Tips and Ideas for Healthy Grilling!

Eat Smart When Grilling

How to turn grilling healthy

for the whole family!

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Phone: 225-763-2500

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

6400 Perkins Road

Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808

Pennington Nutrition Series Pub No 90 8/10

LSU AgCenter Pennington Biomedical Research Center

When grilling, include more

vegetables and fruits to your

diet and you can reduce your

risk for chronic diseases such

as hypertension, heart

disease, diabetes and cancer.

When vegetables are grilled,

they don't form dangerous

compounds that can lead to

cancer. If anything, they have

cancer fighting

phytochemicals.

Include colorful fruits and

vegetables such as corn,

zucchini, bell peppers, egg-

plant and fruits such as

peaches, pineapples, mangoes

and you'll be on your way to

healthy grilling!

With grilling, cancer-causing

compounds are formed in meat.

These include Polycyclic

Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

and Heterocyclic Amines

(HCAs). PAHs are formed when

the fat drips onto the hot coals

or the grill elements. They are

deposited on the food by flame-

ups and rising smoke.

HCAs are produced when red

meat, poultry, and fish are

cooked at high heat, like grilling

or broiling.

To Prevent PAH’s and HCA’s: Grill healthy by avoiding dangerous chemicals

Cook more vegetables for a healthy and well

rounded meal.

To cut back the amount of smoke that

comes back onto the meat, line your grill

with foil to collect fat drippings.

Pre - cook meats ahead of time in the

microwave or in the oven so that the

meat does not have to sit on the grill for

a long time to cook. This will enable you

to still get the great taste out of the food

but still cut down on the cancer causing

carcinogens that can form in proteins

when cooking at high temperatures.

Cook meat thoroughly without

overcooking it. A consumption of well-

done meat is linked with two-to-five

times more colon cancer and two-to-

three times more breast cancer than

meat that is cooked until just done.

Marinate the meat before grilling. This

can protect the meat from charring and

can reduce the formations of HCAs by

as much 92% to 99%.

Flip food frequently to prevent charring

and the formations of HCAs.

Trimming excess fat from meat

or poultry before cooking can

minimize the risk of PAHs from

fat drippings while grilling.

Raise the grilling surface to

reduce charring and the

carcinogens that can form on

meat.

Use onion, garlic and plenty of

herbs such as mint, thyme,

oregano, sage or rosemary to

marinate the meat. They can

reduce the amount of harmful

chemicals and changes that can

happen in the fatty part of the

meat. This can reduce your risk

for heart disease and cancer.

Seafood form less HCAs than

red meat, pork, and poultry

because of shorter grilling times.