Gary's
Natural Health Blog
To fully
enjoy drinking beer for as long as you can, you have to take
good care of your body.
And
that's best done the natural way.
Grilling
for Dummies
By
Gary Greenberg
SuperWriter, Inc.
Like
the rest of the seasons, summer is an ideal time to drink
beer. Unlike some of the other seasons, summer is also the best time to
fire up the grill.
Joshua Bernstein
|
Beer and cookouts go together like beer and
anything
else, and one expert recently recommended the six best brews to quaff
along with your somewhat charred animal protein. Brooklyn-based beer,
spirits, food and
travel journalist
Joshua Bernstein, who may have the best job in the world (outside of
Playboy
magazine photographer), suggests the following: Lawson's
Scrag Mountain Pils (Salt & Lime), Elysian Salt
& Seed
(Watermelon Gose), Sierra Nevada's Summer Break (Session Hazy
IPA), Jack's Abby Blood Orange Wheat, Kostritzer Schwarzbier (black
lager) and 10 Barrel Brewing Pilsner, which tops out the list with a
still rather wimpy 5.1 percent ABV.
“The best beers to drink
during and after a
grilling session are lower in alcohol but not lacking in flavor,”
opines Bernstein in a Men's
Journal article.
Personally, I prefer beers that are
higher in alcohol and flavorful without things
like salt, lime, watermelon and blood orange. But there's
little doubt these kinds of culinary brews are pretty popular in the
wide world of beer-drinking these days, so who am I to say?
Of course, beer is just part of the summer
grilling experience. The food is also important. And how you prepare
and cook it can have a pretty big impact on your health.
“Grilling is generally a
healthy way to cook food
if you
take certain precautions,” says Boston-based registered
dietitian Joan
Salge Blake, a regular source for my diet-related natural health
articles and host of the Apple podcast Spot On!
Here are some tips from her and other experts:
Avoid
cross-contamination: Mixing cooked food with juices
from raw meat is a big no-no. “When
it
comes to food safety, we have to be careful about
cross-contamination,” warns Blake.
“People bring the raw meat out on a platter, grill it and
then put it back on
the same platter without washing it. That’s how you can
transfer pathogens that
can cause a range of food-borne illnesses.”
Use
a thermometer: You can’t trust your eyes to
tell you
whether or not meat is cooked enough. “One
in four hamburgers turn brown before they are at a safe
internal
temperature to be consumed,” notes Blake. “Rather
than trust your vision to
determine if food is safe to eat, use a meat thermometer and make sure
the
internal temperature is at least 165 degrees
Fahrenheit.”
Keep
the flame down: Cooking
with high heat from an open fire creates carcinogenic compounds in
protein
including beef, pork, poultry and seafood. So while that flame-licked
steak or
salmon may have a great grilled flavor, you’ll also be
ingesting heterocyclic
amines (HCAs) from the charred part and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs)
from the fire’s smoke. Lab studies suggest that they can
cause DNA mutations that may boost the risk of cancer, and having alien
children (not really).
Pre-cook meat: One
way to reduce HCAs and PAHs is to
partially cook meat -- by boiling or microwave -- before grilling it.
That will
reduce the time it is exposed to the high heat and smoke that creates
the
dangerous compounds.
Flip frequently:
“You want to keep turning the meat to keep
it from getting charred, because that’s where the most
of the health problems lie,” says Blake.
“If it does get charred, don’t eat that
part.” Shoot to flip your meat once a
minute.
|
Grill
veggies: “One of the best things you
can do for
overall health is to grill more vegetables than protein
sources,” says Blake.
“They don’t produce HCAs and PAHs, and they have a
wide range of health
benefits.”
Foil
flare-ups: One
thing that can make the flame flare up
is when fat from the meat drips down to the heating source. Blake suggests putting some
foil on the
grill, which will keep the melted fat from hitting the flame.
Use
marinade: Studies show that marinades can
significantly
reduce the HCAs and PAHs in grilled meat. Researchers believe it works
by
helping to keep the meat moist, and it can also improve flavor. One
study
showed that using the herb rosemary lowered HCA levels by 90 percent.
Other things
that can cut down on the bad compounds are garlic, onion and honey.
Watch
your sauce: Blake warns not to use the leftover
marinade for a sauce on the cooked meat because it could contain
bacteria and
other pathogens from the raw meat.
Be
fire smart: The
most obvious health threat of grilling is
the fire itself, especially when combined with beer-drinking.
According
to the National Fire Prevention Association,
about
9,000
blazes are sparked by grills every year, causing an average of 10
deaths,
160 injuries and more than $100 million in property damage.
So use some common
sense. The NFPA cites the main fire
causes as placing the grill too close to anything that can burn, not
cleaning
it regularly and leaving it unattended. If using a propane grill,
don’t turn
the gas on long before lighting it, and also check
lines
and
connections for leaks.
Don't
place your beer on the grill: The beer-drinker pictured
here, fighting a grill flare-up with a water hose, will no doubt wind up with
a warm beer should he succeed in actually dousing the flame before he
and/or his house catch fire. And whether your tastebuds prefer
something like a watermelon gose or imperial IPA, no beer tastes very
good after being char-broiled. |
|
