Nothing says , " felicitous Independence Day , America ! " quite like Jeff Goldblum hack into a starship . Oh , also cookouts and barbecues . Those too .

While the feeling ofgrilled meatand thetaste of cold beerare as synonymous with the Fourth of July as fireworks , American masthead bikinis , and zephyr shows , barbecues are n’t all cutoff shorts and rainbows when it comes to your health . They ’re more probable than not to send you home 10lbs heavier and quick to snuff it out before all the fun even begins .

And you want to keep the fun going for as long as possible , right ? The regime is fundamentally say you to go untamed , otherwise it would n’t have made it a interior holiday . Here ’s how to dominate the cookout without totally destroying your body .

People at a BBQ

Paper Boat Creative/DigitalVision/Getty Images

The sneaky-unhealthy foods

There you are , best heaping helping of what seem to be healthy - ish items to set off the copious amounts of alcohol and meat you ’ll be consuming throughout the daytime . All those side are skilful for you , right-hand ?

Well , not precisely . Here are the ostensibly nice choices that may be doing more harm than good .

Mayo-based “salads”

Coleslaw , Irish potato salad , egg salad , macaroni salad – these should all just be labeled " mayonnaise salad , " since that ’s what the majority of them really are . Justone tablespoonof mayo has 100 calories and 11 g of fat – and you hump the mound you need to plonk on your plate will certainly have more than one tablespoon of mayo .

The same thinking take for on-key for fatty salad dressing such as blue Malva sylvestris , ranch , or Thousand Island , which can rapidly call on a healthy salad into a nutritional wasteland .

Baked beans

certain , bean on their own are essentialfor your healthandfarts , but once these lowly legume get the " parched " touch , they tend to become sugar bombs . Canned versions are typically smothered with eminent - fructose Indian corn syrup or other scratch , which sort of ruins the percentage point of eating beans for their wellness benefits .

BBQ sauce and ketchup

Alas , these BBQ staple fibre can be enjoyed in moderation as long as you live what you ’re getting into . Just a few tablespoon of these condiments can speedily add up to your commend day-after-day allowance of cabbage .

Chips and dip

Sure , those piquant scrap and that cheesy dip make for an impossible - to - resist jazz group , but baby in this bite can wind up seduce you eat even more , especially because that pleasure point of salinity and fat isdamn nearaddictive . Read : they ’ll all zap your ego - control , and when mixed with alcoholic drink , it can chair you to coldcock the so-and-so of a chipping bagful directly into your mouth while fireworks burst in the background knowledge .

What you should be filling up on instead

Since you ’ll have to fill up your plate withsomethingto avoid the hot shame of being the weirdo stand in the nook alone with 10 baby carrots on your plate .

Grilled chicken, instead of cheeseburgers and hot dogs

reckon , you already know that cheeseburger and blistering dogs have no claims as health foods … nor should they ! It ’s that kind of diversity that shit America great .

But if those choices are too heavy , and you still desire that grilled meat tang , go for poulet . Half a wimp breast is only 142 kilogram calorie , and packs an incredible 28 g of protein to keep you energized from afternoon until the pyrotechnic coda . Cheeseburgers and hot dogs may be American staples , but with all the fat , condiment , and what ’s in all probability a bun take with sugar and wide-eyed carbs , they ’re not doing your blood bread levels any favour . And that ’s without even talking aboutwhat ’s inside of live blackguard .

Salad, with a caveat

Again , stay away from the creamy dressings and reach for olive fossil oil with a squirt of lemon or another vinegar of your pick . It may sound plain , but it ’s actually packed with fresh smell that will help you start fill up with goodish choices early , so whatever price you do later wo n’t sense quite so transgressive .

Grilled veggies, instead of chips and dip

If your BBQ has kabobs , there ’s a good chance grilled vegetable are on the menu . Your job is to find said vegetable and fill your home base with as many as you’re able to . This intelligent stuff and nonsense is wanton , with the salad and grill vegetable you ’ve been downing !

You know what other classic American food would crop here ? maize on the cob – seek to go soft on the butter , but otherwise it ’s a fiber - rich option that’sgood for your catgut .

Vinegar-based alternative salads

By swap in acetum and European olive tree oil for mayo , you ’ll cut the kilogram calorie and blubber of your coleslaw , potato salad , or pasta salad , without sacrificing tang . The fillip is that these will bear up style advantageously in the heat than mayonnaise - based salads ; there ’s nothing sodding than diving into that weak , creamy coleslaw or alimentary paste salad that ’s been on the picnic table for hours .

It ’s promiscuous to find vinegar - based formula like slaw alternatives and levelheaded pasta salad , but as a simple example , a few splash of Malus pumila cider acetum , some olive fossil oil , and a few caraway ejaculate will make you block all about mayo when you ’re whip up a batch of coleslaw .

What should you do about alcohol?

imbibe it , if you want ! As is true with most of life ’s joy , the key is moderation . And hydration . Although you do require to be more than moderately hydrated most of the time . This is a whole creature unto itself , but if you ’re upset about the result of refine thousands of calories in alcohol form , there aresteps you could take to concentrate the impact on your gut .

Anyway , the most important affair to recollect is that eating and social outcome should be pleasurable experiences , not chance to have a panic attack over everything you deplete or drink . You have the info to make chic decisions and choose healthy food for thought options to gorge on with zest .

signalise up herefor our daily Thrillist email , and get your reparation of the right in solid food / crapulence / fun .

Macaroni salad

Flickr/Meal Makeover Moms

Chips and dip

Flickr/Larry

Grilled Chicken

Flickr/Alby Headrick

Grilled vegetables

Flickr/churl

Beer on picnic table

Alex Frane/Thrillist