How many ketchup drips, chocolate smears, coffee stains, or cookie crumbs and sugar sprinkles do you have in your car (or on your clothes)? Is your daily road trip to work or a weekend or vacation drive an endless fest of fast food, junk food, and all kinds of snacks? Does your dashboard or vacant passenger seat serve as your kitchen table?

If you’re nodding your head, you’re a dashboard diner. It’s way too easy to indulge your dashboard dining gremlin at fast food and doughnut shop drive-thrus or gas station mini-marts with their canisters of coffee and cold cases of soda along buddied up with an array of baked goods and king size candy bars.

What is it about mini-mart and rest stop food? It seems to touch that primal urge to devour sweet and/or salty stuff that’s loaded with calories. Or, maybe we just remember stopping at rest stops as a kid on family road trips. Whatever the reason, potential trouble lurks for anyone with a proclivity for dashboard dining.

The Trap And The Danger Of Rest-Stops And Mini-Marts

Inside, there’s an endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay) or take with you.

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline – is that high-carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar —making you really tired and cranky.

• Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.
• Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

Rest-Stop And Mini-Mart “Gotchas”

Candy is an impulse purchase; 49 percent of shoppers admit to unplanned purchases of candy. It seems that we want to treat ourselves and candy is an affordable luxury.

Check out the placement of candy the next time you’re in a mini-mart or convenience store — it’s positioned to grab your attention. Vividly colored wrappers reach out to you from high-traffic areas of the store: the checkout area, the aisle that leads to the check out, and on the way to the restrooms.

Know that your senses are going to be assaulted and have a plan for what you will and will not buy. If you’ve decided you want M&Ms go straight to them and don’t get sidetracked by a new kind of chips, or seasonal displays, or the latest and greatest deal on a king-sized package of candy.

Coffee, unlike candy, isn’t an impulse purchase. Nearly 96% of customers intend to buy a cup of coffee before they walk in. Here’s the impulse buy: stores put candy, baked goods, and chips near the coffee to entice you to buy them. As a man standing in line in front of me at a popular gas station mini-mart muttered, “I stop here for coffee every morning and I’ve gained 20 pounds since they put in the Krispy Kreme donut display between the door and the cash register.”

Some Helpful Tips

• Nuts have protein and crunch, won’t cause swings in your blood sugar, and are almost always stocked. Tread a little gently — nuts aren’t low in calories. For a one-ounce serving of nuts you might find at rest stops: 49 shelled pistachios, 162 calories; 23 almonds, 169 calories; 18 cashews, 163 calories; 19 pecans, 201 calories; 10-12 macadamias, 203 calories; 39 peanuts (technically a legume), dry roasted, 170 calories.
• Some mini-marts have fruit (bonus: oranges and bananas come in their own natural wrapper and don’t have to be washed) and almost all have dried fruit – it’s a good idea to balance the higher sugar content of the dried fruit with the fat and protein in nuts or cheese.
• Sometimes you can find individual bowls of whole grain cereals, although check labels because some cereals are loaded with sugar. To go with it, grab a small container of low-fat milk or a container of yogurt.
• Protein bars can be good, better, and best. Check the labels for higher protein and lower sugar. Some can be the equivalent of a candy bar and are so large (with so many calories) that they are made to be meal replacements. A protein bar for a snack should be around 150 calories. Meal replacement bars have around 300 calories or more. Look for at least 15 grams of protein.
• If you’re really hungry, choose a sandwich or burrito over donuts, pastry, and cookies. Check out how fresh it is, though. What’s appealing early in the morning when the shelves are first stocked might not be so appealing at 10PM if it has been sitting around all day and lots of people have picked up the sandwich, squeezed it, and put it back again.
• Beef jerky or beef sticks (or nuggets) are good, portable protein snacks. A one-ounce serving usually has around 80 calories and 5 grams of fat or less.
• A hard-boiled egg is a good choice, too. Just make sure it’s been refrigerated and hasn’t been sitting around for a couple of days.
• If you must go with crunchy stuff, stick with popcorn, pretzels, soy crisps, or baked or popped chips in single-serving bags to keep portions in check. Sometimes bags might look small, but still contain multiple servings. Remember that the salty stuff will make you thirsty so stock up on water. There’s something to be said for snacks that take time to eat one by one when you’re spending a lot of time in the car.

Remember …

• Drink water. People sometimes confuse thirst with hunger, so you can end up eating extra calories when a glass of water is really all you need. If plain water doesn’t cut it, try drinking flavored still or sparkling water. We need water for fluids such as tears, sweat, and urine, and to allow chemical processes to take place in our bodies. Dehydration can cause fatigue and there’s some evidence that even mild dehydration can slow metabolism and drain your energy.
• If you just want to leave your rest stop purchases to chance, at least have your own mental list of some good, better, and best choices of food to buy. The danger is that candy, chips, fries, and doughnuts will start calling your name the minute you walk in the door. If you know that you’re going to head straight for the nuts, or popcorn, or even a burger, that’s great, as long as the giant chocolate chip cookie and the bargain 99 cent 32 ounce soda doesn’t grab you first. Try to decide what you’re going to buy before you go in and then stick to your decision.
• Too much sugar causes a spike and then a nose dive of your blood sugar levels.  The consequence is that you’re initially energized and then can get very drowsy and unfocused as your blood sugar plummets.  Not exactly what you want when you’re driving.

For your unique baking and kitchen needs and gifts, visit our eats and more Amazon store:

www.amazon.com/shops/eatsandmore

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It’s hot.  You’re thirsty.  You want something cool – or maybe ice cold – to drink.

Check Out The Calories

A lot of cool, refreshing drinks come with a hefty dose of calories. You might be surprised how many are in a drink you’ve been having for years.

According to CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest), carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet.  It’s easy to forget about the calories in sugared sports drinks, sweetened ice teas, juices, and alcoholic beverages.

Alcohol isn’t a caloric bargain – it has 7 calories per gram (protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram). Add sweetened juices, syrups, or soda to your alcohol, and you could be drinking a significant portion of your suggested daily calorie allowance.

It helps to do some research to figure out what’s your best choice to grab from the deli, the food truck, the coffee shop, or at the bar.

Can you be satisfied with a bottle of beer that has around 100 calories rather than another brand that has around 300 – or water with a hint of flavor instead of a sports drink?

