Grill Master Science: Healthy BBQs & Gut Health 6/10: The Curious Clinic

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Hello everyone, episode six, Grill Master Science, Healthy Barbecues and Gut Health. Whoe thought we were going to talk about these two things together? But hey, it's me. Nothing says summer like a family barbecue. But as an integrative medicine doctor, I want to ask, why is charred meat bad for us? And how can we use chemistry to fix it? Welcome to the backyard edition of the Curious Clinic. Alright, like I said, we're on episode six and we're gonna dive into the barbecue. I love to cook, I love to bake. It's things that I do to stress relief, it's um something that I do to build community in my family, although I'm working on that because I get a little frustrated when I have to be more patient when I'm baking with my children. Um my daughter's doing a really good job on reading directions, following recipes, and getting and navigating the kitchen well. Also, cleanup, good job, you know. Like who doesn't love a cook who cleans after they're done or during? I don't know. Are you a chef and are you a baker? And do you prefer to clean while you're baking? While you're cooking, or do you wait until the end? It'd be interesting to have that conversation. I'm the person that likes to clean up while I'm doing my work. My brain just works that way. I want to tidy things up because I know at the end I have to clean it all, and I am not gonna have the energy after I have a really good meal to get up and clean the whole kitchen. So that is the debate. So if you are the person who cleans up during or cleans up after, leave me a comment. Okay, now grilling. My husband is usually the griller, he has been navigating the grill for a lot longer than me. I tend to use other sources in the kitchen, not so much the grill. However, we have learned in our family that we do not like a flat top grill. It takes a lot of oil to keep that um iron top nice and clean. It's a lot of work. So if you like to cook on a flat top, there's a lot of work involved with it, right? You have to prep it and clean it and take care of it. Same with any grill, but I feel like the flat top in Florida, it can rust, it can do a whole lot. So you got to really keep that well oiled. We got rid of that, and we now have just a smoker, a pellet smoker. And so we cook everything in there. We cook it on low and slow and high and um quick. So everything in between can be cooked on a smoker. But the reason why I bring that up today is because we're gonna talk about um specifically uh things like HCAs, right? How that changes our DNA. Pause. Everybody talks about that, PAH. So we look at polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons. So when we look at how we cook food, it's as as important as the variety of food. When you cook food in a chars or you see the black stuff on it, that can have a chemical reaction in your body that can create cancer cells or free radicals. I should say not cancer cells, but free radicals, and free radicals can then impact and possibly turn into cancer cells. So that is the progression of things. But why are we talking about the barbecue? Why are we talking about cookouts? Why are we talking about all that, right? Why is that good? Why is that bad? Why is that a discussion? So, in our summer um 10-part series, and we're pulling apart different things. I just want to give you some tips, right? Like, what's the best way, and what are you setting up for? And what are you exposing your body to? And is it good? Is it bad? If it matters to you, then you can change it. If it doesn't, now you just learn something new. But let's talk about the mailered reaction. That's the science term for what makes brown food taste so good. But charring meat creates HCAs, charring vegetables and other source and other meats creates PAHs pause. Um, that these are compounds that can be harmful for ourselves, and we just talked about that. But how do we stop it? That's where we talk about the longevity marinade. So when we look at how to stop that reaction, there's multitudes of information out there, but when you look at like the quick and the science behind meat, and the science behind food and the grill, low and slow is gonna help not char the food, right? Um, marinating is gonna help protect the food from charring and from changing. So let's talk about that for a second. When we char food, it changes the DNA in that food, which then can be harmful to our bodies. We don't want to change the DNA of something, we want to keep it as intact as possible. So we're gonna talk about ways like marinating, why that actually helps not change that DNA or not char that food. And so when you marinate 30 to 60 minutes before you put something on the grill, that is what helps protect that piece of meat specifically. So you can take like olive oil, apple cider vinegar, crushed garlic, fresh rosemary, put it all in a mixture, mix it up to taste, whatever you like. Um, and then you can put that on your meat or put your meat in that to soak in that 30 to 60 minutes before. The reason why that's important if you marinate is it reduces those HCAs up to 90%. So I'm not a proponent of flipping your burgers constantly. I'm more of a proponent of slow cooking them or cooking them without a direct flame. I know that char is very appealing and it tastes really good. Like our body's like, ooh, this is delicious. I'm one of those people, I like that too. Although you do it every once in a while, it's totally fine. You do it every day, weekly. It starts building up, you know. If you want to drink, if you want to have a lifestyle of high stress, if you have a high stress job, I mean all these things, kids, a busy schedule, um, your body can only handle a certain accumulation before it starts breaking down. So the goal in our clinic is hey, we all live in an environment, we all have stress. How can we limit that stress to make your body work optimally, right? What is the risk reward for this? So, for some people, this is a high, uh high risk, high reward situation. For others, it's a low risk, low reward. Um, but let's talk about some ways to change or to decrease that char. So you can either cook on more of a gas grill, right? Because charcoal or burning oil, those things create