Whether you’re using a smoker or a propane grill, you can make your food unhealthy really fast. In this blog, I’m going to show you the top 5 mistakes that are causing it, and what you can do to fix them.
Overcooking
I did some cellular blood work and analyzed what our body is sensitive to, and I wasn’t expecting all the chemicals that I found.
Most human cells are very susceptible to food that’s been overcooked, especially overcooked on a grill.
Your meat is made up of a bunch of amino acids. The amino acids in the meat interact with a compound called creatine.
When they are overheated, they produce a potentially-carcinogenic chemical compound called an HCA. The longer you cook meat, the more HCA can come out of it.
For those of you who like burnt bacon, bad news: it’s not the best thing for you. Don’t spend extra money getting organic meat or grass-fed beef and then burn it.
The other thing you’re going to increase by overcooking meat is the PH (level of acidity). It’s not like you can avoid it while you’re grilling, but when food drips onto the flame this creates more of the smokey carcinogenic problem of grilling.
How to Avoid Overcooking Your Food
If you want to avoid overcooking your food, try some of the following:
- Turn down the heat. If the juice from the meat you’re cooking is splashing, it’s a sign you need to turn the flame down.
- Grill at a lower temperature, and as briefly as you possibly can without having undercooked meat.
- Flip often, that way you’re not charring each side.
- Marinate the meat before cooking it, because those oils help keep it together. You’re coating the meat with protection from the heat. I like to use seasonings mixed with avocado oil. Avocado can withstand really high heat, which makes it great for this.
- Avoid eating charred sections of meat. If your meat does get charred, I would avoid eating that part of it. A good way to do this is by slicing the burnt meat off.
- Start or finish the meat in the oven to minimize the amount of time it spends on the grill.
Bad Oils
Bad oils or polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are extremely toxic to our bodies. Some common examples of these rancid oils include:
- Cottonseed oil
- Soybean oil
- Vegetable oils
These oils are terrible for your blood vessels, cholesterol, and brain, and they congest your cells. There’s a lot of research showing that when you put a lot of these PUFAs into your system, you’re asking for your LDL cholesterol to get worse.
Rancid oils are already unstable from the way that they were produced, and if you heat them, you make them worse.
Then what should we cook with?
If you want to use something like oil in cooking, I would recommend using the following:
- Organic butter
- Avocado
- Coconut oil
Be careful not to heat the butter too much. The right coconut oils can give you the same flavor that you’re looking for from butter as well.
Teflon
The grates or pan of the grill are made out of Teflon.
If you’re cooking on Teflon, you’re getting exposed to toxic fumes. There was a study done with birds, in which they took those fumes and put them into a bird cage, and it killed the bird.
The fumes can give you flu-like symptoms, and headaches, and are even linked to cancer.
Cast iron and stainless steel are healthy alternatives to Teflon.
Tinfoil
Tinfoil is made up of aluminum. Aluminum in the body has been linked to Alzheimer’s-related cognitive dysfunction, and to irritable bowel disease.
If your bowels are irritated, you need to cut aluminum out of your life as much as possible. Avoid cooking with it, especially at high heat.
What do we use instead of tin foil? Stainless steel and cast iron are good replacements. There are stainless steel grates or pans that you can put vegetables in. I have some in my store, just as an example.
If you need to cover the bottom of the grill to catch the drippings. If you’re going to use tinfoil, don’t let it touch the food.
Pay attention to the utensils you’re using as well—make sure they don’t have coatings on them and aren’t made of plastic.
If you need to catch the drippings from food without using tinfoil, these stainless steel pans come with holes that allow any fluid to flow out. Then I would just put a baking dish or something underneath the pan to catch it.
Seasoning
A lot of seasonings are irradiated to try and prevent microbes from building up. However, by doing this, you’re killing crucial nutrients, and adding extra toxins.
Buy organic seasonings to avoid all of the additives in conventional seasonings. A lot of additives are produced with heavy metals in them.
When you see organic or natural in seasoning, then you’re avoiding arsenic, lead, cadmium, and any other heavy metals that tend to be in these powders often.
Seasonings that have these metals can lead to allergies and hypertension, as well as kidney, child development, and reproductive problems.
Trader Joe’s doesn’t irradiate any of its herbs. You can also just look for organic seasonings.
The seasonings I use include:
- Sea salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
Summary
I make food simple, and I make grilling simple.
You don’t have to follow all of these grilling tips, but it’s very important that you make sure that what you eat is clean and organic. You can chop up fruits, onions, pesto, or salsa to use as a topping on your food to substitute for seasoning.
I’m constantly learning, getting better 1% at a time, and living this out with you. These are the tips that we use in our homes. If you want to learn more tips like this, check out my free book on how you can make health simple.
