Tips for Healthy Grilling

If meat juices, fat, or marinade drip into the embers and burn while grilling, carcinogenic substances are formed which are deposited on the food to be grilled with the rising smoke. The same happens when deglazing with beer. The smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). With the smoke, these carcinogenic substances get onto the grilled food, settle, and are eaten. The PAH content is up to 80 times higher over heavily smoking fireplaces than over almost smoke-free grills.

Do not eat charred grilled food

The brown meat crust contains a particularly large number of PAHs. Therefore, you should not eat heavily charred grilled food. Meat burns also contain carcinogenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA). They are always formed when organic material is exposed to heat – when frying and in higher concentrations when grilling.

Grilling without salt meat and aluminum foil

Cured meat such as Kassler, salami, or Wiener sausages does not belong on the grill. At high temperatures, the nitrite from the curing salt reacts with proteins in the meat to form carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Aluminum foil should also not be used when grilling. Due to the intense heat, the aluminum is released from the foil and is deposited on the food prepared in it. Vegetables are best prepared on skewers, and fish in tongs.

Tips for healthy grilling

• Be patient: Fire accelerators such as alcohol or petrol have no place in connection with food. And even by waving or blowing, the charcoal does not get hot faster, it just produces more smoke, which is harmful to your health. Only charcoal or briquettes are suitable as fuel for the charcoal grill.
• Define grill zones: If the coals are drawn through, the glowing coals should only be on one side of the grill. Their strong heat is only used for grilling, i.e. for developing the roasted aromas. The side of the grill that has no coals is used for cooking through. This way the grilled food cannot burn. The distance between the embers and the grill grate should be at least a hand’s breadth.
• Turn the meat a little: When turning, the meat loses heat. At some point, it starts to boil, but no longer grills.
• Do not turn with a fork: The meat on the grill should not be turned with a fork but with tongs, otherwise, the crust will be destroyed and liquid will drip onto the charcoal.
• Drying meat: the more fat drips onto the embers, the more pollutants are produced. Marinated meat should therefore be dabbed well before grilling. When grilling, marinades should be used sparingly so that the oil does not drip onto the embers.
• Make your own marinade: Ready-made marinades usually contain a lot of dry spices. These burn immediately on the grill. In addition, packaged goods are usually left in the dip for too long. The meat then only tastes like a marinade. The meat is only salted after grilling, otherwise, water and soluble nutrients will leak out and the meat will become dry. Seasoning with herbs is only done after grilling, otherwise, they will burn.
• Do not deglaze with beer: deglazing only stirs up ash, which then settles on the meat and is harmful to health. The meat does not take on the beer taste under any circumstances. For the taste, sausages or meat must be soaked in beer overnight.