It's a new year and you want to eat healthier - we love that for you. Here at Barbecues Galore, we support you in all of your endeavors of self-improvement. Unfortunately, barbecue has a bad reputation for being unhealthy. We're here to tell you that doesn't have to be the case. Keep reading for healthy barbecue eating tips, one big food myth you need to be aware of, and healthier grilled recipes.
Let's dive right in - here are:
3 Tips to Eating Barbecue the Healthy Way
1. Get Colourful: Incorporate grilled vegetables into your barbecue dishes because they'll liven up the presentation of the dishes and compliment the flavours of your meat.
2. Choose Lean Proteins: While fatty foods like pork belly are delicious and shouldn't be boycotted, add leaner meats like turkey or fish to your day-to-day dishes. Going skinless on your meats also helps a great deal.
3. Be Mindful of Your Sauces and Seasonings: We love sauces and seasonings just as much as the next barbecue lover. Unfortunately, a lot of barbecue sauces tend to be pumped with sugar and salt, which doesn't work great for the whole "new year, new diet." Don't be discouraged though, we have a healthy selection (pun definitely intended) of sugar- and sodium-free sauces and seasonings that taste incredible.
Click here to read the full blog post, 3 Tips to Eating Barbecue the Healthy Way.
One Big Myth
One of the most common myths that has become ammo for critics of the barbecue diet is the suggestion that charred food causes cancer in humans. This just is not true. When they say this, the active chemical they're referring to is acrylamide, which is found in food when it's cooked at high temperatures and becomes crisped or browned.
To quote MD Anderson Cancer Center, "Researchers have studied this for about 20 years now and no definite link between acrylamide and cancer in people has been found. A link was found in animal studies, but those studies involved between 1,000 and 100,000 times the amount of acrylamide that a normal person would be exposed to.”
In essence, you'd have to intentionally eat buckets of burnt food for a high risk of cancer caused by consumption of acrylamide. That being said, would eating less acrylamide be better for you? Possibly. We're not health professionals, please do your own research from authoritative sources in the food research industry.
Healthier Grilled Recipes
Here at Barbecues Galore, we believe in moderation. We do not recommend trying to eat salad with no dressing every day in the new year if you've never been a fan of salad - that's just unsustainable. If you're reading this, chances are that you like delicious food that is well-sauced and well-seasoned. Here are our healthier recipes that you need to include in your repertoire:
Grilled Shrimp Taco Recipe
Honey-Glazed Salmon Recipe with Pasta and Garlic Green Beans
Winter Wonderland Brussels Sprouts Salad Recipe
Get ready for greater grilling! Beginning next week, our newsletter is "upping" its recipe game by bringing you the ‘World of Barbecue’. Each edition, we will bring you recipes curated specifically to highlight barbecue favourites from countries around the world. Our hope is to inspire you to try something new and share your feedback with us. Happy New Year.