Certainly, not. Wilm, a registered dietitian, says moderation is key.

“It is summertime. People are going to grill their food.”