Healthy Grilling Tips: The Ultimate Guide
Grilling is everyone’s favorite summertime activity, it is the healthiest way of cooking your food because you will preserve all the vitamins that might be dissolved while cooking on the stove for example. Also by grilling you are reducing oil and avoiding frying so you will have a healthier version of your food. However, to have a full healthy meal it is not enough to grill you need to know that there are many tips you should follow in order to grill in a healthy way.
By grilling meat especially if you are using the charcoal grill, you will cause the formation of carcinogens called: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs). These compounds usually form at high heat.
The journal of cancer Research once published a study about these compounds and concluded that people who usually eat well-done meat were 60 % more likely to get pancreatic cancer and by increasing more grilling time and temperature they will be even subjected to lung, stomach, and breast cancer.
In this article, we are going to give you few tips about how to grill in the perfect way that will prevent you from having any problems or Sid effects from grilling. These tips are very easy and practical, if you follow them you will definitely eat and enjoy your meal without feeling guilty.
Choose high quality and lean meat, chicken or fish
When you want to choose the meat try to go for grass-fed beef, organic farm-raised fish, free-range chicken because these are the highest quality kinds without any chemicals since animals are healthier when they are raised in nature. This way, you will protect yourself from hormones and antibiotics usually fed to a non-organic raised animal. Moreover, to have the healthiest meat option you should always go for the leaner cuts like white fish, chicken breasts, flank steak, tenderloin, sirloin. If you want to grill fish you can go for salmon it is a very healthy option because it contains a very good kind of fat not like other kinds of fish.
Marinade the meat using herbs
There are 2 benefits behind marinating the meat with herbs, the first benefit is that when you marinate the meat you will create a barrier between the meat protein and the heat of the grill so you will prevent the formation of the carcinogens. Regarding the second benefit is the use of herbs such as thyme and garlic that will prevent the formation of the carcinogen based on a study was done by the journal of Food Science which stated that by using herbs the carcinogens were decreased by a huge % compared to a bunch of meat that they didn’t marinade. Check out the link below to know more about the study
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19241593/
The thing behind herbs is the antioxidant effect that will inhibit the formation of HCAs and PAHs.
Clean Your Grill before using it
To avoid the buildup of carcinogens or any debris on the grill you have to clean it in a very careful way before and after grilling. You can use a brush and then a piece of cloth to wipe up all the debris on the grates. This way you will first protect yourself from any remaining products and also you will be grilling the meat in a perfect way where there is no barrier that might lead to undercooked food.
Use a meat thermometer
HCAs and PAHs don’t form at random temperature, according to the National Cancer Institute www.cancer.gov the formation of such products varies based on the meat doneness degree but in general, if you are grilling at 300 F and above the carcinogens will start to form. So by using the thermometer you will make sure not to exceed the maximum temperature and you will definitely stay on the safe side
Precook the food in the microwave
Studies have shown that if you cook the meat 1-2 minutes in the microwave before placing it on the grill you will reduce the formation of HCAs by 80-90% since you will also need less time to expose the meat to the grill. According to the USDA, it is very safe to do so but you should make sure that you will directly place the meat on the preheated grill after using the microwave because if you partially cooked the meat and leave it aside the bacteria will be multiplied and not destroyed.
Grill Veggies with meat
Veggies are a great source of vitamins and fibers which will add nutritious content to your meal but this doesn’t mean that you can grill the veggies at any temperature because also you need to prevent the formation of carcinogens, so it is better to cook on indirect heat and avoid overcooking as well.
Avoid Undercooking of meat
When we talk about the dangers of overcooking meat we should not forget the dangers of undercooking it too, if you didn’t cook the meat at the right temperature you will end up having undercooked meat that will be definitely rich in salmonella bacteria so you will have food poisoning and end up the beautiful day at the hospital rather than enjoying the details with the family members. So make sure always to use the thermometer to cook the meat at the needed temperature neither more nor less.
These tips sum up what you need to know in order to have a healthy grilled meal, as we always say that grilling is a simple technique yet very accurate you need to know too much before placing the meat on the grill, you have to know what are the safety precautions to follow and what are the tips for healthy grilling in order to enjoy your Sundays from A to Z. Always remember that grilling food is the best option you can do to benefit yourself and your family as well.
