The You Docs: Yearning for a burger? Read this

Processed meats -- sausage, bacon, hot dogs, deli meats -- deliver big flavor, but even bigger health risks. Not least because they've got enough sodium to open their own salt mine and enough nitrates to smoke your intestines. So we were hardly shocked by this new finding: One daily serving of processed meat jumps your risk of heart disease by 42 percent and diabetes by 19 percent.

These numbers make passing up processed meats a no-brainer, but do they make a burger look healthy? While the study didn't find that red meat posed the same dangers, it's still on our no-fly list. Why? Red meat may not be packed with sodium or an endless list of preservatives (a parking ticket is better reading), but it's loaded with saturated fat. The stuff that adds inches to your waist, triggers inflammation in your body and clogs your arteries.


So if you've gotta grill beef, do this to make it as healthy as possible:

Go for grass-fed.


It has one-third less saturated fat than regular beef and some good-for-you omega-3s. Choose lower-fat cuts, like top sirloin or the leanest hamburger.

Make it a slider.

Just 3 ounces of lean beef can have 6 grams of bad saturated fat. (Four grams increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, impotence and wrinkling.)


Flame grilling any protein, even skinless chicken or salmon, creates carcinogens. Soaking meat or fish in rosemary-spiked marinade for at least 15 minutes neutralizes about 85 percent of them.

Make kabobs.

Skewer small chunks of marinated meat and vegetables. You get that grilled-meat flavor with fewer carcinogens.

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