Reply #174: What you wrote is unscientific nonsense

[rayofreason]

Specifically "... if there's a genetic issue with the cloned meat your eating, it could (possibly) screw with your genetics..."

I have no idea what you mean by a "genetic issue", but your statement reeks of sympathetic magic.

Some things you eat contain chemicals that are carcinogens, i.e., they promote the development of cancer cells, which are cells that have gone bad and reproduce out of control. However, carcinogens have no direct relationship to the genetic makeup of what you eat. If you grill meat you burn the outside, that burnt (tasty) part has some carcinogenic properties. Boil your meat and you avoid that. And all red meat can become carcinogenic in your lower intestine. leading to colon cancer. (see http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/2/172).

The only way that cloned meat could be more carcinogenic than regular meat is if the chemical structure of cloned meat were different in such a way that through cooking it would produce more carcinogenic materials, and this would be observable in tests. However, if the protein structure of the clone were much different that the progenitor, then it is likely that the clone would not be viable, so the point is moot. In any case there is no mechanism that the genetic structure of the food you eat can directly affect your own genetic structure.