If You've Been Doing This One Thing With Your BBQ, You're In Serious Danger

It's BBQ season and there's something you need to know about throwing stuff on the grill wrapped in aluminum foil.

It's common to use foil to keep grills clean when roasting BBQ favorites like baked potatoes, fish, chicken or, well, just about anything. Unfortunately, this timesaver is linked to bone disease, osteoporosis, kidney failure and Alzheimer's. No thanks.

When you grill food in foil, some of the aluminum can get on the food. Apparently, 40mg a day of aluminum is safe, but when you use foil on a grill, the food could contain up to 400mg. Not good. One too many BBQs this summer could cause some serious damage to your health.

Some foods cooked in aluminum absorb more of the metal than others. Recently, researchers found that acidic foods, like meats prepared with lemon juice or tomatoes, took on more aluminum compared to foods prepared with salt and alcohol. They tested foods by preparing them in various ways and cooking them in foil on different heat levels.

Here's the thing about aluminum -- it's also hiding in other packaged food products like tea bags as well as some deodorants. Cool. And all this time, I thought drinking tea was good for me.

How can you avoid too much aluminum intake this summer? By leaving it in the kitchen and cooking foods without it. Yes, that means probably cleaning off your grill more. What's scarier to you? Getting your grill dirty or getting kidney failure?

The same goes for camping. It's common to cook simple meals in foil on a camping trip. I'm cringing now, thinking about how my boyfriend and I cooked potatoes and veggies in foil on our camping trip last summer. If only we had known.

Our bodies can handle some metal, but unless you don't care about your bones and stuff, you might want to pay attention to how often you're using aluminum in your cooking, especially at BBQs.

Citations: Turns out you shouldn't be using aluminium foil on the barbecue (Metro)