Barbecues are popular especially during the summer months. Although many people may be put off because of the link between burnt food and cancer, with careful cooking you can make your barbecue nutritious as well as fun. Barbecued food is healthiest when cooked over fuel that's extremely hot. If you begin to cook over charcoal that is still flaming or only partly burning, strong, unpleasant smoke rises and the food tends to start sizzling. This can lead to excessive charring and a transfer of potentially harmful smoke components to the food.

Meat

Always use the best cuts you can afford as cheaper cuts don't have sufficient time to tenderise with barbecue cooking. These cuts are also healthier because they provide less invisible fat. Because barbecuing quickly seals the outside of the meat, there is not much loss of the water soluble vitamins through loss of juices. For best results, meat should be thawed out before barbecuing. Take care that the inside is cooked as well as the outside. Never prod or turn over meat with a fork as it may dry out on the barbecue; use a flat metal spatula or tongs instead.

Fish

Fish cooks well on a barbecue, but some white fish is inclined to dry out or break up so cooking in foil is the best option. Small, individual oily fish coook well but they need to be moved around a lot to avoid flare-ups from the oil dripping onto the charcoal. Other good fish for barbecuing are prawns, halibut and sword fish.

Vegetables

Baked potatoes and fried onions are often cooked during barbecues but other vegetables can also help to balance a barbecue nutritionally. Most vegetables can be cooked directly on the grill over a moderate heat, but they will require basting with an oil or marinade. Thread pieces of pepper, onion, mushroom and courgette on to kebab skewers with fish or meat in between.

Fruit

Barbecued fruit makes a refreshing pudding and also provides vital vitamins and trace elements. Apples may be baked in foil, bananas chargrilled and fresh pineaple basted with honey.