To help you with your choices, here are the calories in some summer favorites:

Water and Sports Drinks

• Gatorade, 12 ounces: 80 calories
• Gatorade G Orange, 12 ounce bottle:  80 calories
• Gatorade G2 Perform Low Calorie Orange, 8 ounces: 20 calories
• SoBe Lifewater, 20 ounces: 90 calories
• Sobe Lifewater 0 calories Black & Blue Berry, 8 ounces: 0 calories
• Glaceau Smart Water, 33.8 ounces: 0 calories
• Vitamin Water, 20 ounces: 125 calories
• Vitamin Water 10, 20 ounces: 25 calories
• Perrier Citron Lemon Lime, 22 ounce bottle:  0 calories
• Vitamin Water Focus Kiwi-Strawberry, 20 ounce bottle:  125 calories
• Hint Blackberry, 16 ounce bottle:  0 calories
• Powerade, Grape, 8 ounces: 50 calories
• Propel Kiwi-Strawberry, 8 ounces: 10 calories
• Water (as much as you want):  0 calories

Iced Coffee and Tea Drinks

• Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 ounces: 430 calories
• Dunkin’ Donuts Sweet Tea, 16 ounces: 120 calories
• Starbuck’s Coffee Frappuccino, 16 ounces (grande): 240 calories
• Starbuck’s Coffee Frappuccino light, 16 ounces grande: 110 calories
• Tazo Unsweetened Shaken Iced Passion Tea:  0 calories
• Iced Brewed Coffee with classic syrup, 12 ounces (tall): 60 calories
• Red Bull Energy Drink, 8.4 ounces, 110 calories

Soda and Non-Carbonated Drinks

• Mountain Dew, 20 ounce bottle: 290 calories
• Coke Classic, 20 ounce bottle: 233 calories
• Diet coke, 20 ounce bottle: 0 calories
• Snapple Orangeade, 16 ounces:  200 calories
• San Pelligrino Limonata, 11.15 ounce can:  141 calories
• Can of Coke, 12 ounces:  140 calories
• Bottle of 7Up, 12 ounces:  150 calories
• Root beer float, large, 32 ounces:  640 calories

Beer (12 ounce bottle)

• Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale: 330 calories
• Samuel Adams Boston Lager: 180 calories
• Guinness Extra Stout: 176 calories
• Pete’s Wicked Ale: 174 calories
• Harpoon IPA: 170 calories
• Heineken: 166 calories
• Killian’s Irish Red: 163 calories
• Long Trail: 163 calories
• Molson Ice: 160 calories
• Samuel Adams Brown Ale:  160 calories
• Budweiser:  144 calories
• Corona Light: 105 calories
• Coors Light: 102 calories
• Heineken Light: 99 calories
• Budweiser Select: 99 calories
• Miller Light: 96 calories
• Amstel Light: 95 calories
• Anheuser Busch Natural Light: 95 calories
• Michelob Ultra: 95 calories
• Miller MGD 64:  64 calories
• Beck’s Premier Light: 64 calories

Wine

• Red Wine, 5 ounces: 129 calories
• White Wine, 5 ounces: 120 calories
• Sangria, 8 ounces: 176 calories

Alcoholic Drinks

• Mojito, 7 ounces: 172 calories
• Frozen Magarita, 4 ounces: 180 calories (the average margarita glass holds 12 ounces, 540 calories)
• Mimosa:  137 calories
• Gin and Tonic:  175 calories

The post How Many Calories Are In Your Favorite Summer Drinks? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

How many ketchup drips, chocolate smears, coffee stains, and greasy crumbs do you have in your car (or on your clothes)?

Is your road trip an endless food-fest of fast food, junk food, and all kinds of snacks — with your dashboard or vacant passenger seat acting as your table?

If you’re nodding your head, you’re a dashboard diner. What is it about mini-mart and rest stop food that seems to touch that primal urge to eat sweet and/or salty stuff that’s probably loaded with calories and lacking in nutrition?

The Trap And The Danger

When you walk through rest stop or gas station doors, there’s an endless stream of high carb, high fat, high calorie, and processed food just begging you to plunk down your money so you can immediately indulge (watch how many people start eating the food they’ve bought before they even pay).

The real danger – aside from the damage to your waistline and poor nutrition — is that high-carb processed foods spike then crash your blood sugar — making you really tired and cranky.

• Drowsy drivers are most definitely not safe drivers.
• Cranky drivers make life miserable for everyone in the car – not a great tone to set if you’re going on vacation.

 Some Mini-Mart And Rest-Stop “Gotchas”

Candy is an impulse purchase; 49 percent of shoppers admit to unplanned purchases of candy. It seems that we want to treat ourselves and candy is an affordable luxury.

Check out the placement of candy the next time you’re in a mini-mart or rest stop — it’s positioned to grab your attention. Vividly colored wrappers reach out to you from high-traffic areas of the store: the checkout area, the aisle that leads to the check out, and on the way to the restrooms.

Visually, you’re going to be assaulted by the unending display of colorful packages, so have a plan for what you will and will not buy. If you’ve decided you want M&Ms go straight to them and don’t get sidetracked by the large display of new kinds of chips, seasonal displays, or the latest and greatest deal on a king-sized package of some kind of candy.

Coffee, unlike candy, coffee isn’t an impulse purchase. Nearly 96% of customers intend to buy a cup of coffee before they walk in. Here’s the impulse buy: stores put candy, baked goods, and chips — near the coffee to entice you to buy them. As a man standing in line at a gas station mini-mart muttered, “I stop here for coffee every morning and I’ve gained 20 pounds since they put in the Krispy Kreme donut display between the door and the cash register.”

Helpful Tips

Nuts have protein and crunch, won’t cause swings in your blood sugar, and are almost always stocked. Tread a little gently — nuts aren’t low in calories. For a one-ounce serving of nuts you might find at rest stops:

• 49 shelled pistachios, 162 calories
• 23 almonds, 169 calories
• 18 cashews, 163 calories
• 19 pecans, 201 calories
• 10-12 macadamias, 203 calories
• 39 peanuts (technically a legume), dry roasted, 170 calories

Some mini-marts have fruit (bonus: oranges and bananas come in their own natural wrapper and don’t have to be washed) and almost all have dried fruit — but balance the higher sugar content of the dried fruit with the fat and protein in the nuts.

