The Negative Health Effect Of Frying Your Food
Fried foods are an important part of home and restaurant dishes around the globe. Although the act of frying foods has been since ancient times, in recent times most fried foods are mostly found in the street as street food and restaurant as fast food.
Frying is a versatile method of cooking in the kitchen around the globe across continents. It produces tasty, crispy, golden-brown colored and attractive dishes.
What is Frying?
Frying is an act of cooking food in fat or oil. This process always requires cooking at high temperatures which is usually between 350F to 375F depending on the smoking point of the oil used.
It is very important for the fat or oil used to reach the required temperature before adding the food to be fried to the pan. When the fat/oil used does not reach the smoking point temperature before adding the food to be fried, the food becomes greasy after frying. How does this happen?
It is a fact that all food contains water and when water is subjected to heat, it turns to steam. So, when food is fried in fat/oil that did not get hot to its smoking point temperature (isn’t hot enough), the water in the food leaks into the frying oil.
The result is that; the food will be boiled in a mixture of water and oil. The food then takes a long time to cook (because the steam reduces the temperature of the oil). The food then absorbs oil it will not normally absorb thus making the fried food soggy and greasy.
Types of Frying
Pan Frying: This method of frying involves cooking food in a very minimal amount of oil. The fat/oil is a smear on the pan which is meant to just lubricate the pan. Because of partial coverage of the food with oil, the food has to be turned upside down or flipped to get both sides cooked.
This type of frying is time-saving. It usually takes between 15–30 seconds. Examples of food that can be pan-fried is egg.
Shallow Frying: In this method of frying, the food is only partially submerged in the oil. The oil in the pan covers up to half of the thickness of the food but doesn’t cover the entire food.
The food usually touches the frying pan and it’s usually flipped in between to get all parts of the food fried. This method of frying has the advantage of allowing the control of the degree of doneness.
It also allows one to cook foods for a longer period at lower temperatures (by lowering the flame). Examples of food shallow fried include; cuts of fish and meat.
Deep Frying: This method of frying, food is wholly and completely submerged in hot fat/oil. A large amount of fat/oil is usually required and the temperature must be kept constant and consistent to achieve even doneness of the food.
The process of deep frying is fast and time-saving because of the high temperature involved. Examples of food deep-fried include stew and French fries.
Stir-Frying: This method involves heating a traditional round-bottom cast iron or carbon steel pan called wok or cheenachatti to a high temperature. Then the metal is oiled then followed by dry seasoning. The food is then added to fry. The food is stirred and tossed out quickly using wooden or metal cooking utensils.
Air Frying: This is a very healthy method of frying with hot air instead of fat in a special device- air fryer machine. It is not a common frying method but it is gaining attention.
Some common types of fat/oil used for frying
- Peanut oil
- Rendered animal fat such as lard
- Soybean oil
- Canola oil
- Sunflower oil
- Red palm oil
- Groundnut oil
- Olive oil
Challenges in Frying
- Cooking oil is flammable. It is easily ignited at high temperatures.
- Mistakenly adding water to hot frying oil cause an extremely dangerous explosion and boil over which causes the water to flash into steam due to the high heat of the oil thus sending the burning oil in all directions which may lead to fire and causing danger to the cook.
- Hot oil do spill/splatter during frying and this could lead to severe skin burn
- The spattering of hot oil when frying stain the wall of the kitchen
Note: Frying is a leading cause of house fire worldwide thus fire caused by hot oil must be extinguished using a non-water fire extinguisher or by smothering.
Other means of extinguishing an oil-based fire include the application of dry powder such as; baking soda, salt, or firefighting foam.
The Negative Health Effect of Frying Food
- The process of frying food generally reduces the nutrient content of the fried food.
- The oil that foods absorb during frying contain large amounts of fats, especially saturated fats and trans fats.
- Consumption of large amounts of saturated fats and trans fats is related to a higher risk of certain cancers such as prostate cancer.
- Eating deep-fried foods has also been related to high cholesterol levels (particularly LDL), obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.
- Fried foods cooked at certain temperatures may contain substances like acrylamide- a possible carcinogen.
- Fat deterioration (lipid peroxidation) during deep-frying results in the loss of nutrients in deep-fried foods.
- Cooking oil that has been used for too long may cause high blood pressure and vascular hypertrophy.
- It is believed that fried food affects the liver.