Hey, don’t slather on that sugary sauce! Healthy barbecue options exist: 8 grill tips

CLEVELAND, Ohio – This time of year brings the aromas of sizzling meats on the grill, savory and mouth-watering dishes to feast on as we enjoy our few months of warm weather.

But barbecue – like many styles of cooking – can quietly load up calories when you add sides like creamy potato or pasta salad and other dishes. But you can take a healthy approach. Holistic nutritionist Dan LeMoine, who lives in Phoenix but is originally from Hudson, offers some tips.

“Being from Cleveland I know we always gain 15 to 20 pounds every winter, and we work hard leading into the summer to get it off. I think grilling is one of the healthier options. You can make some really delicious food that is healthy for you with the grill,” said LeMoine, who runs re:vitalize weight loss and wellness clinics with Dr. Noel Abood.

They focus on using technology “to remove the guesswork for people out of what foods are good for losing weight with their metabolism for the long haul. It’s not about bars and shakes but a holistic approach based on science and nutritional coaching,” he said.

But it’s easy to take a healthy idea and make it unhealthy. And that’s where LeMoine comes in.

“I love grilling,” he said. “Generally speaking I think a grill is a great way to cook. You don’t need to use a lot of added oils, you don’t need things to stick to the bottom of a pan. Air frying is probably the healthiest way, but I think grilling is a really great way.

“The biggest thing is most of the stuff you can throw on the grill is inherently what I would consider a healthy option. It’s usually a protein of some kind and a vegetable.” Trouble comes with what we put on our grilled dishes to try to enhance their taste, he said.

Here are eight things to consider when trying to stay healthy while grilling:

1. Main dish: Kebabs

Kebab’s origin is Persian, with “shish kebab” translating as “skewered meat.” The bite-sized pieces of meat and vegetables can be marinated and grilled. “Kebabs are great because you can load them up with veges, and steak or chicken are a good go-to,” he said. Alternatives: Plant-based vegetable kebobs make for good grilling with zucchini, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, red onions and – for those who want a smoky, savory and sweet kick – pineapple. A bit of olive oil and seasoning “can really go a long way,” he said.

2. Main dish: Portobello mushroom

For those who are vegetarian or watching their carbohydrate intake, portobello mushrooms – with their versatile and steak-like texture – serve a dual option: They can be the “burger” itself or the patty.

3. Buns

If you are grilling burgers, pulled pork or any sandwich fodder, consider whole grain instead of traditional white buns.

4. Vegetables: Corn and potatoes

“I think sometimes corn gets a bad rap, but corn and potatoes is something you can do; there’s a lot of nutritional value,” LeMoine said, adding to keep an eye on portion control.

5. Marinades, sauces and rubs

“There’s so many good options now at the grocery store,” he said. “You don’t have to go with just your standard barbecue sauce. There’s sugar-free options, there’s different marinades made with quality ingredients – herbs and olive oil vs. sugar and a bunch of questionable ingredients that neither you or I can pronounce.” He suggested considering a savory mayonnaise or a sour cream-based sauce for burgers and sandwiches with herbs and spices “can go a long way.” For those who like to smoke meats consider sugar-free rubs. For salt, choosing pink Himalayan or Hawaiian over table salt adds healthy flavor. “There’s some good high-quality pink salts. … What’s different about that vs. your table salt is those pink salts are coming straight from the earth with the 70 to 80 trace minerals. So it’s not being refined in a way that’s stripping out all these other trace minerals. When sodium is in balance with all these trace minerals you don’t see the blood-pressure spike and issues you’d have with typical table salt.” (Here’s more on salt vs. pink Himalyan salt.)

6. Dessert: Fruit salad

This is the time of year to enjoy “vibrant life-giving fruit in season. Watermelon, berries and grapes can be a side or dessert alternative.” Bonus: A Greek yogurt-based dip makes a good accompaniment. (Note: A fast way to take the health factor down would be to smother your fruit with more than a generous dollop of cream.)

7. Condiments

“Condiments in general can really go from healthy to unhealthy really quick,” LeMoine said. He used mustard as an example. “Your general yellow mustard or stone-ground mustard is pretty clean.

But then you get into some of the Dijon mustards or the fancy mustards. Now they’ve added honey to it, they’ve added sodium to it. The more fancy some of these condiments get, the more you can get into trouble.”

8. Ingredient checking

LeMoine looks at trans fats or any oil listed on labels. “Mayonnaise is I don’t think unhealthy, but when you’re using things that are not olive oil or avocado oil (based), I usually steer clear of, as well as added sugars. What sugars and what fats are in it are important to me.” Sodium is less of an issue when it comes to grilling than it is in other products, like some soups, he said. “The punchline is getting familiar with the ingredient list. A lot of us have learned, ‘Oh yeah, I look at the nutritional label and I look at how many calories is in this and how many grams of fat and what the carbs are like.’ That’s all well and good, but I do think there oftentimes are things that we miss, like questionable ingredients, like different syrups and sugars. … if you can’t pronounce it maybe you should steer clear of it.”

“I like to think about how did our ancestors eat,” LeMoine said. “Part of that is, ‘How did they prepare their food?’ I think fermenting and cooking over a fire source is how they did it.

“I don’t think we can go wrong cooking over a grill,” he said.

Get your grills on

Oddly enough, a recent study of the most barbecue-obsessed cities in the United States does not include Cleveland in its top 50.

The list comes from Illinois-based Bid-on-Equipment, which culls data from Yelp, Trip Advisor and Google search volume. The top three? Atlanta, Kansas City and Tampa. Columbus, at No. 40, is the only Ohio city that made the ranking.

Texas garnered four spots in the top 15.

Here is the full list.

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I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. Twitter: @mbona30.

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