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How Much BBQ per Person?

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
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How Much BBQ per Person?

You do need to keep portion size in mind because it helps the cook figure out how much food they should give everyone attending the meal if there happen to be guests, that is.

By using portion size, you will be able to limit your chances of under-eating or \overeating, both of which can lead to excessive weight gain.

People use portion sizes for a lot of foods, including meat, like BBQ food. In this article, you will figure out how much BBQ food a person eats, if you can eat too much, and finally, the benefits of eating it!

How Much BBQ Does Each Person Get?

Now we are onto the section that will tell you how much BBQ each person will get. When it comes to meat, you should be getting about ½ to ¾ of a pound for each person coming to you.

This is more of a general measurement. If you are buying meat that is fatty, like, say, pork, then you may want to go to 1 or 2 pounds per person because fatty meat tends to shrink when cooked.

Should you be in doubt, you can always make more meat than intended and then give out about half of the meat per person who is having dinner. This way, you’ll have more than enough meat on hand!

Can You Eat Too Much BBQ?

Sadly, while BBQ might be delicious, some issues can come about if you eat too much of it. This includes:

  • Eating food at high temperatures can cause you to get a chemical in your body called PAH. The more you eat, the more this chemical is in your body. Two of the most common cancers that can be linked to this are esophageal and colorectal cancer.
  • Inflammation is also an issue that can come about, and when you have this, it can cause you to develop certain diseases and/or cancers.
  • Chances of high blood pressure and diabetes can come about if you are eating a lot of grilled food. Both of these can wreak havoc on your body. Another thing that can come about is high cholesterol, which is just as serious.
  • Too much-grilled food can lead to some GI issues like constipation. This isn’t the most life-threatening of issues, depending on how long it’s gone on, but it is extremely uncomfortable.
  • Finally, a lot of grilled food could lead to you being at risk of obesity. If you are overweight, it can eventually lead to a lot of complications for your body shortly.

So these are some of the biggest issues with eating too much BBQ. One great thing about BBQ is that, depending on where you live, it isn’t always great weather to grill your food.

Hey, who knew that winter could come in handy for once?

What Are the Benefits of Eating BBQ?

Despite the many problems with eating BBQ in excess, there are still a lot of benefits to be had from eating it! This includes:

  • Grilled food has a lot of nutritional advantages that regular cooked food just doesn’t have in it. The high temperature does a great job of helping the vitamins and minerals spread around in the meat. This might sound a little strange, but trust us when we say that it works!
  • These benefits aren’t health benefits but more taste benefits. Eating grilled food makes the texture and flavor better than it would be cooked on a stove or something. Your palette will appreciate it!
  • Finally, grilled food can help you reduce your risk for diseases like diabetes, cancer (well, certain cancers, at least, and heart disease. More research has to be done to tell if this is the case, but so far, it seems like grilled food can reduce your risk for these things.

These are the biggest benefits of eating BBQ. Most of it has to do with the fact that you are cooking BBQ at high heat, and this can just really help make the food healthier for your body.

Plus, as we mentioned, it’s also tastier. While this isn’t a huge benefit, we felt like it was necessary to mention it because who doesn’t like some flavor in their meat?

Final Thoughts

And there you go, all you BBQ lovers out there! After giving you a brief lesson on what BBQ is, we touched on how much each person could get if you can eat too much, and finally, what are the benefits of eating BBQ in the first place!

Remember, it’s best if you use moderation for things in life. Indulging now and again is okay, but for food, this shouldn’t be a common thing.

Eventually, you will be an expert at doling out BBQ for you and your guests, ensuring no one eats too much!

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