Sometimes you can find individual bowls of Cheerios or whole grain cereals, although check labels because some cereals are loaded with sugar. Grab a small container of low-fat milk or a container of yogurt to go with it.

Protein bars can be good, better, and best. Check the labels for higher protein and lower sugar. Some can be the equivalent of a candy bar and are so large (with so many calories) that they are made to be meal replacements. A protein bar for a snack should be around 150 calories. Meal replacement bars have around 300 calories or more. Look for at least 15 grams of protein.

If you’re really hungry, choose a sandwich or burrito over donuts, pastry, and cookies. Check out how fresh it is, though. What’s appealing early in the morning when the shelves are first stocked might not be so appealing at 10PM when it’s been sitting around all day and lots of people have picked up the sandwich, squeezed it, and put it back again.

Beef jerky or beef sticks (or nuggets) are good, portable protein snacks. A one-ounce serving usually has around 80 calories and 5 grams of fat or less.

A hard-boiled egg is a good choice, too. Just make sure it’s been refrigerated and hasn’t been sitting around for a couple of days!

If you really want crunchy stuff, stick with popcorn, pretzels, soy crisps, or baked or popped chips in single-serve bags to keep portions in check. Sometimes bags might look small, but contain multiple servings. Remember that the salty stuff will make you thirsty so stock up on water. There’s something to be said for snacks that take time to eat one by one when you’re driving.

Remember to drink water. It’s easy to confuse thirst with hunger so you can end up eating extra calories when a glass of water is really all you need. If plain water doesn’t cut it, try drinking flavored still or sparkling water. Dehydration can cause fatigue and there’s some evidence that even mild dehydration can slow metabolism and drain your energy.

The post Do Your Road Trips Mean Dashboard Dining? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

The picnic food that’s sitting in your car might turn out to be a big problem.  Packaged food  — like crackers — usually do fine in high temperatures, but meat, dairy, cut-up fresh fruit, salads, and prepared foods are another story.

Perishable food may contain bacteria that can cause food-borne illnesses. Food that sits in a temperature danger zone while in your car, at a picnic, or campsite can cause those bad guys to multiply exponentially.

Most bacteria don’t go crazy below 40°F or above 140°F. The temperature range in between 40 and 120 degrees, known as the “Danger Zone,” is where they multiply rapidly and can reach harmful levels. A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours!

Car Temperatures Can Be Brutal

The temperature rises quickly inside a closed car — even when it’s only moderately warm outside.

A study found that at 9AM when the outside temperature was 82 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car was 109 degrees. At 1:30PM it was 112 degrees outside and 124 degrees inside a closed car.

Cracking the windows helped, but only a little.  At 10AM, with four windows cracked, it was 88 degrees outside but 103 degrees inside the car.  At 2PM at 110 degrees outside it was 123 degrees inside the car.

Picnic Food and Temperature Control

To prevent bacteria in food from rapidly multiplying food has to be kept within a temperature range.

• Don’t let your picnic food stay in the “Danger Zone” (between 40° F and 140° F) for more than 2 hours, or only for one hour if the outdoor temperature is higher than 90° F. This bears repeating: perishable food can stay safely unrefrigerated for two hours if the air temperature is less than 90 degrees and only for one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher.
• Keep hot foods hot: above 140°F.  Keep cold foods cold:  below 40°F.
• Remember to include preparation, storage, serving, and transportation time in determining how long food has been out of the fridge or off the heat.

Transporting, Preparing, And Serving    

To prevent food-borne diseases, food safety is crucial both when you transport your food and when you prepare and serve it.

• If you’re buying prepared food, dairy or other perishable food, or food to grill, do what you have to do to keep hot food hot and cold food cold.
• Think about your route and how many errands you have to run. Buy beer and paper plates before you pick up your food — not after food shopping while your purchased food bakes in the car.
• Keep a cooler, cold packs, or insulated bags in your car for perishable items.  Buy a bag of ice if necessary. Make sure your cooler hasn’t turned into a portable oven because it’s been sitting in the car for too long.
• Be certain that raw meat and poultry are wrapped securely to prevent their juices from cross-contaminating other foods and from dripping on fruit and veggies that you’ve already washed.

At The Picnic Site

Food spoilage and cross-contamination are major warm weather challenges, especially when you’re at remote sites (like a camps or parks) without kitchens and running water. Cross-contamination during preparation, grilling, and serving food is a prime cause of food-borne illness.

• How will you keep things clean – not just the food, but the platters, utensils, and your hands?  Is there a source of potable (drinking) water that you can use for cooking and cleaning? You don’t want to use water that’s not safe to drink to wash your food or utensils.  If there isn’t, bring water or pack clean, wet cloths, moist towelettes, or paper towels for cleaning your hands and surfaces.
• Wash your hands before and after handling food, and don’t use the same platter and utensils for both raw and cooked meat and poultry.
• Keep hot food hot and cold food cold the entire picnic. The temperature spikes in direct sunlight so keep coolers in the shade.
• Food shouldn’t be out of the cooler or off the grill for more than 2 hours (one hour when the temperature is above 90°F).
• Keep perishable food like meat, chicken, and mayonnaise-based salads in the fridge and don’t stock the cooler until right before you leave home. Keep the cooler in the coolest part of the car while you’re traveling.
• If you’re going on a long trip consider freezing the food and putting it into the cooler frozen, allowing it to defrost (to a cold temperature, not warm) in transit.
• Hot take-out food like ribs and chicken should be eaten within two hours of when it was plucked from the store. If you buy it well before you’re planning to leave, first chill the food in your refrigerator and pack it in an insulated cooler just before you leave.
• Pack beverages in one cooler and perishable foods in another so the perishable foods won’t be repeatedly exposed to warm outdoor air temperatures when the cooler if opened repeatedly for drinks. A full cooler will hold its cold temperature longer than one that’s partially full. Pack plenty of extra ice or freezer packs to maintain a constant cold temperature.

 Throw out any perishable food from road trips, picnics, or barbecues that’s been out too long or that has not adequately chilled or heated. “If in doubt, throw it out.”

