To Grill....or Not...

It is summertime. Time for pool parties. Time for barbeques and grilling. Yesterday, I had my first grilling experience. I love barbeques. But I have never really grilled anything myself. So yesterday, I decided to try it for the first time (picture above). I grilled (gas grill) some chicken, and some skewers with zucchini, squash, red pepper, and shrimp. As you may notice above, there are few burnt  pieces on the food. That is because I had the fire on the highest setting. My dad had tried to show me how to use the grill before he left the house, however, his instructions weren’t quite clear, which resulted in several pieces of chicken and shrimp skewers being burnt. When I saw my disaster, it caused me to think about one of the first things I learned in my nutrition program when I was working on my masters. That was: “Limit grilling and make sure to not cook food on the grill to the point where it is burnt.” Failure…for me.

One of the reasons it is advised to limit grilling is because any time we cook meats (grilling (charcoal and gas), broiling, frying), HCAs are produced. HCA stands for heterocyclic amines. The longer we cook meat, and the hotter the fire, the more HCA is formed. This is actually a cancer-causing compound!  It is a well-known carcinogen! The amount of HCA depends on the type of meat you are cooking. Grilling chicken has been shown to produce more HCA than even steak, or salmon!

If you are like me, you are thinking, “man, everything seems to contribute to cancer.” That very well may have some validity. But I believe when we are educated on something, we definitely need to take heed. I’d rather limit certain things in my diet with hopes of not suffering with debilitating diseases, than not heed and take a chance at suffering because I didn’t heed warnings.

So what do you do when, like me, you love the taste of grilled meats, but want to beware of them because of their cancer-causing compounds? Here are some suggestions:

-grill veggie skewers with shrimp (negligible levels of HCA produced in the vegetables)

-cook food to medium well instead of well-done to lessen the HCA (this is a real problem for me as I like for my food to be well-done)

-put your meat on top of foil on the grill to cook; and then only put it directly on the grill for a few minutes to get the “grill” taste (it might or might not work, but it is worth a try)(FYI: some have said that the gas grill will produce less HCA than the charcoal grill, however, I have not done any research on this to see if this is a valid claim)

If all else fails and you still want your grilled meat…well done, just try to limit it to at most once every couple of weeks or so (if you do it on a regular basis). And when you eat the grilled meats, try eating lots of bright fruits and vegetables (instead of chips, fries, and potato salad).  Fruits and vegetables have many known cancer-fighting properties.

That’s all I have for today! Until next time…

-Jenelle Robinson

The Five Worst Foods to Grill: August 2005. Retrieved August 15, 2011 from http://www.cancerproject.org/media/news/fiveworstfoodsreport.php.