Healthy Food Choices for a BBQ

BBQ's can be healthy when you limit your red meat intake and stay away from charred grilling. Learn how to make your BBQ a healthy one in this video.

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Limit red meat consumption
Try not to char your meats
Try a variety of lean foods

About this Author

Alice Merritt is currently the Campus Dietitian at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has a masters degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in public health with a concentration on nutrition. Alice has worked as a registered dietician for four years, and believes that helping people reach their nutritional goals will lead to a long and healthy life.

ALICE MERRITT: Now I am going to talk to you about barbecuing. Barbecue grills are a great way to enjoy tasty foods especially in the summertime. Some healthy foods for barbecuing are chicken, vegetables, fruits and actually pineapple is--taste really great grilled. Also fish, you can do salmon, tuna. Try a variety of things. You really want to limit your red meat consumption to about two to three times a week because red meats tend to be higher in saturated fat, a little bit higher in carcinogens. When grilling try not to char your meats. When you get the blackness around the meat, it actually changes the chemical composition of meats and it has been thought that charred meats actually are a high carcinogen risk. So important things to remember about grilling, try a variety of foods especially your leaner sources like chicken, fish. Try grilling vegetables instead of frying them. Experiment with different fruits. Pineapple, like I said, is a great thing to grill. And when you are grilling, try not to char your meats again because the blackness on the meat is an increase carcinogen. These are all healthy things to remember when barbecuing.

Healthy Food Choices for a BBQ Video

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