Your health: 5 tips for healthy grilling

Five tips for healthy grilling

All fired up for barbecue season?

Harvard Health Publications offers some tips to to help you eat hearty — and safely

1. Start out clean. Don't let the charred buildup on your grill transfer to your meal. Use a wire brush to give your grill a good cleaning. Then wipe it down with a cloth or wadded-up bunch of paper towels to make sure that no grill-cleaning bristles will get into your food.

2. Smoke and fire. Exposing protein-rich meat to high heat and open flames creates heterocyclic amines. When fat drips and burns on the grill, the resulting smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These two groups of chemicals have been linked to various types of cancer. To reduce the formation of heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, line the grill with foil perforated with holes; cook for longer at a lower temperature; and have a spray bottle filled with water handy to control fatty flare-ups.

3. Marinate. Marinating food before cooking limits the formation of potential carcinogens while grilling.

4. Give veggies and fruit equal billing. Grilling intensifies the flavor of fruits and vegetables, just as it does for meat.

5. Practice safe grilling. Keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood separate from vegetables and other foods. Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of grilled meat, poultry, and seafood. Place grilled foods on clean plates, not on ones that held them when they were raw.

Women more likely to have insomnia

Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from insomnia, the American Heart Association reports.

More than 30 percent of women say they sleep six hours or less each night.

To begin sleeping longer, start slowly and add 30 minutes a day — 15 minutes earlier to bed, 15 minutes later waking up,” advises Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

“That's 150 minutes a week — and it adds up. Before long you can add 45 minutes a day,” she says.

She also advises getting lots of bright, natural light into your day, especially in the morning, because it helps synchronize your biological rhythms. If you exercise outside in the morning — because exercise is critical to good sleep — all the better.

Once evening comes and you're preparing for bed, begin dimming the lights and relaxing, she says.