The air fryer is like a professional chef, cooking all the delicious delicacies, all have to do is watch and supervises. This is a groundbreaking cooking appliance using innovative rapid air technology, where you can roast or grill. If you love to eat fries, grilled items like chicken wings, French fries, and yet you want those to be devoid of fat content; then air fryer is an indispensable appliance in your kitchen. Fast-food fries full of saturated fat and sodium are not suitable for your health or the kids. Forget the old fashioned way of cooking the fries and use the air fryer to sustain the dish’s delightfulness and crispiness healthily.
What is an air fryer?
An instant pot air fryer lid is a multi-cooking appliance that can grill, roast, fry, or bake food with low (80%) reduced fat content. the temperature within the vessel can reach up to 200 degrees centigrade. The inner surface made of high-quality stainless steel can withstand extreme heat and pressure. Hot air is disseminated within the appliance to cook crunchy, crispy food items. A chemical reaction knows ads Maillard effect occurs in the process.
Maillard effect is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and reducing sugar when the temperature reaches a certain degree. This gives food a distinct flavor and browned texture. The amino acid and certain simple sugar rearrange themselves to give the cooked food a brown pigmentation. The changes in the color of food and the creation of flavor occurs when the temperature reaches above 285 degrees Fahrenheit or 140 degrees centigrade. To fry food in the air fryer, you need a tablespoon of oil to get the same texture, crispiness, and taste of deep-fried foods. It is definitely a healthy alternative.
Do Air Fryers Have Health Benefits?
When you deep fry foods, the saturated fat level increases substantially, a chicken breast fried contains 30% more fat than an equal amount of chicken roasted. Some experts say the fat content reduces by 70% to 80% when the food is air fried. For air frying, you need only a tablespoon(15ml) of oil, while for deep frying the amount of food, you require about 3cups (750ml) of oil.
Almost 50 times more oil is required to deep fry a piece of chicken than to fry it in an air fryer. When the food is cooked in an air fryer, all oil is not absorbed in the food, thus lowering the overall fat content of the food. A study reveals the food grilled in air fryer has much less fat content, but have similar or better taste, crispiness, the texture of deep-fried foods. This feature significantly reduces the chance of premature heart attack or inflammation as a high intake of oil increases the chance of these diseases.
Helps to reduce weight
Deep-fried foods not only have a high dose of saturated fats but also have high calories, which leads to weight gain. A study conducted on 33,542 Spanish people revealed that taking deep-fried food increases the possibility of obesity. If you wish to maintain a trim waistline, adopting air fried foods is advisable. Every gram of fat has 9 calories, twice as many calories inherited in essential nutrients like protein and carbohydrates. Air fried foods contain much fewer calories compared to deep-fried foods, reducing the chance of obesity.
Air fried foods reduce the formation of detrimental compounds
Deep-fried foods have high fat and calories and contain high levels of harmful compounds like acrylamide. When carbohydrate enriched foods are cooked at high temperatures like frying, acrylamide is formed. International Agency for Research on Cancer classified acrylamide as a probable carcinogen, meaning it could cause cancer. Some experts aired their opinion that acrylamide is closely associated with ovarian, kidney, and endometrial cancer. Air fried foods have negligible content of acrylamide compared to fried foods. In fact, air-fried foods have less than 90% acrylamide than conventional deep-fried foods.
But other chemicals which are detrimental to health like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, and aldehydes are formed while cooking at high temperatures. These chemicals can also cause cancer. Air frying is a much healthier way of cooking than deep frying. The foods contain much lower levels of fat, calories, and hazardous chemicals. If you want to start taking healthy foods without compromising on the taste, crispness, and flavor, air fried foods are an excellent option.
Vegetable oils
Health professionals consider vegetable oil healthy if taken moderately. The healthiness of vegetable oil depends on the fatty acid content, the processing method, and the plant it is extracted. Vegetable oil is an edible oil extracted from plants, which are not only used in cooking, but also present in processed foods, cookies, salad dressing, mayonnaise, and margarine. The most extensively used vegetable oil is soybean, olive, coconut, and sunflower oil. After they are extracted from plants, they are refined, distilled, and sometimes chemically altered. Oil extracted from plants or seeds by crushing or pressing are healthier than chemically processed ones.
Demand for vegetable oil is increasing as the price of other fat alternatives like butter is escalating. Polyunsaturated fat in these oils reduces the potential of heart disease than saturated fat.
Omega6 and omega3
Omega6 and omega3 are essential fatty acids, as they are not produced in the human body; you need to include in your diet. These fatty acids are polyunsaturated, as they have double bonds. They are essential because deficiency causes many ailments. These fatty acids are not stored like other fats, but active in processing blood clotting and inflammation.Omega6 has pro-inflammatory, and omega3 has anti-inflammatory characteristics. Inflammation is essential to protect the body from injury and infection, but when it becomes chronic, it causes diseases like; diabetes, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Some vegetable oils are rich in omega6 fatty acids, and too much intake causes inflammation. Coconut oil and olive oil are both excellent choices, as they both have low omega6 content. The biggest advantage of the air fryer is providing you healthier foods, without saturated fats and oils. You can always enjoy those delicious fried dishes without extra calories and saturated fats.
