Charcoal is something that is widely used when it comes to grilling because it’s cost-effective and a great source of fuel. Grilled food is healthier and flavorful than fried foods thus, in America backyard grilling is very common. So, it brings us to the most common question- is grilling with charcoal bad for your health?
So, grilled food is actually not harmful but the charcoal that is being used to grill the food can be harmful to some extent if you are not using it in the right way.
While grilling meat juices and fat drip into the charcoal which makes smoke, and the smoke gets deposited on the food. This smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the charred exterior of the food contains heterocyclic amines (HCA) which can increase the risk of colorectal cancer according to the National Cancer Institute. If charcoal is used in the right way to grill food it will not cause any harm to the human body. This is why knowing the right way of grilling food is very important.
Grilled chicken, grilled meat or grilled vegetables are healthy and these are widely used in diet menus by a large number of people. Many of them are still unaware that grilling with charcoal can be harmful and increase the risk of cancer.
Anyways, as I already mentioned, if charcoal is used in the right way to grill meat and other foods it will not cause that much of harm. Now some may ask what’s the best way to grill food that will not harm the body and minimize the risk of cancer. There are many ways and methods.
However if you want to fully ignore charcoal for grilling use a top rated smokeless grill. As you already know charcoal is not the main problem, the smoke that comes from the charcoal when any juice or fat drips into it is the main problem here.
Read: Is BBQ Sauce healthy?
However, smokeless grills don’t require charcoal, oil, butter or any other thing so there will be no smoke even if juice or fat drips. This is why I will highly recommend using a good quality smokeless grill for grilling purposes. You can also buy a contract grill for home which also doesn’t require charcoal or anything for grilling purposes.
Read: Charcoal flavoring for gas grills
If you feel like you don’t want to buy a smokeless or contract grill and grill with charcoal in that case, here’s how you can do grilling in the right way:
- Marinate the meat 2-3 hours before you grill them.
- Grill in slow temperature.
- Keep the meat away from direct heat and smoke.
- Remove or cut off the charr from the meat before eating.
- Drip off extra juice from the meat before putting it on the grill.
I hope now you have the answer to is charcoal bad for you or not and also came to know the right way of grilling with charcoal. So, If you keep grilling in the right way you don’t have to worry about health complications at all and keep making healthy grilled food to enjoy with family and friends.
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