The post For Safe Picnic Food Don’t Forget Your Drive Time appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

if you do, you’re not alone. According to research, snacking, including drinking beverages at times other than during a regular meal,accounts for more than 25% of Americans’ calorie intake everyday. Snacking has turned into “a full eating event,” or a fourth meal, averaging about 580 calories each day.

Eating while you’re doing something else, called secondary eating, has also increased.  Between 2006 and 2008, the amount of time we spend eating breakfast, lunch and dinner stayed at 70 minutes but secondary eating doubled from 15 minutes a day in 2006 to nearly 30 minutes in 2008. There was nearly a 90% jump in the time spent on secondary drinking: from 45 to 85 minutes. (Ever wonder why Starbuck’s is so crowded?)

There’s an increase in snacking across the board, but beverages account for 50% of snack calories. It’s way too easy to forget the calories in drinks. And, we spend about 12% of our total food money at the supermarket on packaged snacks.

What’s A Snack?

A snack shouldn’t be a fourth meal. Most recommendations are that a snack be between 150 and 200 calories and have some protein for both satiety and to help keep your blood sugar level stable. Some fiber in the snack helps keep you full.

Here are some examples – just be aware of portion sizes (for instance, don’t eat half a jar of peanut butter or a huge wedge of cheese):

• Hummus with baby carrots or other vegetables
• ½ cup of low-fat cottage cheese with fruit or whole grain crackers
• An apple, orange, peach, or grapes (or other fruit) with either ¼ cup almonds (or other nuts) or an ounce of cheese or a part skim cheese stick
• Non-fat, unsweetened yogurt with ½ cup of whole grain cereal and/or fruit
• A 12-ounce non-fat latte or cappuccino
• Whole-grain crackers with peanut, nut, or seed butter
• Trail mix with nuts, seeds, raisins, and cereal (cereal can cut down on the calories while increasing the volume – nuts are a high calorie food)
• A whole grain (especially if it’s high fiber) English muffin or slice of toast and low-fat cream cheese or a slice of reduced fat (2%) cheese
• A portion controlled serving of nuts

Smart Snacking Tips

• Make sure your snack is 200 calories or less and has protein and fiber to help keep you full and satisfied.
• 100-calorie snack packages are usually processed and probably are not great for you choices. Check the ingredients, protein, and fiber content.
• Beware of “healthy” or “halo-food” snacks like some sugary cereals, some sweetened, flavored yogurts, some so-called protein bars, yogurt-covered pretzels, and sports drinks.
• Ask yourself if you’re snacking out of boredom, stress, or if you’re really hungry.
• Don’t let yourself get so hungry that it’s impossible to control what and how much you have for a snack.
• There are many choices. Pick snacks that you enjoy and can look forward to eating.
• Keep healthy snacks in your desk drawer, your kitchen cabinet, or in your car so when you’re really hungry you have a good choice readily available. Otherwise it’s way too easy to succumb to the vending machine, newsstand, food truck, or the donut or apple fritter staring at you when you pay for your coffee.

Do you know someone who’s off to college?

Get my book for some easy, doable tips on how to eat well in dining halls and dorm rooms.  Available in print and as an ebook from Amazon and as an ebook from Barnes & Noble.

The post How Big Are Your Snacks? Are They As Big As Lunch or Dinner? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Want one? Look for blue and yellow striped Sabrett umbrellas (sometimes green and white, per regulation, in NYC parks).There seem to be a lot of foodtrucks with blue and yellow Sabrett umbrellas, but you can still find plenty of pushcart vendors hawking frankfurters – even if some of them are now cooked on grills rather than plucked out of pots of warm (“dirty”) water.

The Dirty-Water Dog

“Dirty-water dogs” are hot frankfurters plucked out of a metal vat full of warm, salty liquid. How long the hot dog has sat in in it’s warm bath is anyone’s guess – a time frame probably dependent on how many sales have been made and how long the vendor chooses to leave them in there.

The cooking process is simple. Dump the dogs in the water. Snatch them out for a waiting customer, drop them onto a soft (non-grilled) bun that sops up the wetness that clings to the dog, and add on whatever else (sauerkraut, chili, condiments) the customer wants. If you’re in NYC, go for the famed tomato/onion mixture. Classic NYC street food.

The Origin of the Hot Dog

Hot dogs are derivatives of sausage and sausage has been around a long time – it’s one of the oldest forms of processed food having been mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey in the 9^th century BC.

Although there’s really no consensus on the origin of the “hot dog” (or the “dachshund” or “little-dog” sausage), credit is usually given to Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany around the year 1487. That means the little dog sausage was being happily eaten five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. The name “hot dog” probably began as a joke referring to the small, long, thin dachshund.

The Dog In The Bun

Who served the first North American dachshund sausage (hot dog) wrapped in a roll is also in doubt: maybe the German immigrant who, in the 1860’s, sold them with milk rolls and sauerkraut from a push cart on the Bowery in NYC. Maybe it was the German butcher who opened up the first Coney Island hot dog stand in 1871 and sold 3,684 dachshund sausages in milk rolls his first year in business.

A baseball stadium staple since 1893, the sale of hot dogs as game day food is credited to a St. Louis German immigrant bar owner who also owned the St. Louis Browns major league baseball team.

in the 1890s, the word “hot dog” began appearing in college magazines. Students at Yale called the wagons selling hot sausages in buns outside their dorms “dog wagons.” An article in the October 19,1895 Yale Record described people as “contentedly munching on hot dogs.”

The Pushcart and the Dirty-Water Dog

Pushcarts used to be made of wood. Cooking sausage dogs over an open flame on a wooden pushcart meant carts that could – and many did – go up in smoke. The solution: around the beginning of the 20th century, pushcart vendors started heating hot dogs in water instead of on an open flame.

After the pushcart transition from wood to stainless steel, hot dog pushcarts all looked pretty much the same – rectangular stainless steel carts on wheels with a hinged bins for the dog water, shelves for squeeze bottles of condiments, and the ubiquitous umbrellas.

Carts began to change and varying types of permits allow for expanded menus. With a non-processing permit vendors can only sell pre-made food like dirty-water dogs and pretzels. A processing permit allows them to cook food like kebabs and falafel – and, since grills allow the vendors to cook, they can also grill hot dogs.

