Healthier Grilling and My New Favorite Dinner

Happy Monday and Happy summer! Although I live in Southern California and we can grill all year, most of you may have dusted off your grills recently for the season.  I know grilling is convenient (outdoors, an easier clean-up), but if you hang out here, you are also interested in optimizing your nutrition and health. Let me lay out some facts for you about grilling:

When you grill animal protein, two chemical groups are formed that are associated with breast, pancreatic and colon cancers. The first are Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs) which are formed when meat or protein is subjected to high heat or flames.  Second, when hot fat hits the heat source, smoke causes the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which also end up on your grilled meat.  But that’s not all, the person doing the grilling is subjecting him or herself to breathing in all that toxic smoke. No matter how many facts I give you about the negative consequences of grilling, it is still a part of summer cooking, so I hope to arm you with some information that can at least help you cut down on carcinogens.

Tips and Tricks:

1. Cook at medium or low heat, instead of high.

2. Cook on a clean grill (I love using BBQ Daddy Grill Brush - Bristle Free Steam Cleaning Scrubber).

3. Get liquored up.  Using a marinade which contains wine, beer, vinegar, pomegranate or citrus juice, such as lemon, has been shown to be effective at reducing HCA formation.

4. Garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme all contain cancer-fighters that reduce harmful chemicals formed with high heat.

5. Add cherries, blueberries or Vitamin E to your ground meat.  (Listen, it’s not something I’m into, but there are people out there who swear by this!)

6. Use an untreated cedar plank for fish. It’s always good to have a buffer.

7. Bigger is NOT better.  Grill thinner cuts of meat to reduce cooking time or grill meats until rare, rather than well-done.

8. Choose grass-fed meats, which provide extra cancer-fighting Vitamin E (from grass), Congugated Linoleic Acid and Omega-3 fats while being lower in inflammatory Omega-6 fats.

9. Trim excess fat from meats before grilling.

10. Use a gas grill with lava rocks instead of charcoal.

11. Never eat charred or blackened meat.

12. Cook half on the grill and finish in the oven or vice-versa.  Basically, if you’re going to grill, make it a quickie!

13. Eat foods rich in antioxidants with your grilled meats, i.e. vegetables!

I wanted to create a new grilling recipe that utilizes some of these tips and tricks. While testing out recipes I think I created my new favorite meal. Brace yourself for THE MOST delicious grilled chicken recipe I have ever tasted. Even More Musings is an extension of my weekly newsletter, Monday Musings. My newsletter is a sponsor-free zone and is fully supported by readers like you. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to get Even More Musings! Each week, I share my tips and tricks along with a new recipe. For only $5/month or $50/year (less than $1 a newsletter), you'll also gain access to the entire archive, featuring favorites like Pasta with Creamy Vegan Butternut Squash Sauce and the Hillstone Copycat Emerald Kale Salad.