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Is Grilling Food Healthy?

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Jim Baker has got a few set of grills throughout his lifetime but he has discovered that there is so much to know about grilling that he just wishes he had to time to look into all of it in-depth. He has mastered quite a number of grilling recipes and the art of grilling. Want to learn grilling from him? Why not drop him a line on his site?

Jim has written 1 article for ComLuv.com
I normally write at http://www.thegasgrillreviews.com

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July 20, 2011 By 31 Comments
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I remember I was told as a young boy by my parents that grilling food is not healthy. It took me a long time to figure out that grilling or barbecuing isn’t bad. It is in fact how you grill your food that makes it bad. All the fear mongering and the false information have deprived me of almost a good one and a half decade of good grilled food. Thank goodness I have educated my parents all they need to know about grilling and we have been enjoying all our barbecued steaks, chicken breasts and mushrooms for quite some time now.

is grilling healthy

 Now what is this misinformation that has been spreading around about barbecued food?

Allow me to explain… Cooking techniques especially those at high temperatures have a higher risk of causing cancer. Barbecuing or grilling food happens to be one of it. Some of the leading cancer researchers in the country agree that cooking food at high temperatures can produce hazardous compounds that are potentially carcinogenic. But what is it about grilling that makes food hazardous to consume?

Charred food.

I’m not sure about you but charred meat tastes bitter and bad. The bad stuff that is produced through charred food/meat is a group of chemical compounds known as heterocyclic amines (HCA) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

So how do you cook healthy meals through grilling?

 There are a number of things to look at. Some are rather practical and are common sense.

Grill Maintenance

As with all things, without maintenance wear and tear will inevitably cause a product to breakdown. You need to ensure that your grills are properly cleaned of all the grime, oil and charred material before every session. The least you can do is to remove all the previous food remnants stuck on your cooking grate. I would suggest doing a routine clean after about 10 sessions of grilling. This is not only good for maintenance’s sake but also for your health in general. Charred food remnants are carcinogenic and you definitely not want any of them going into your stomach either.

Use a Thermometer

 This gadget on your grill serves a purpose and that is to measure the temperature while you cook (obviously). An internal temperature of more than 270 degrees is bad. If you have a recipe, stick to the instructions and cook meats to the proper temperature. There is a relationship between formation of HCA compounds and high temperatures.

 Choosing Your Meat

 Some of you might know that processed food isn’t good for you. Things like sausage, bacon are high in nitrosamines. Alright, I can sense some disagreement on this because who doesn’t like eating those types of food? I admit that I do eat them but the healthier choice is definitely lean meat.

While Grilling Your Meat

Marinating your meat also reduces the likelihood of burning them while cooking besides adding good flavour to them. If you have burned parts, remove it especially the fatty areas. There are some grills that can minimize flare ups. If you own one of those like an infrared gas grill then you don’t have to worry about flare ups burning your food. A good tip to bear in mind is to trim off excess fat. When fat burns off it drips down below and causes flare ups. These flare ups can burn your food. Metal flavour bars can also prevent flare ups.

Another great way to cook meat is to marinate it with all the ingredients you desire and wrap it around with aluminium foil and place it on the grill until it is done.

As you can imagine, it isn’t so difficult to have a healthy and wholesome BBQ meal. I hope I have dispelled the myth that grilled food is unhealthy.

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Guest Bloggers, Health & Fitness Tagged With: , ,
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Comments

  1. excitedbylife says:
    July 20, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    I love the taste of meat cooked in an earth oven or cooking pit. The food is steamed in its own juices rather than burnt. The Hawaiians and Maoris cook their food this way. Obviously, not a very practical way to cook however. Wrapping food in aluminum foil and grilling it is the next best thing, but I would probably wrap the food in banana leaf or lotus leaf first before wrapping in the foil, for extra flavor.
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  2. Jim
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    July 20, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    I can’t really comment on cooking meat in an earth oven or cooking pit but I am sure it would have a unique flavour to it :D Talking about wrapping in banana leaf, I have tried that before. Besides giving that unique flavour, it has some sort of fragrance infused into the meat as well.
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  3. Chris
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    July 20, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    pretty good and useful article. well, no matter how you grill it, it’s definitely healthier than cooking it in oil. I think the way you grill it has more impact on taste, rather than on the healthiness of the food. and of course, the more you cook it, the more it looses it’s nutritive benefits, no matter if it’s grilling, frying or boiling
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  4. Sam says:
    July 20, 2011 at 4:52 pm

    The information above is somewhat true, but grilling food is unhealthy! The best and healthiest way for meat to be eaten would be to broil it. If you were to broil it first and then grill it, that makes it much healthier. Broiling anything takes out the unnecessary substances that can harm our bodies, while grilling only makes the food ‘burned’ and look cooked.

