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What is the Healthiest Way to Grill?
Grilled foods are among the healthiest foods one could eat. Unlike deep frying and other cooking methods, grilling does not involve dripping grease on foods or coating them with butter. Additionally, the taste and flavor of grilled foods are exceptional. However, every cooking method has its risk.
What’s the healthiest way to grill? There are a number of ways to grill healthy foods and reduce the risk linked to grilling. They include grilling more vegetables, reducing grilling time and cooking lean meat as discussed below. This post also addresses some of the frequently asked questions regarding health and grilling.
5 Tips for Grilling Healthy
1. A Clean Grill Is Essential
Irrespective of how healthy your foods are, if your grill isn’t clean, you’ll end up with unhealthy foods. Is it really fair? Therefore, practice regular cleaning to remove any bits of charred foods from the grilling plate.
A wire brush will do the cleaning, and then use paper towels or a cloth to wipe the grill.
Cleaning will prevent foods on your grill from burning. It also prevents smoke production and the formation of bitter flavor on foods.
2. Go for Lean Cuts
Regardless of the grill, you’re using; including electric grills, you should cook more lean meat. It has a low amount of fats. Additionally, trim off any excess fat on your meat.
Some of the best and healthy cuts for grilling are skinless chicken, fish (salmon & trout), top sirloin steak, porterhouse steak, tenderloin, flank steak, and center loin.
3. Grill more Veggies & Fruits
Fruits and vegetables such as eggplant, asparagus, potatoes, garlic, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, pumpkins, zucchini, and peppers are among the fruits cook so well on a grill. They are rich in antioxidant properties, vitamins, and minerals. It’s one of the healthiest grilling ideas you should apply.
Fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of some types of cancers, stroke, and coronary conditions. In addition, grilled fruits and vegetables don’t form PAHs and HCAs like in grilled meat.
4. Marinate Foods
One way of reducing the formation of PAHs and HCAs is by grilling lean meat, as discussed in our tip 2, and marinating meat before grilling. It’s a way of promoting healthy grilling and decreasing the risk of cancer. Additionally, marinades serve their primary purpose of enhancing the flavor of foods.
However, there are a few things you should note about using marinades and how they enhance effectiveness. They include adding a drop of olive oil and an acid ingredient that enhances enzyme actions. Also, give the marinade enough time to get absorbed into the foods.
Adding spices and herbs while marinating enhance flavor and lowers PAH and HCA content. Some of the best herbs and spices you can use include rosemary and turmeric.
Read our post on how foods cooked on electric grills taste.
5. Reduce the Grilling Time
Extended cooking times increase the health risk. The longer you grill, the more carcinogens likely to be produced.
Therefore, consider pre-cooking some foods such as meats before grilling. By doing so, you’ll have reduced the grilling time.
Grill small portions of meat since they cook faster, thus reducing the cooking time. You should also avoid cooking at extremely high temperatures.
FAQs Related to Healthy Grilling
1. Does grilling cause cancer?
Grilling foods can introduce cancer-causing agents on foods, but it depends on how you grill your foods and the kind of foods you’ll be grilling. To mitigate such risks, you’re encouraged to cook on electric grills since you can easily regulate the temperatures. They don’t cook over flames associated with causing production HCA agents. Additionally, electric grills do not produce smoke.
2. Is it healthy to eat grilled foods?
Grilled foods are not only tasty but also healthy. They are low in fats and calories that pose your health at risk. Also, through healthy grilling practices such as grilling more vegetables, grilling lean meat, marinating foods, minimizing the grilling time, and cooking temperatures, you end up with healthier foods.
3. Is grilling a healthy cooking method?
Grilling is a healthier cooking method compared to other cooking approaches such as deep frying. It’s one of the cleanest cooking processes. It doesn’t require the use of excess oils or heavy sauces while cooking.
Check out Atgrills indoor electric grills and griddles to cook food on a cookware with natural stone coating.