Dirty-Water Dogs

New York’s iconic pushcart hot dogs –New Yorkers eat millions of them a year — come mostly from the company, Sabrett. You can spot Sabrett yellow and blue striped umbrellas on most carts. Sabrett calls it’s product “New York’s # 1 Hot Dog, renowned for the famous snap! of it’s natural casing, all-beef frankfurter.”

The water that the hotdog sits in isn’t – or shouldn’t be — dirty, even though it looks like it when the vendor sticks long tongs into a vat of gray foamy covered liquid. That’s not scum on top of the liquid but a froth from the combination of warm water flavored with the juice, salt and meaty leakage from all the hotdogs that have been sitting in their warm water bath.

Despite greater availability of grilled hot dogs, the president of Sabrett says there hasn’t been a major fall-off in “dirty-water” hot dog sales. He says that the regulars stand firm in their preference for dirty-water dogs, a sentiment echoed by the owner of the truck in the photo. He says he’ll grill a dog if someone wants, but that he uses his grill mostly for rib-eyes. His regulars prefer a dirty-water dog – and he smiles as he calls it that. However, he assures me his water is clean not dirty!

Kitchen “Dirty-Water Dogs”

In case you have a hankering for a “dirty-water dog” and there’s no pushcart in sight, here’s the recipe for a self-made version, along with tomato-onion topping, from Epicurious.

Ingredients

• 2 quarts water

• 2 tablespoons red vinegar

• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Pinch ground cumin

• Favorite hot dogs, not skinless

• Large yellow onion, peeled and coarse sliced

• 3 tablespoons cooking oil

• Pinch of crushed red pepper and hot sauce to taste, optional

• 1 tablespoon red vinegar

• 1/4 cup tomato sauce, or ketchup for a sweeter version

Preparation

• In a covered 4 quart saucepan, bring the water to a low simmer, and add vinegar, cumin, and nutmeg.

• Add up to two packages of hotdogs and cover for at least ten minutes.

For the onion sauce:

• Heat the oil and red pepper in pan over medium heat

• Saute the onion 3 to 4 minutes, until about half opaque

• Reduce the heat and keep the ingredients warm

• Stir in vinegar and slowly add tomato until you reach the desired thickness

• Serve dogs on warmed buns with warm onion sauce or sauerkraut and any other toppings.

The post Dirty Water Dogs: a Tasty Treat (for some) appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Cotton candy or funnel cake? Corn dog or fried clams?  The food of summer.  What do you usually eat beachside or after the roller coaster?

Oh, the choices!  Oh the calories! How can you possibly not chow down on thousands of calories when there are food vendors about every 20 feet hawking dogs, ice cream, and fried everything?

Are You Ready For Peanuts, Popcorn, and Cotton Candy?

Sports stadiums, amusement parks, street fairs.  What do you usually do at these places – other than watch games and have a blast on the rides? EAT, of course!

The food- the calories! What a challenge when there are food vendors about every 20 feet hawking hotdogs, ice cream, and fried everything!

There Are Ways And Then There Are Ways

If you’ve got a will of iron you could ignore the food and drinks.  But if you’re tempted at every turn, you can try minimizing the damage without taking away the fun.  If you know you’re going to be having a stadium or boardwalk meal, do some thinking, planning, and sleuthing.  The best choices are not always the obvious ones.

Do you need both peanuts and popcorn?  Can you make do with a regular hot dog instead of a foot-long?  Can you keep it to one or two beers instead of three?  Can you choose the small popcorn instead of the jumbo tub? Can you ditch the soda — or maybe the second one — and replace it with water?

Make Your Best Choice To Save Some Calories

It’s all about choices. Just make the best choice from the food that’s available and still enjoy traditional boardwalk and amusement park food. It’s really possible to make some reasonable choices on boardwalks or at amusement parks or stadiums that aren’t caloric disasters. Weigh your options – what do you want to do and what’s your best choice?

Here’s some info about traditional foods you might find at ballparks, boardwalks, street fairs, and amusement parks.

Use Some Of These Facts As Guidelines:

• Cotton Candy: Nothing but heated and colored sugar that’s spun into threads with air added – and sometimes preservatives. Cotton candy on a stick or wrapped around a paper cone (about an ounce) has around 105 calories; a 2-ounce bag (common size) has 210. A lot of sugar, but not a lot of calories – albeit empty ones.

• Cracker Jack (officially cracker jack, not jacks): candy-coated popcorn with some peanuts. A 3.5-ounce stadium size box has 420 calories but does have 7g of protein and 3.5g of fiber.

• Hamburger:   6 ounces of food stand beef on a bun has about 490 calories. Vendors don’t use extra lean beef because the more fat the juicier the burger for you and the cheaper the cost for the vendor. Cheese and other toppings add additional calories.

• Grilled Chicken Sandwich: A 6-ounce sandwich of grilled, not fried, chicken has 280 calories and isn’t such a bad choice.  Six ounces of chicken tenders clock in at 446 calories.  Barbecue dipping sauce adds 30 calories a tablespoon.

• Hot Dog: Most sold-out baseball stadiums can sell 16,000 hot dogs a day. A regular hot dog with mustard has about 290 calories; that’s 180 for the 2-ounce dog, 110 for the bun, zilch for regular yellow mustard. Two tablespoons of sauerkraut adds another 5 to10 calories and a punch of flavor, 2 tablespoons of ketchup adds 30, and 2 tablespoons of relish another 40. A Nathan’s hot dog racks up 320 calories; a foot-long Hebrew National 510 calories. A regular size corn dog has around 280 calories.

• Fried Battered Clams:  A boardwalk staple.  1 cup (5 large clams or 8 medium clams or 10 small clams) has around 222 calories.

• Pizza: Stadium pizza slices are larger than a usual slice, about 1/6 of a 16-inch pie (instead of 1/8) making it about 435 calories a slice – add calories for your toppings.

• Nachos with Cheese: A 12-ounce serving (40 chips, 4-ounces of cheese) has about 1,500 calories!!! Plain French fries look like a caloric bargain by comparison.

• French Fries: A large serving has about 500 calories. A serving of Hardee’s chili cheese fries has 700 calories and 350 of them come from fat. Curly fries (7 ounces) have 620 calories, 30g fat.

