It is summer ! Finally ! The season of holidays, relaxation and, of course, barbecues. Everyone has their own specialty or guilty pleasure, between prime rib aficionados and merguez fans.
But if enjoying yourself with family or friends around the grill is a French specialty, consuming large amounts of meat grilled over coals is not the best for your health. So how do you combine barbecue and healthy eating? 20 minutes pass all information to the grill to respond to you.
Avoid poisoning
Before you even start cooking your barbecue, you should take a few precautions to prevent poisoning when preparing a barbecue. Thus, Anses observes every year “an increase in cases of food infections during the summer”, questioning “hygiene practices linked to meals taken outside, such as barbecues”.
And reminds you of the precautions you must take before and during cooking meat on the grill to avoid any risk. She recommends “keeping meats meant to be cooked in the coldest part of the fridge and taking them out at the last minute”. And also advises “to wash and dry hands well before and after handling raw meat, to use one board for cutting raw meat and another for other foods to avoid the transfer of microorganisms from raw meat onto, for example, raw vegetables . . . And not to use the plates and utensils used to cut and transport raw meat to serve it once cooked.”
Regarding cooking, ANSES reminds that poultry “should always be eaten well done.” The meat must not be pink or stick to the bone.” The same applies to “sausages and minced meat, which must also be thoroughly cooked because disease-causing bacteria can survive if the cooking is not complete enough”. An instruction that applies especially to pregnant women, who “must consume all animal products, meat and fish, well prepared, not only to avoid classic food infections, but also to protect themselves against toxoplasmosis”, insists Dr. Laurent Chevallier, nutritionist and author of the book So what do we eat? (ed. Fayard).
“Beware of flames” and toxic compounds
When we grill, we often like the meat (or fish) to be well grilled, with a slightly caramelized crust. This is the famous Maillard reaction, which browns grilled foods and gives them an incomparable aroma. But be careful that the maneuver does not give them a taste that is harmful to health. “Grilling is conducive to the formation of toxic compounds, including aromatic heterocyclic amines (AHA),” warns Juliette Pouyat, science journalist specializing in nutrition and health and author of Guide to antioxidant food (ed. Thierry Souccar). But “AHA is a family of substances which are formed when meat and fish are cooked and which are also present in cigarette smoke or exhaust gases,” reminds ANSES. They are classified by Circ as possible human carcinogens or even probable human carcinogens.
Grilled food licked in this way by the flames can also lead to “formation on the surface of other chemical compounds, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)”, adds ANSES. That’s why “when cooking on the grill, it’s important not to let the food get burned by the flame, it’s carcinogenic, worse than cigarettes,” insists Raphaël Gruman. In terms of cancer risk, 1 cm² of burnt food is equivalent to a pack of cigarettes. PAHs, these cancer-causing compounds, are developed when food is in contact with a flame.”
So many “compounds that tend to be pro-inflammatory and toxic, promote oxidative stress and are risk factors for developing various diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or even certain cancers,” adds Juliette Pouyat. Therefore, it is important not to grill food too much on the grill.” To avoid the formation of these compounds, ANSES recommends “adjusting the cooking height and placing the grill at least 10 cm from the embers in the case of a horizontal cooking grill or even better choosing a vertical grill model. We also think of “turning the food regularly, preferably with a pair of tongs, so as not to pierce it and prevent its fat from dripping onto the embers and creating flames, or even choose a plancha, a healthier cooking method”, adds Juliette Pouyat.
Marinate and vary to detoxify
Another precaution: “you can marinate your meat and your fish,” advises the science journalist. Studies have shown that this helps reduce the formation of toxic compounds. You can use antioxidant foods, such as olive oil, rich in polyphenols, aromatics, spices, and garlic and onion, and let it marinate for several hours in the refrigerator before cooking. We think of adding lemon: a slightly acidic marinade will reduce the pH of the meat, and since the Maillard reaction is favored by a higher pH value, this limits the formation of the compounds resulting from this reaction. Another advantage of this acidic touch: it will start to cook the meat or fish, thus reducing the cooking time.”
On the menu side, when you have several barbecues during the summer, it ends up being quite a portion of barbecue. It is therefore recommended to vary the pleasures to balance your intake. “All sausages, merguez and chipolatas, relatively fatty products, should be limited in frequency and quantity,” recommends Raphaël Gruman. We can choose leaner meats like poultry or even think about fish and shellfish.” If we choose fish, “we don’t just try to eat salmon or tuna, fatty fish that are quite rich in heavy metals,” emphasizes the nutritionist. And we also prefer small fatty fish such as sardines and anchovies, which contain less, as well as white fish, leaner, very rich in proteins and minerals.
And for gourmet and healthier barbecues, “you can also prepare summer vegetable skewers – zucchini, eggplant, peppers – to balance the ultra-protein side of the grill,” suggests Raphaël Gruman. “For a more balanced menu, vegetable-based side dishes are a good idea,” says Juliette Pouyat, who suggests focusing on “foods that detoxify the body. This is the case for cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli or cabbage, which will help remove the toxic compounds that are consumed if you have grilled your meat a little too much In practice, it can be difficult to get children (and adults) to appreciate broccoli, but it is a try! Japanese-style coleslaw, for a healthy and welcome touch of freshness between two rounds of merguez. “Nutritionally,” adds Juliette Pouyat, “it’s much better than chips!”