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    • Jim
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      July 21, 2011 at 9:54 am

      Hey Sam,

      Sounds like you are a really healthy kind of person. Well, there are ways to have healthy food. Sometimes uncooked food is best but yeah I do agree that grilling can be unhealthy despite taking the necessary precautions. When you mentioned “burned”, do you mean charred of that grilled taste? If it is the former I don’t think you should grill it till it looks charred. If it is the latter, then isn’t that the reason why you want to grill it? Getting that nice grilled taste.
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  5. Andreas
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    July 20, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    I guess its the same with smoking of course much less dangerous. I know a lot of people who have eaten grilled and even burned food all the time and lived a very long and happy life.

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  6. Richard says:
    July 20, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Its really on how you grilled your meat that makes it bad. I was told about this kind of stuff before. But cant help love grilled foods. Specially the meaty ones. Well every food that is not cooked good or grilled nicely could have a bad effect to your health in the long run I guess. So the bottom point here is prepare your food perfectly.
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  7. Norm says:
    July 21, 2011 at 12:04 am

    Great, post– and timely given that it’s summer. I didn’t know that marinading meat can prevent it from burning, so that was a great tip. I think that, oftentimes, people choose high-fat meats (like sausage, or beef that’s not lean) to grill, and that also helps lend itself to the notion that grilling is unhealthy.
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  8. Sailor
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    July 21, 2011 at 1:20 am

    You have some wonderful tips about grilling. Like you said I was told the same as a child about grilling and when I become a chef I changed my mind.
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  9. LBDDiaries
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    July 21, 2011 at 3:07 am

    I’m so glad you wrote this – so much fear-mongering goes on out there and few people have the time to dig out the truth rather than just accepting what someone says! It’s kind of like everyone freaking over eating beef and pushing that we should only eat grass-fed beef. Some grain is what takes away that nasty wild-game flavor and it is NOT bad. But more money is spent on misinformation! You had great tips!
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  10. Mark says:
    July 21, 2011 at 7:09 am

    Hi Jim, good thing I had read your posts, since in our town we don’t always remove charred foods from our grill, which I know is disgusting. They have been grilling for a long time, and I listened when they said it was okay. I will also avoid barbecue stations since I notice their grills are seldom cleaned and maintained.
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  11. Joe
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    July 21, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    If it’s unhealthy I’m in big trouble.
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  12. Jim
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    July 22, 2011 at 3:58 am

    Well, it is not unhealthy per se but it is good to know how to grill “healthily”.
    Jim recently posted..Weber Q120 Gas GrillMy Profile

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  13. Kino says:
    July 24, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    if we talk about carcinogenic, of course we talk about cancer.
    But we can reduce the risk of cancer with consume cucumber after BBQ.
    As we know that cucumbers contain Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA), which are antioxidants. Antioxidants act to prevent cell damage caused by free radicals cause cancer, heart disease, and reduce levels of fat in the body.

    “…it isn’t so difficult to have a healthy and wholesome BBQ meal.” – I’m agree with you :)

    Keep healthy :)
    Kino recently posted..Tutorial C# – 1My Profile

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  14. Felicia Nicks says:
    July 26, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    This just makes me hungry :)

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  15. ricky says:
    July 29, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    I like to slow cook mine in a smoker grill, the ones that look like a barrel. I use hickory wood, apple wood, mesquite wood and just a little bit of charcoal, just enough to keep it as warm as an oven on 200 degrees. All of my food always comes out awesome when I do it that way. I also like to make a liquid marinade to put on the meat as it cooks. It help with flavor and to get the oils that come off the meat while cooking. Now you got me wanting to make bbq chicken and bbq ribs. Well, I got to go to the grocery store, now so I can get some chicken and ribs.

    later,

    Ricky
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  16. Timothy Smith says:
    August 3, 2011 at 10:22 am

    this post makes me hungry i have tried grilled foods from different countries and probably one of the best is on Philippines…
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  17. JamesClark says:
    August 4, 2011 at 6:08 am

    Nothing beats a nicely grilled steak! I’m currently on a high protein diet where I eat a 200g steak twice a day. One problem I had was that I would grill the steak until it was a healthy brown on the outside but the inside was not cooked at all! And in some cases still cold.

    Now I just take the meat out of the fridge about 45 mins before I start cooking. Works like a charm! :)
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  18. satrap says:
    August 7, 2011 at 1:00 am

    Thanks for such an eye opening post Jim. But to be honest, there is something about grilling food that sucks us in. Maybe its our background of sitting around the fire and cooking meat that has been incorporated in our DNA.
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  19. Sebastian
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    August 13, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    Nothing beats a nicely grilled steak and in Sweden we eat it every day on the summer, almost ;)
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