Who wouldn’t love some crunchy golden-brown colored deep-fried food? But this yummy food comes with a price though. Research shows that fried food and the oils used in it increase the risk of heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Nevertheless, modern-day problems come with modern-day solutions, here we have ‘Air Fryers’ that give us deep-fried food but with lesser fat and calories, unlike the conventional deep-fried oily food. But one might always think if air-fried food is healthy or not.
Air Fryer’s air fried food and their mechanism
An air fryer is a kitchen appliance about the size of a coffee maker that makes deep-fried food crispy on the outside and soft and moist inside suitable mostly for foods like chicken, fish, a few vegetables, potato chips, etc. It typically works by circulating hot air up to 400F around the food. These machines contain a slide-out basket to place the food in them which if wanted can be given a little oil coat and are allowed to fry. The hot air gives that savoring golden-brown color which is similar to deep-fried foods but with lesser fat.
Benefits of air fried food
The huge amount of oil used for deep frying is replaced just with a tablespoon of oil which is on a note very good for health. Acrylamide, a toxic chemical compound that is formed in carbohydrate fried foods is linked to causing cancer. Air fryers reduce this compound content up to 90%. Lesser use of oil leads to lesser calories which aid in weight loss and obesity. On average, the calories are reduced to 70%-80% by this miracle worker. Air fryers comparatively require lesser time for cooking due to their hot air circulation. It is also easy to clean.
Drawbacks of air fried food
Although this is a pretty good choice for people trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle, there are a few downsides too. The process of high-heat cooking creates some harmful compounds like aldehydes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heterocyclic amines, which are cancer and other disease-causing substances. Being of small size, preparing meals for large numbers is a tedious process.
To sum up, air fryers are a good option much better than the traditional methods for deep frying dishes but not a healthy diet in itself. If used occasionally, along with a mixed diet and different methods of cooking then you can maintain a healthy diet.
