7 Tips for Your Own Healthy Barbecue
July 17, 2014Now that the warmer weather is here, it's time to fire up your grill. Grilled foods are a method for healthy cooking and delectable flavors unique to grilling. You can grill your favorite meats and vegetables for healthy meals.
Tips for a Healthy Barbecue
1. Skip the buns: Swap out your burger buns for lettuce wraps. Use large romaine leaves and you’ll save yourself a ton of calories!
2. Vary how you eat: Change up your burger eating style entirely by crumbling your burger over the top of a large green salad. It’s a great way to get your veggies and protein all at once, plus because it will take you longer to eat you’re less likely to eat the other more calorie dense foods.
3. Salad dressing: Rather than tossing green salads in dressing before serving (ideally, it’s homemade with healthy ingredients like olive oil, vinegar & lemon/lime juice), drizzle the dressing on the salad right before eating. Having the dressing on the side will help you use way less of it! Even better, have your dressing on the side and dip your fork into it for less calories but still enjoy the flavor.
4. Carbs from veggies: Get your carb fix from non-refined sources. Be creative and try out bean salads and grilled veggies instead! A great tool to have is a grilling ‘box’ for the barbecue. Toss all of your veggies in olive oil, sea salt and spices of your choosing (like garlic, rosemary, thyme, etc) and then toss into the grill box and throw right on the grill while you’re grilling your meat. My favorite veggies to use are sweet peppers, onions, asparagus, and eggplant.
5. Flavor: Rather than creamy dressings and sauces, use salsa, herbs and spices instead!
6. One meal versus all-day buffet: Perhaps the biggest thing you can do to make a healthy barbecue is to make a few behavior changes. Rather than making it into one ongoing long meal (snacking on munchies for an hour before dinner, eating dinner, then picking at leftovers before you eat dessert), make it one meal with a defined beginning and ending. Limit snacking beforehand and after dinner, clear away the leftovers before you can be tempted to eat them.
7. Skip snacking for having fun: Instead of sitting snacking before your meal, get moving. Games like Frisbee, lawn bowling, playing catch or even going for a walk will not only help you burn extra calories, but it will also get you out of arms-reach of the table!
What to Avoid for a Healthy Barbecue
There are many ways to make your BBQ fall off the healthy rails and into a calorie-laden day-long-food-fest.
1. Skip the calorie-laden sides: We all know the obvious calorie culprits that are not healthy eating options: hot dogs and fatty sausages, hot dog and burger buns (usually made from white flour), pasta and potato salads and, of course, bowls of potato chips that always seem to make an appearance at some point.
2. Sauces and condiments: But beyond those calorie bombs, there are other less obvious types of foods that you should keep an eye on. The number one thing to check out is the sauces you are using. Some sauces have a very high sugar content, primarily barbecue sauce, and ketchup, so keep those condiments limited.
3. Starchy vegetable-corn: Another item to keep an eye on is corn on the cob. While technically yes, corn is a vegetable, it also has a very high sugar content and when combined with the heavy butter and salt it’s usually doused in, a typical cob can run you anywhere from 250-300 calories or even more!
Now I should tell you, I’ve never been a fan of telling people what ‘not’ to eat, because I know as well as anyone, that outlawing specific foods can lead to big time trouble. What I like to do instead is give people tasty options that they would actually enjoy instead of those other foods.
Enjoy the beautiful weather, get outside and happy grilling!
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rachel Girardi, MsC graduated with a Masters in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario in 2007. Her philosophy is that fitness, nutrition and lifestyle cannot be looked at in isolation. She combines her love of fitness and good food to help her clients improve their health and the quality of their lives. Her main goal is to figure out how to fit “healthy” into your life while still letting you live it.Read more articles by Rachel! |
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