Grilling Healthy: What Mistakes Should You Avoid?

Healthy grilling requires healthy food. Thus, one of the most common mistakes when grilling is an unfavorable choice of food. For example, many things are too greasy and therefore only recommended in moderation. However, certain safety precautions must also be observed when barbecuing in order to minimize the intake of substances that are harmful to health.

• Too much meat: When grilling, don’t limit yourself to meat. 300 to 600 grams of meat or sausages per week are considered healthy. This amount can be reached after just four sausages. Alternatively, fish, vegetables, and even fruit can be grilled very well and provide culinary variety. Healthy side dishes such as salad round off a healthy barbecue experience.
• Too much fatty meat: Consume rather low-fat meat products. The fat content is often underestimated, especially when it comes to bratwurst. Steaks should also only be enjoyed in large quantities. Lean meat, such as poultry, is more suitable for healthy grilling. Fish is also a healthy alternative.
• The wrong marinade: Marinades for meat, fish, and vegetables add a lot of aroma and flavor and also prevent the food from drying out during cooking. But not every marinade is suitable for grilling. Herbs, for example, burn very easily. The marinade should therefore always be dabbed off before grilling. Also, pay attention to the sugar content of ready-made marinades. Do you prefer low-sugar products or prepare the marinade yourself from high-quality vegetable oils and spices.
• Nitrosamines: Do not grill salt foods. Examples are Kasseler, meat sausages, Viennese sausages, or meatloaf. The nitrite it contains converts to nitrosamines that are harmful to health when exposed to high temperatures. Smoked foods should also not be grilled.
• Smoke development: Prevent liquid components of the food to be grilled, such as fat or marinade, from dripping onto the embers. This can result in smoke, which can cause substances that are harmful to health to get onto the food to be grilled. For the same reason, pouring beer over the grilled food is a mistake. For healthy grilling, always drain the marinade thoroughly before laying it on and dab with kitchen paper. Grill pans are also recommended. They catch escaping fat so that it does not end up on the embers.
• Grill time: Grill each piece of meat only for the time it takes to cook and at the lowest possible temperatures. If the meat burns, carcinogenic substances can be produced. Cutaway burned areas and do not eat them under any circumstances. You are also doing yourself a culinary favor – because the meat that has been cooked too long and too hot becomes dry and is no longer enjoyable. Incidentally, grilled meat is particularly juicy when grilled indirectly with the lid closed. Because the food to be grilled is not directly above the hot coals, it is cooked slowly and gently.