While she doesn't recommend eating barbecued food as a steady diet – especially for people with health challenges – personal chef and certified health coach Donna Douglass of Fort Montgomery, above, suggests occasional grilled meals. If you use oil to coat foods, try grape seed, avocado or safflower oils, which have high smoke points. - JEFF GOULDING/Times Herald-Record

Say it isn’t so!

How can something that tastes so good be so potentially harmful? Many health experts say “healthy grilling” is a contradiction in terms.

Before you fire up the grill on a hot summer’s day, you might want to surf over to www.whfoods.com — website of the World’s Healthiest Foods, a not-for-profit organization that promotes healthy eating and cooking. You’ll find information that might make you want to shove the barbecue items straight to the back burner.

According to the site, “when you grill your meat and seafood at high temperatures for long periods of time, the chemical carcinogens produced can lead to cancer. In fact, the American Cancer Association states inhaling the smoke from or eating well-done, charred meat regularly ‘may increase your risk of pancreatic cancer by up to 60 percent, according to findings from a (2009) University of Minnesota study’ …”

What are PAHs and HAs?

The acronyms PAHs and HAs sound funny, but this site says they’re no laughing matter. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) form when the fat drips from the meat into the flames, producing smoke and heterocyclic amines (HAs or HCAS), which can damage your DNA and lead to stomach and colon cancers, just to name a couple.

And if that information doesn’t bring tears to your smoke-filled eyes, the site adds: “As the smoke rises, the PAHs rise also and get into the meat. The more charred and blackened the meat, the more PAHs and HAs it contains.”

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reports that “meat need not be well done or charred to contain HCAs. Testing has found HCAs in grilled chicken cooked for just three minutes on each side.

Healthy grilling tips

So what’s an unhappy camper to do? The American Cancer Society says that you don’t have to give up your grill to stay healthy. You just need to choose sensible foods and use the right cooking techniques.

Try substituting as many veggies on the grill as possible, but if you just can’t resist making meats your main summer sizzlers, here are a few tips.

– Avoid getting PAHs by grilling lean cuts of meat — eliminate or limit all fatty meats such as sausages and ribs.
– Do not eat any blackened bits of meat or vegetables, which can also have high amounts of PAHs.
– Keep smoke from depositing on fish by wrapping the fish in aluminum foil on the grill.
– When grilling, keep all meat portions small and fill up on more vegetables and fruits.
– Use a meat thermometer while grilling to avoid overcooking.
– Grill vegetable protein burgers as an alternative to meat.

Oils and marinades

Chances are that if every grill came with a warning from the surgeon general, most people would still choose to use one, at least once in a while.

Donna Douglass of Fort Montgomery, personal chef and certified health coach (www.whatscookingforyou.com), understands. She specializes in healthy food choices with an emphasis on organic selections.

If she’s going to splurge on an occasional grilled meal, she says she personally prefers the taste of food cooked on an open fire. Real wood gives the meal a distinctive flavor — apple wood is her favorite.

Douglass says she especially likes grilling in the great outdoors, such as on a camping trip. She wouldn’t recommend barbecued food as a steady diet, especially for those facing health challenges, but for the once-in-a-while occasion, here’s what Douglass suggests:

– If you use oil to coat meats, use one that has a high smoke point to avoid the formation of oxidative damage to the oil itself.
– Grape seed oil has an unusually high smoke point (485 degrees F, on average). Avocado oil and safflower oil have high smoke points, too. The smoke point for olive oils varies greatly according to the blend, but generally is lower — around 400 to 410 degrees — making it a poorer choice for searing or high-temperature cooking.
– A marinade with fresh herbs that is rich in antioxidants such as rosemary may help reduce the potential carcinogen effects of grilling, Donna maintains.
–Most important, don’t let meats burn.

Commonsense advice

When the heat’s up outside, chances are greater that food may be contaminated as well. Using common sense will keep most at bay. Here are a few things Douglass advises:

– Wash hands, especially when handling raw meat and raw chicken.
– Keep raw meats on separate surfaces. Use separate clean cutting boards and make sure they’ve been thoroughly washed. Keep dedicated utensils, too.
– And here’s a hint on flavor: Most meats taste better if they have about 30 minutes out of the cooler and rise to room temperature.

Know your temperatures

– Burgers — 160-165 degrees F
– Chicken — 165 F
– Fish — 145 F
– Pork — 145 F

Different meats have different requirements. To be sure, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-674-6854 or visit www.fsis.usda.gov.

Meat underdone or not finished at serving time? Rather than oversearing slow-cooking meats to hurry them along, finish them in your indoor oven, Douglass suggests. “Par boiling or par broiling takes away the flavor,” she says.

Strategies to consider

Stacey Hawkins is the Time Savor Gourmet (www.timesavorgourmet.com). She has many suggestions, products and recipes to help busy people make good, healthy food quickly and easily — typically in 20 minutes or less.

Hawkins has several strategies for outdoor grilling, as well.

Transporting foods? She says to take precautions to carry hot, cool and dry things in separate containers. Pack a lot of utensils so you can use different ones for different items.

Hawkins likes using a Ziploc bag for marinades because it “squishes” all around the meats. It also requires less liquid, and you can push out the air to make them even easier to carry.

“Use caution with marinades,” says Hawkins. If you want some left over for sauce at the end, set aside an extra cup from the start. Basting brushes can be loaded with bacteria. Fortunately, many marinades contain vinegar and salt — both help control bacteria. Still, “you should never baste raw meat,” she warns.

“Wait until it’s almost done to add the finishing touches,” she says. “The brush is a transfer agent for contamination when it’s used on uncooked meats.”

The same holds true for barbecue sauce, although for a slightly different reason. “Barbecue sauces typically contain sugars, which will cause flare-ups over the fire,” Hawkins says.

Another basting “no-no” is putting the basting brush inside the marinade. “Give yourself a separate dish for the brush,” Hawkins says.

So, be sure to take necessary precautions to enjoy a barbecue the healthy way — then sit, back, relax and savor the taste of summer that only a sizzling meal prepared outdoors can provide.

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