• Potato Chips:  One single serving bag has 153 calories (94 of them from fat).

• Peanuts in the Shell: What would a baseball game be withouta bag of peanuts? Stadiums can sell as many as 6,000 bags on game days. An 8-ounce bag has 840 calories; a 12-ounce bag has 1,260. Yes, they have some protein and fiber.  But wow on the calories. A one-ounce bag of Planter’s Dry Roasted Peanuts has 170 calories, 14g fat, 2g sugars.

• Popcorn: At Yankee Stadium, a jumbo size has 1,484 calories and a souvenir bucket has 2,473 calories. A small bag of buttered popcorn that holds 5 cups has 470 calories, 35g fat. A large, 20 cup bucket of buttered popcorn has 1640 calories, 126g fat. Three and a half cups of kettle corn has 245 calories and 6g fat.

• Soft Pretzel: One large soft pretzel has 483 calories and 5g of fat. Giant soft pretzels (7 to 8 ounces) have about 700 calories.

• Funnel cake:  The fried dough wonder and staple of fairs, boardwalks, and amusement parks, funnel cake is made by pouring dough through a funnel into cooking oil and deep frying the “funnels” of dough until they’re golden-brown and crispy – then topping the pieces with powdered sugar, syrup, or honey.  Different cultures have varying versions of fried dough – sometimes it’s long strips and sometimes just round fried balls of dough. The calories vary enormously depending on the quantity and toppings.  Just remember, regardless of the shape, they’re all dough fried in oil topped with a sweetener.  That means high calories and low nutrition.  You probably have to figure a minimum of around 300 calories for a 6-inch funnel cake (do they ever come that small?).

Ice Cream

• Helmet Ice Cream: Your team’s mini-helmet filled with swirled Carvel has 550-590 calories.

• Fudgsicle Fudge Bar (1 bar, 64g):  100 calories, 2.5g fat, 13g sugars
• Klondike, The Original (1 sandwich, 81g):  250 calories, 17g fat, 18g sugars
• Good Humor Ice Cream:

• Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bar (83g):  230 calories
• Toasted Almond (113g):  240 calories
• Candy Center Crunch:  310 calories
• Low Fat Ice Cream Sandwich, vanilla:  130 calories
• Chocolate Éclair (1 bar, 59g):  160 calories

Soda, Lemonade, and Beer

• Coke, small (18-ounces): 218 calories
• Coke, large (44-ounces):  534 calories
• Coke, 12-ounce can:       140 calories –- and close to 10 teaspoons of sugar
• Minute Maid Lemonade (18-ounces):  248 calories
• Minute Maid Lemonade (44-ounces):  605 calories
• Draft Beer: A stadium draft beer, a 20-ounce cup, the usual size –has about 240 calories. A light draft saves you 60 calories.
• 12-ounce bottle of Budweiser:  144 calories, 12.8 carbs, 4.7% alcohol
• 12-ounce can of Bud Lite:  110 calories, 6.6 carbs, 4.2% alcohol
• 12-ounce bottle of Miller Lite:  96 calories, 3.2 carbs, 4.2% alcohol
• 12-ounce bottle of Miller MGD 64:  64 calories, 2.4 carbs, 2.8% alcohol

For more information about calories in summer drinks, click HERE. here.

Candy

Take note the serving size — movie theater and amusement park boxes of candy are often huge and may be double or triple the size shown below.

• Junior Mints, 3-ounce box:  360 calories, 7g fat
• Sno Caps, 3.1-ounce box:  300 calories, 15g fat
• Milk Duds, 3-ounce box:  370 calories, 12g fat
• Raisinets, 3.5 ounce bag:  400 calories, 16g fat
• Goobers, 3.5 ounce box:  500 calories, 35g fat
• Twizzlers, 6-ounce bag:  570 calories, 4g fat
• M&Ms, 5.3-ounce bag:  750 calories, 32g fat
• Peanut M&Ms, 5.3-ounce bag:  790 calories, 40g fat
• Reese’s Pieces, 8-ounce:  1160 calories, 60g fat
• Snickers (1bar, 59g):  280 calories, 14g fat

The post Boardwalk, Amusement Park, and Stadium: What Do You Eat? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Have you ever tried to eat a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and pickles? It’s hard enough to do when you can eat over a plate on a stable table – trying to eat it in a car means ending up holding two pieces of bread with a lap full of pickles and tomatoes.

Road trip food should meet certain “save your clothes and car” requirements:

• It won’t fall apart, isn’t sticky or slimy, isn’t juicy/watery, and won’t break into a million little pieces when you try to eat it
• It fits into a cooler (remember ice packs) or doesn’t need to be refrigerated
• It’s reasonably healthy and tasty
• It’s grab and go –you don’t need a knife, fork, or spoon to eat it (unless you pull over and have your own picnic) and it doesn’t need to be assembled
• It doesn’t stink – how long do you want to drive smelling of onions, garlic, or stinky cheese.
• Remember napkins, moist towelettes, and something for garbage.

Road Trip Snacks That Are Easy To Eat

Grab and go food is the name of the game. It’s dangerous to be distracted while you’re driving, so if you can eat something that’s non-messy and easily held in one hand, the food distraction is minimized.

Candy bars and bags of chips are pretty easy to eat — especially if you don’t mind chocolate smears on you and your car, fingers stained orange from chips, and crumbs everywhere you look. But how do you feel after eating them? If that candy bar is going to make you feel drowsy or lousy, maybe something that’s a little more nutritious and packs some protein is a better idea.

Some Suggestions

This is by no means an extensive list – it is meant to get you to think about what fuels you and leaves you feeling energetic, not grumpy and tired.

• Anything in a pita: Pick your favorite protein food and some not too slippery vegetables and pile them into a pita. Make sure you just create a pocket and don’t cut all the way through. The pocket and the texture of the pita hold the interior ingredients in nicely.

• Cheese and crackers: Try some cheese sticks or the smaller easy open wax encased snack-sized cheeses (Baby Bel). Bread sticks and whole grain crackers pair well with cheese and fruit.

• Grapes, cherry or grape tomatoes, baby carrots or any other hand held fruit or vegetables: Great road trip fruit and vegetables because they are bite-sized and not messy – with no residue. Apples and pears are easy handheld food, too, although you have leftover residue (easily solved with a garbage bag) and possible juice down the arm.

