Air fryers, marketed as a guilt-free, healthy alternative to fried foods, have gained popularity as kitchen appliances.
Many assert that they aid in reducing the fat level of well-known dishes, including fish sticks, chicken wings, french fries, and empanadas.
However, how healthful is using an air fryer for cooking? This essay will examine the available data to evaluate if using an air fryer actually has more advantages than disadvantages.
What is an air fryer?
You can fry items like meat, cookies, and potato chips with an air fryer.
It works by moving hot air around the food, making the outside crunchy and crispy.
Also, a chemical process called the Maillard reaction takes place. What happens is that an amino acid and a reducing sugar combine with heat, which changes the color and taste of food.
People say that air-fried foods are healthier than deep-fried foods because they have less fat and calories.
Instead of putting the food in oil all the way through, air-frying only needs a tablespoon (15 mL) of oil to make things taste and feel like they were deep-fried.
When you use an air fryer, you can cut down on the fat.
Deep-fried foods typically contain more fat than other types of cooking. A fried chicken breast, for example, has more fat than a cooked chicken breast of the same size.
Some brands say that cooking food in an air fryer instead of a deep fryer can cut the fat by up to 75%.
This is because air fryers cook with a lot less fat than regular deep fryers. A lot of recipes for deep-fried food call for up to 3 cups (750 mL) of oil. But for air-fried food, you only need about 1 tablespoon (15 mL).
This means that air fryers use fifty times less oil than deep fryers. Air fryers reduce fat even though food doesn’t soak up all the oil.
Researchers who looked at the differences between deep-fried and air-fried french fries found that air-frying made the fries much less crispy and with a lot less fat, but they were the same color and amount of wetness.
This could be dangerous for your health. There are some studies that show that eating a lot of fat from green oils may make you more likely to develop heart disease and inflammation.
However, the results are not all that clear. Other reviews of studies suggest a potential link between the fats in vegetable oil and a lower risk of heart disease.
Air fryer may aid in weight loss
Since deep-fried foods have more fat and calories, they may make you gain weight.
Numerous studies have linked eating more fried foods to an increased risk of obesity.
Getting rid of deep-fried foods and replacing them with air-fried ones might help you lose weight.
Every gram of fat contains eighteen calories, more than twice as many as other macronutrients like carbohydrates and protein.
Air-fried foods have less fat than deep-fried foods, so moving to an air fryer may be an easy way to cut calories and keep your weight in check.
Reduce the production of toxic chemicals.
In addition to adding more fat and calories, cooking food can produce harmful chemicals like acrylamide.
When you cook carbohydrate-rich foods over high heat, such as when you fry them, you produce acrylamide.
The International Agency for Study on Cancer says that acrylamide is a “probable human carcinogen.” As a result, some studies suggest that acrylamide may be linked to cancer development.
The Environmental Protection Agency also believes that acrylamide is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”
If you air-fry your food rather than deep-frying it, the amount of acrylamide in it may decrease. In fact, an older study found that air-frying was up to 90% better than standard deep-frying at lowering acrylamide.
However, bear in mind that air-frying may still produce other harmful chemicals.
Cooking food at high temperatures produces additional potentially dangerous chemicals such as aldehydes, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Researchers may link these chemicals to an increased risk of cancer.
Benefits of using an air fryer
In more than one way, air-fried foods may be better for you than deep-fried foods.
They contain less fat, calories, and potentially harmful chemicals, which are typically present in fried foods.
If you’re trying to lose weight or cut down on fat, you might want to use an air fryer instead of a deep fryer.
Another thing to think about is that since an air fryer uses less oil than a deep fryer, it might be easier to buy better oils that cost more, like avocado oil.
Although it’s healthier than deep-frying, it may not be the best option for you.
Why should you not use an air fryer?
It’s possible that air-fried foods are better for you than deep-fried foods, but there are some things to think about.
One difference is that air-frying takes longer to cook food than deep-frying.
One study looked at the differences between french fries made in an air fryer and those made in a deep fryer. The air fryer fries took 21 minutes to make, while the deep fryers took only 9 minutes.
Another difference between air-frying and deep-frying is that air-frying takes longer to cook, and the food has a slightly different taste and texture.
When you air-fry food instead of deep-frying it, dangerous chemicals like acrylamide and advanced glycation end products are less likely to form. However, air-fried foods still contain these chemicals, which you should try to limit in your diet.
The bottom line
You can cook healthy foods like veggies, yams, tofu, eggs, meats, and potatoes with an air fryer, which is healthier than deep-frying.
If you use an air fryer instead of a deep fryer, your food may have less fat, calories, and chemicals that could be dangerous.
