Healthy Grilling
Steven Raichlen Comments on Dangers of Grilling
An interesting comment from author Steven Raichlen concerning the health risks associated with grilled foods appeared on The Slate the other day.
I feel obliged to discuss one topic we haven’t raised that may concern some nervous Nellies: barbecue and carcinogens. At the heart of the debate are HCAs (heterocyclic amines)—alleged carcinogens that form when dripping fat and meat juices hit the hot coals. One way to avoid this is to indirect grill or smoke. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, even if you’re fanatic about direct grilling (and you should be). Columnist Ed Blonz, who holds a Ph.D. in nutrition, puts it in perspective this way: Eating 100 charcoal-grilled steaks will statistically increase your odds of dying by one in a million—but so will rock climbing for 1.5 minutes, bicycle riding for 10 minutes, and being a 60-year-old man for 20 minutes. In other words, the risks are greatly overrated.
This issue comes up quite a bit, and I really agree with Steven on this one. Yes there’s some measure of risk, but it’s trivial in the grand scheme of things. I wonder in fact how many more people are injured by hot coals each year? You don’t hear people worrying about that.
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Grilling with a twist
In this article from Southern Voice Online columnist George Oliver highlites some alternatives to burgers and steaks, with an emphasis on healthier and more creative fare.
Traditionally, barbequing and grilling are only done by “real men” in the summer and involve slathering large slabs of red meat with secret sauces.Luckily, most of us pay no mind to that tradition. Grilling is evolving to be less about hamburgers and steaks and that tired BBQ chicken from a bottle, and more about healthy and creative outdoor cooking, including grilled pizza and grilled fruit.
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Grilling causes cancer?
According to this article by Dana Farber eating grilled food can increase your risk of cancer. Isn’t that just peachy? I mean what doesn’t cause cancer these days?
Research has shown that high-heat grilling can convert proteins in red meat, pork, poultry and fish into heterocyclic amines, chemicals that have been linked to a number of cancers. Also, the smoke generated when fat and juices drip on the hot coals or rocks can contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, another potential cancer causing chemical. As the smoke rises up past the food it can deposit PAHs on the surface of the meat.
The aticle goes on to present a number of tips on helping avoid the suspected risks. Of course, most of them involve distancing your grilling from anything remotely resembling grilling such as wrapping up your food in foil, avoiding smoke exposure, and removing all of the fat from meat before cooking.
I think people take this whole cancer risk too far. Stop smoking? Of course. Avoid exposure to asbestos? You bet. Worry about remote possibilities of exposure to burn pork fat? I don’t think so.
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More attempts at healthy grilling
What’s with all this focus on healthy grilling lately? It’s not supposed to be healthy, its just supposed to be good. If it’s healthy too, well fine. In the article Firefighters geta lesson in healthy grilling from chef, a local town is trying hard to get its firefighters to eat “right”. My favorite quote…
Capt. Mike Greenfield said the firefighters usually grill steak and hamburgers. “I just ate a mushroom,” he said. “It didn’t even taste like a mushroom. I’ll tell ya, the way he does that, I’d eat this stuff all the time.”
I guess that means its working. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with cutting back on the grease. I’m sure we could all benefit from a little healthy food every once in awhile.
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BBQ can be a healthy meal
Now, I can’t say that I personally worry too much about how healthy or not healthy my BBQ is, but I know others do. In this article from the Royal Gazette, Catherine Burns points out a number of ways you can add healthy options to your next cookout.
I understand that this is heaven for many people, but that’s a lot of saturated fat rushing round your body, making your blood sticky and clogging up your arteries! Now I’m not proposing that you ban red meat from your barbeques, but it would be great to include chicken, fish and vegetarian options too.
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