• Nuts: tasty, nutritious, with some protein – and easy to eat one by one. Pairs well with some dried fruit and/or cheese.

• Peanut butter (or almond or sunflower butter) and jelly sandwiches:  choose dense bread that won’t get soggy. Sandwich the jelly between the nut butter – spread the nut butter on both pieces of bread and put the jelly inside so it’s less likely to ooze out.

• Jerky: High in protein, comes in single serve portions, and easy to eat while you’re driving.

• Leftover pizza, grilled chicken, or other meat.

• Already peeled hard-boiled eggs.

• Whole grain cereal with crunch: combine it with some dried fruit and/or nuts and you have your own trail.

• Granola
or protein bars: they come in lots of flavors and textures – just read the label, especially the grams of protein to make sure you’re not eating a candy bar in disguise.

• Popcorn: check the label for added ingredients, but popcorn can be a great crunchy snack that’s not a caloric disaster (unless it has a lot of added fat and sugar).

If You Hit the Vending Machines for a Snack or Two …

It’s almost inevitable that sooner or later you’ll have your next sharing moment with a vending machine: you share your money and the machine shares its calories.

When you’re tempted to kick a vending machine when it’s swallowed your money with no food in return – be gentle — they actually have a holy history!

Around 215 BC the mathematician Hero invented a vending device that accepted bronze coins to dispense holy water. Vending didn’t really became economically viable until 1888 when the Adams Gum Company put gum machines on New York City’s elevated train platforms. You got a piece of Tutti-Frutti gum for a penny.

Now they’re everywhere: in your hotel, in train stations, and just about every rest stop. They call your name when you’re especially vulnerable: you’re stressed, tired, bored, and your blood sugar is traveling south—all of which means the sweet, fatty, and salty junk food behind those glass windows is all the more alluring.

When a vending machine calls your name, choose wisely. There are good, better, and best choices to be made.

Even Though Your Options Aren’t Perfect, Make The Best Choice For You

• Try to pick something with some protein. Too much sugar will spike then crash your blood sugar making you cranky, drowsy, and hungry for more sweet and fatty food. Not good for driving or for the other passengers in the car.
• You can almost always find packages of nuts, or popcorn, or pretzels, or dried fruit.
• Your choice depends on what you want: protein or sweet satisfaction, fill-you-up fiber or salty crunch.

Common Vending Machine Choices

Crunchy

Baked Lays Potato Chips: 130 calories, 2 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Baked Doritos, Nacho Cheese: 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers: 180 calories, 9 grams of fat, 20 grams carbs, 4 grams of protein

Ruffles Potato Chips: 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, 23 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein. 12 Ruffles potato chips have 160 calories, 10g fat

Cheetos, Crunchy: 150 calories, 10 grams of fat, 13 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Fritos (28g, about 32 chips): 160 calories, 10g fat

Sun Chips Original: 210 calories, 10 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels: 160 calories, no fat, 35 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein.

Rold Gold Pretzel sticks (28g, 48 pretzels):  100 calories, 0g fat

White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn, Smartfood: 120 calories, 8 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Nuts/Seeds

Planters Sunflower Kernels: 290 calories, 25 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbs, 11 grams of protein

Planters Salted Peanuts: 290 calories, 25 grams of fat, 8 grams of carbs, 13 grams of protein

Planter’s Dry Roasted Peanuts, one ounce:  170 calories, 14g fat, 2g sugars

Blue Diamond Almonds, one ounce:  170 calories, 14g fat 0 sugars

Planter’s Nut & Chocolate Trail Mix, one ounce:  160 calories, 10g fat, 13g sugars

Cookies/Pastry/Bars

Mini Chips Ahoy: 270 calories, 13 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein

Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts (2 pastries): 410 calories, 10 grams of fat, 75 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Hostess Fruit Pie, apple: 470 calories, 20 grams of fat, 70 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Fig Newtons: 200 calories, 4 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

Quaker Chewy Low-Fat Granola Bar, Chocolate Chunk: 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein

Nature Valley Granola Bar, Crunchy Oats and Honey (2 bars): 190 calories, 6 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Candy

Skittles: 240 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 56 grams of carbs, no protein

Twix (2 cookies): 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 34 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein

3 Musketeers, king size: 200 calories, 6 grams of fat, 36 grams of carbs, 1 gram of protein

Peanut M&Ms: 250 calories, 13 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbs, 5 grams of protein

Snickers, regular size: 250 calories, 12 grams of fat, 33 grams of carbs, 4 grams of protein

Is there a road trip in your future?

The Summer issue of Eat Out Eat Well Magazine is ready to help you eat well when you’re in the car or grabbing some food at rest stops or roadside diners.

Get it now from iTunes or the Google Play Store for $1.99 an issue or $4.99 for a yearly subscription (four seasonal issues).

The post What Are Good Road Trip Snacks? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

It’s hot outside.  When you open your car door after it’s been sitting in the parking lot you’re hit with a blast of heat that seems hotter than an oven.

The Temperature Rises Quickly Inside A Closed Car

Very quickly — even when it’s only moderately warm outside.

A study found that at 9AM when the outside temperature was 82 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car was 109 degrees. At 1:30PM, when the outside temperature rose to 112 degrees, the temperature inside a closed car reached 124 degrees.

Cracking the windows helps, but only a little bit. With four windows cracked, at 10AM when the temperature was 88 degrees outside, inside the car it was 103 degrees.  At 2PM when the outside temperature rose to 110 degrees, the internal temperature rose to 123 degrees. Certainly not safe conditions for living creatures, especially kids and dogs both of whom are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.

Hot Weather and Food-borne Illness

Hot weather and food-borne illness can be evil partners. Forty-eight million people are affected by food-borne illnesses each year which, in the US, result in an estimated 3,000 deaths. More than 250 food-borne diseases have been identified. They are common and preventable public health challenges.

Most food-borne illnesses can be prevented with proper cooking or processing, both of which destroy harmful bacteria. It’s really important to keep cold food cold and hot food hot because food that stays set out for a long time can enter “The Danger Zone,” or temperatures between 41˚F and 140˚F where bacteria multiply most rapidly.

What About The Prepared Food You Just Bought?

