When summer finally hits the neighbourhood, it is time to move the cooking space outdoor. Food generally tastes really nice when grilled and it’s a wonderful thing when you can eat under the shade. The direct touch of fire could work wonder on our food. However, the usual summer treat comes with own hidden dangers and they can be overlooked quite easily. The underdone steak and burned finger tips are the least of your worries. The smoky and charred flavour of barbecued food is unbeatable for some people. However, you could actually generate some amount of cancer-causing substance in your food. When meat proteins and fats interact directly with high temperatures through barbecuing, frying, grilling and broiling, HCA or heterocyclic amines will form in greater amount.
HCA is known as a type of carcinogen and it is associated with the higher risks for colon cancer. Due to this concern, you should try to make grilled food healthier. The first thing that you can do is to go meatless. Grilling doesn’t have to be associated with meat and in many cases; you should be able to take meat out of the overall equation. Marinated sliced potato, tomato and onion could taste really good. You can marinate them with some spices, cider vinegar and olive oil. When you do this, it is a good idea to choose a steady medium fire. With good non-meat alternatives, you should still get the wonderful smoky flavour, with the dreaded HCA threat. If you can’t remove meat from your grilling session, you should avoid chicken whenever possible.
Grilled chicken could have 17 times of HCA of well done steak, 70 times compared to grilled salmon and 100 times compared to well done burger patty. By properly marinating your food, it is also possible to reduce the amount of HCA. Rubbing your meat with virgin olive oil mixed with salt, pepper, lemon juice, finely chopped garlic and onion should significantly reduce the formation of HCA, because the meat surface isn’t directly exposed to open fire. Rubs based on rosemary extract could make your grilled steak tastes much better. Chlorophyll and other substances in green leaves are natural protection against cancer-causing compounds. So, it is important for you to increase the intake of chlorophyll-rich food in our summer diet.
Cytochrome P450 is a type of enzyme found in our liver and it could cause toxic molecules, HCAs to become a sticky, as an unintended side effect. It means that these compounds could bind with the internal surface of the intestines quite easily. This causes stomach and colon cancers become more likely to happen. You may eat good portion of lightly steamed vegetables and swallow a chlorella tablet after a meal of grilled food. Simple freshly peeled fruits is a good dessert for you food. It is recommended to eat fruit as is. Anything you add to your fruit could increase the intake of sugar, which is not a good thing. Pineapple, papaya, mango and watermelon could be consumed directly as dessert. Peel these fruits directly after you finish your main meal, so you are able to obtain the maximum freshness of the food.