paws, right? Charcoal increases your polycystic, aromatic hydrocarbons. So charcoal, gas, oil, all those things when it's burned goes into the air and it goes into the meat. Um, so what happens is it soaks in and then you consume it. If you have indirect heat, you're going to decrease your HCAs. If you cook on gas, you're gonna decrease your PAHs, your polycystic aromatic hard hydrocarbons instead of charcoal. So when you look at those contrasts, you can say, huh. Well, if I want to lower my HCAs in my paws, then I'm going to in our house, I like doing the pellets, right? So you can, you know, do a pellet and a low, slow cook in a smoker where there's no open heat flame, and it really cooks the burger well. You can do it at like a 350 for what 10 to 15 minutes, I think. My husband does it for, and it is awesome. There's no char to it really, um, not at all, and it's actually well flavored. So you season it the way you like to, you put it on there and you cook it. It's got an even cook source, even um temperature throughout, it's indirect heat, it is not um oil-based or charcoal, so you're decreasing all of these um exposures, right? But if you don't want to do that and you want to cook on a charcoal grill and you want to cook on a high flame, you just kind of flip the burger a lot. You stand there and you flip and you flip and you flip. Um, kind of like a marshmallow, right? So you're doing a marshmallow, and some people just like to light it on fire and blow it out and get it done with. Well, I like to sit there and turn it and turn it and turn it so it never turns black. I like the like light brown ooey gooeiness of it. So these are just some fun facts for you to help you at the grill when you're out there and explain why um the science behind heterocyclic amines and why that changes the DNA with high heat or open flame. Also, when we look at what it does in the body, let's take a second for that. So let's say you go out and you're grilling and you you have a burger or a steak, that on high heat in charcoal is going to damage the DNA of the meat, and it's going to absorb a lot of that PAW, the polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons. When you do that and then consume it, you're putting that chemical reaction into your body. That chemical reaction goes, hey, um, I really can't digest you, but now I need to break you down. Now these free radicals that are in my body from this source or that chemical that is in my body now has to be broken down, it has to be um sequestered or taken care of, and it has to be able to be secreted. The reason why that matters is some people can't do phase two detox, can't really get that out of the body, so then it stays in there. So people who can't detox, it's gonna be very, very harmful for. So when you're consuming things, and paws come from like secondhand smoke, from firsthand smoke, all of these things are gonna build up in your body if you can't detox them out. And so, some people it's gonna be very negatively affected, you know. When you look at different studies, like why do some people get lung cancer from working at a bar for many years and not being a smoker, and some don't? Well, some can actually detox appropriately and some cannot. There's other factors to it, but that's the most simplest thing. So when you're doing the grilling or when you are grilling out, just take those charcoal pieces off of there. That's one way you can do it, right? Just don't eat the charcoal pieces or the burnt pieces. That will help. Um, and then you know, if you're doing the barbecue and you have control over it, you can take and marinate your food, you can flip your food, you can cook it on low heat or indirect heat, you can do all these things, which then will eliminate the um the HCAs and the PAWS from coming into your body. So you have direct control over it, then then make the right moves on that. Um, but there's no right way. I mean, you go to Pitmasters and you see all these people grilling and doing, you know, it's all about marinades, which is protecting the meat, and then it's all about slow cooking, which is really actually the best way to do, you know, our cooking for our meat, um, in my opinion, and for our body, right? Chemically. So when you look at all that stuff together, you have control, you can be as um artistic as you'd like at the grill. So you can make your marinades and you can trial and error, you know, try different meats and try different marinades and see how that works. But I want you to continue to think, hmm, I want to have fun in life, I want to do these things. And if you learn something from this, you can switch it, move it, you know. Oh, I didn't realize that. So try a different cooking strategy. All these things are good. There's no right way. I'm sure you are a great cook. I hope to maybe sit down with a meal or get some of your recipes that you've tried over this. Um, but let's jump into a fact too. You know, when we look at food, every single um fruit, vegetable, meat source they all have their own reactions and chemical makeup. We all humans carry different chemical makeups, but pineapple, you probably know where I'm going with this. What enzyme does it carry? Well, it's bromelin. Bromelin has many things that it does to the body, breaking down inflammation being one of them. Um, but it also helps digest proteins. So pineapple carries an enzyme called bromelin. You can put that on the grill. I don't know if you've ever done that, but it is so good. I love grilled pineapple or warmed up cooked pineapple, it's so good. Um, but when you do that, it helps you digest the proteins. So throw some pineapple rings on the grill the next time that you're out grilling the summer. Um, it is awesome. It's awesome to end your night with. You know, people who have a sweet tooth, it's a great barbecue dessert, and it's easy to do. You cut up a pineapple, you cut it into rings, and then what? Throw it on the grill. Everybody can grab a piece, put it on their plate. Um, so this summer, when you're doing things, try that. Be like, okay, family, tonight we're gonna cut up a pineapple, and this is what we're having for dessert. Some people like to sugar it up, some people like to keep it savory. I will let you decide on that, but make sure you rethink your grill and stay curious this summer.