Extreme heat is certainly not a safe environment for fresh and prepared food, either.  Pity the poor groceries or take-out you just bought that’s sitting in extremely hot temperatures in the back of your car.  Shelf, cupboard, and boxed food may be fine, but for meat, deli, dairy, cut food like fresh fruit, and prepared foods (salad, fried chicken, Chinese take-out, pizza) it’s not a good situation.  Why?

When you give bacteria the conditions they like:  warmth, moisture, and nutrients, they’ll grow.   A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours.

Consequently, the food you just bought might spoil because bacteria present in the food have multiplied like rabbits in your car in the hot conditions that are ideal for food spoilage.  Perishable food can stay safely unrefrigerated only for two hours if the air temperature is under 90 degrees – and only for one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher.  Follow this rule for picnics, barbecues, and buffets, too.

Take Pity on Your Food and Protect Your Family and Guests

Be aware of the type of food you’re buying.  If you have perishable items, take some of these steps:

• Think about your route and how many errands you have to do. Stop at the cleaners or for coffee before grocery shopping — not afterward when your groceries will be baking in the car.

• Make wise choices.  When it’s hot outside, take your perishable items straight home.  If you know you can’t go straight home take steps to keep your purchases cool – or buy food that doesn’t need refrigeration.

• To be on the safe side, think about keeping a cooler, cold packs, or insulated bags in your car for perishable items.  Make sure the cooler hasn’t turned into a portable oven because it’s been sitting in the car for so long.

• Buy a bag of ice if you need to for keeping cold stuff cold and frozen stuff frozen on the way home. Or, bring some frozen gel packs with you.

• If you’re on a road trip, remember that food in your car is vulnerable.  The trip to the beach and then spreading your food out on a table or a blanket means that if it’s not in a cooler, it’s been in hot conditions for a long time. Just think — in the winter your car might be colder than your refrigerator.  Then there’s no problem stopping for coffee on the way home!

Road trip: is there one in your future?

The Summer issue of Eat Out Eat Well Magazine is ready to help you eat well when you’re in the car or grabbing some food at rest stops or roadside diners.

Get it now from iTunes or the Google Play Store for $1.99 an issue or $4.99 for a yearly subscription (four seasonal issues).

The post Will The Food Sitting In Your Hot Car Make You Sick? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

The food may taste great, but picnics, barbecues, and grilling can create the perfect environment for the bacteria that already reside in food to rapidly multiply and become the cause of a foodborne illness.

It’s really important to follow safe food handling rules when you’re cooking perishable foods like meat, poultry, and seafood and Unfortunately, it’s way too easy to get a little lax about following food handling rules when the grill takes center stage.

Some Grilling Guidelines

1. Always wash your hands with soap and water before and after you handle the food.  Did you pick up the raw burger or the piece of fish or chicken with your fingers to put it on the grill?
2. When you marinate your food, let the food sit in the marinade in the refrigerator — not the counter — or even worse, in the sun next to the grill.  Don’t use the marinade that the raw meat or poultry sat in on the cooked food. Instead, reserve part of unused marinade to baste with or to use as a sauce.
3. Get those coals hot. Preheat the coals on your grill for 20 to 30 minutes, or until they are lightly coated with ash. If you’re using a gas grill, turn on the grill so it has enough time to thoroughly heat up.
4. When the food is cooked, don’t put it on the same platter that you used to carry the raw food out to the grill.  Ditto for the tongs and spatula unless they’ve been washed first in hot, soapy water. Reusing without washing can spread bacteria from the raw juices to your cooked or ready-to-eat food. Bring a clean platter and utensils with you to the grill and remove the ones that the raw food has been on – it’s too easy to mistakenly reuse the raw food ones.
5. When grilled food is “ready” keep it hot until it’s served by moving it to the side of the grill rack, just away from the coals or the gas burner. This will keep it hot but prevent it from overcooking. If you reheat food, make sure it reaches 165°F.
6. Cook only the amount of food that you think people will eat. It’s easy to cook more, but it’s a challenge to keep leftovers at a safe temperature. Throw out any leftovers that haven’t stayed within the safe temperature range.
7. Use a food thermometer (make sure you have one at home and one to pack for grilling at picnics) to be certain that the food reaches a safe internal temperature. The FDA recommends:

•  Steaks and Roasts:  145 degrees F (medium rare), 160 degrees F (medium)
• Fish:  145 degrees F
• Pork:  145 degrees F
• Ground beef: 160 degrees F
• Egg dishes: 160 degrees F
• Chicken breasts:  165 degrees F
• Whole poultry:  165 degrees F
• Shrimp, lobster, and crabs:  cook until pearly and opaque
• Clams, oysters, and mussels:  cook until the shells are open

HCAs and PAHs: Two Dangerous Compounds That Can Form

Unfortunately, two types of cancer causing compounds can increase or form in some foods that are grilled or cooked at high heat.

Heterocycline amines (HCAs) increase when meat, especially beef, is cooked with high heat by grilling or pan-frying. HCAs can damage DNA and start the development of cancer.  Most evidence connects them to colon and stomach cancer, but they may be linked to other types of cancer, too.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) increase with grilling because they form in smoke and can get deposited on the outside of your meat.

Five Things You Can Do to Decrease HCAs and PAHs:

1. Cook or fry at lower temperatures to produce fewer HCAs.   You can turn the gas down or wait for charcoal’s low-burning embers.
2. Raise your grilling surface up higher and turn your meat very frequently to reduce charring, which is highly carcinogenic. Grilling fish takes less cooking time and forms fewer HCAs than beef, pork and poultry.
3. Marinate your meat.  According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, marinating can reduce HCA formation by as much as 92 to 99%. Scientists think that the antioxidants in marinades help block HCA formation.
4. Add some spices and rubs. Rosemary and turmeric, for example, seem to block up to 40% of HCA formation because of their antioxidant activity. A study by Kansas State University found that rubbing rosemary onto meat before grilling greatly decreased HCA levels.  Basil, mint, sage, and oregano may be effective, too.
5. Select leaner cuts of meat and trim excess fat to help reduce PAHs. Leaner cuts drip less fat – and dripping fat causes flare-ups and smoke which can deposit PAHs on your food.

The post A Dozen Ways To Keep Grilled Food Safe To Eat appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.