Is BBQ really bad for you?

Grilling isn’t just a tradition, it also can be one of the healthiest ways to cook. There’s no oil to add extra fat and calories; no heavy breading or frying to weigh grilled meat down. Yet there are a few dangers lurking under that grill cover. Undercooked or improperly prepared meats can lead to a nasty case of food poisoning. Eating charred grilled meats too often can increase the risk for certain types of cancer.

Meat contains creatine, an organic acid that helps to supply the energy used by muscle cells. When you cook meat, a chemical reaction turns creatine into a group of compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and there is some evidence that these compounds cause cancer in high concentrations.

Frying and grilling meat will produce some HCAs but barbecues tend to be much hotter, and worrying about underdone meat means that many of us tend to cook until everything is well charred, so the level of HCAs is much higher.

Also, unlike grilling, a barbecue heats the meat from below. As the fat drips onto the hot coals, it burns, the smoke rises up and coats the meat. This smoke contains lots of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the partially burned fat. PAHs are another group of chemicals that are known to cause cancer.

But so far most of the studies linking HCAs and PAHs to cancer have been in the laboratory, using rats and very high doses. Most people don’t eat barbecue food often enough for the health risk to be measurable. Even if you spend every Saturday afternoon in the sunshine drinking beer and eating burgers, the alcohol and the cholesterol are probably hurting your health a lot more than the HCAs and PAHs.

FOOD SAFETY TIPS
Each year, 48 million Americans are diagnosed with food poisoning, often from eating undercooked meat, poultry, and other animal products. Bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella are regular residents in chicken, beef, and meats. If you don’t cook meat to a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria or other germs, they can wind up in the intestinal tract and lead to symptoms like vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. Usually food poisoning is mild, but it can get serious enough to send 128,000 people to the hospital each year. The CDC says 3,000 Americans die of food-borne illness each year

A FEW TIPS
• CLEAN UP – Wash hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before preparing food and after handling raw meat. Ask the same of anyone else who is going to be handling food.

• KEEP IT COLD – Store meat and poultry in the refrigerator until you’re ready to grill it. If you have any meat left over from grilling, either keep it warm (140 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter) or put it in the fridge within two hours (within one hour if the temperature outside is over 90 degrees F). Freeze any ground meat or poultry that you don’t use within one to two days.

• COOK IT THROUGH – Internal color isn’t a reliable guide of whether or not it is cooked. To be certain that meat is cooked thoroughly, insert a food thermometer into the thickest part of the meat and keep cooking until it reaches at least 160 degrees F. Poultry and fowl should be 165 degrees F.