How to Grill for a Healthy Heart

Updated July 2026

Just like any other form of cooking, grilling can be healthy, or not so much. It all depends on your choices. Here's a guide to navigating the outdoor grilling season with heart health in mind - without giving up any of the pleasure that makes it worth firing up the grill in the first place.

Choose a better protein.

Think beyond hot dogs and hamburgers, two of the least healthy options. If you're set on burgers, try turkey or veggie. If you're open to other options, chicken thighs, shrimp, or fish all grill beautifully, and wrapping thinner cuts of fish in foil makes them much easier to handle. And if you like mushrooms, don't forget the giant portobellos. They grill like a dream, taste fantastic, and calorie for calorie their protein content is comparable to beef and chicken, without nearly as many calories.

If you are going to eat red meat, choose the best cut you can. Yes, sirloin and tenderloin cost more than ground beef, but the point isn't to eat a lot of it, it's to have the healthiest version of what you're eating. And then try to stretch it – kabobs are considered a meat dish but they’re at least half vegetables to begin with.

Try to steer clear of processed meats like hot dogs and brats, which are the farthest from real food and tend to overflow with sodium and unhealthy fats. That doesn't mean never again, just be reasonable with portions and surround them with much better sides.

Rethink your "main."

Meat may be the star of every barbecue, but it doesn't need to take up the biggest share of your plate. Fruits, vegetables, salads, and whole grains like farro and brown rice should occupy the vast majority of you plate’s surface. Eating vegetables with meat, instead of meat with vegetables, is a subtle shift that lets you enjoy all the tastes and textures of a barbecue in a much healthier ratio, with no new cooking skills required.

Be smart about buns and sides.

Skip the traditional buns made with enriched white flour and reach for the grainiest bread you can find, which packs more fiber (great for your heart and cholesterol) and more flavor. Or skip the bun entirely in favor of a grain-based side like farro, barley, or quinoa dressed with a little olive oil, lemon, and herbs. And watch the classic barbecue sides: mayonnaise-heavy potato salad and coleslaw tend to be loaded with saturated fat, sodium, and even sugar. Make your own with an oil-and-vinegar dressing instead, and pile on the grilled vegetables, corn, asparagus, zucchini, peppers, which add color, flavor, and micronutrients while keeping the calorie count down.

Check the sodium.

Look for marinades, spice rubs, and condiments made without salt, or make your own. It's one of the easiest places to cut a surprising amount of hidden sodium.

Lower the grill temperature.

This one is about more than calories. When meat is cooked at very high temperatures or gets charred, the proteins in the muscle react with the heat to form compounds linked to high blood pressure and cancer. Fat dripping from the meat can also ignite and produce smoke carrying cancer-causing particles. So dial the grill back to around 325 degrees and check the temperature of your meat to avoid overcooking. Keeping the grill clean between uses helps prevent old bits from burning, and you can further limit smoke by trimming fat, raising the grilling surface, or cooking on foil punched with a few holes. If something does char, cut that part off before eating.

Think beyond the grill itself.

What we eat at a barbecue usually isn't limited to what comes off the grill. There are the chips, the caloric drinks, and the brownies, ice cream, and pies for dessert. Sometimes the grilled items are actually the healthiest things on offer. If you know ahead of time that an event is going to be a sodium-fat-sugar blowout, give yourself an advantage by eating something good for you before you go. There's only so much room in our stomachs, and if some of it is already taken up by something health-promoting, there's simply less space for something that isn't.

A few of my personal favorites on a barbecue menu:

Veggie kabobs with zucchini, mushrooms, sweet peppers, and onions (add a few chunks of meat between the vegetables if you're really craving it); grilled jumbo shrimp; salmon with lemon wrapped in foil; corn on the cob; spiced cauliflower steaks; and grilled peaches for dessert.

The side benefits of the humble barbecue.

To me, the best parts of grilling season go well beyond the meal. It nudges us to think about what's in season, it creates the perfect setting for socializing (a foundational pillar of healthy longevity), and for those of us in northern climates, it's a reason to get outside. And if the meal isn't nutritionally perfect, it's not the end of the world. Your barbecue doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be better. Happy grilling.

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