Healthy frying??

[Sweet G]

Conventional wisdom dictates that it is unhealthy to fry food? Why is this? Is it to do with the oil in which you fry or something inherent in the physical/chemical act of frying food?

Thanks

[chazza]

It's generally because frying is often done in large amounts of fat. If you dry fry food it is fine.

For example, stir fried vegetables in low cal spray oil is one of the healthiest meals you can make

[funnygirl]

I think it is to do with the oil.
Makes the food all greasy and as we all know that is not good at all.
But you can dry fry in a non stick pan.
I can understand where you are coming from, because if you roast something, you still need oil!!

[nickmo]

Deep frying - if that is more along what you mean - is a method of dehydrating foodstuffs - i.e potato to make crisps. By removing the excess wtaer content it improves the eating quality and actually preserves a lot of the goodness. A batter forms a textured outer coating in the same manner, to protect the 'ingredient'.

Use of sunflower oil which is zero choleresterol makes this a better method of cooking to maintain the vitamin and mineral content rathyer than say boiling in water.

A boiled peeled potato loses 70% or so of its' vitamins into the water, (un-peeled loose 30% ) which makes the water actually a better prospect than the tattie....best for stocks and soups in case you ask, so don't pour into the sink and waste it...

Shallow frying - and here think of using lard as would have been so in the past more than now which is a pure fat product, so not necessarioly the best in large amounts - needs very little oil to achieve good results - and some of the better non-stick surfaces need no oil at all. You can readily cook duck breast with no oil, and the oil that comes out of the duck can be collected and used to fry in anyway, so you get free ingredients if you know where to look !

As noted before, Fry Light and similar oil sprays are useful if you have concerns about the amount of fat in a diet, or as above use sunflower oil. Other oils have varying degrees of health benefits or otherwise - e.g. olive oil - good for dressings, to give flavours and for occasional frying. Pumpkin oil - only for flavouring, and so on.

Some frying methods has also been found to cause the development of certain cancer causing chemicals in the cooking process (which if you think about itcooking is a sort of chemistry anyway). But then again, plastic water bottles have been found to release toxins into the water, some fizzy drinks have a similar problem and other related problems, so where do you draw the

[Sweet G]

Thanks guys. I pan fry quite alot and always use Extra Virgin Olive oil. I use it sparingly so not to make the food too greasy and because it is expensive. I am in good health and my cholesterol is normal (recently tested).

Nickmo could you please expand on your comment about certain methods of frying being unhealthy? Would be interested in specific detials. Thanks

[nickmo]

Hi SG - ok so benefits of frying or negative effects?

A background - This going ino the realms of lipids, saturated fat, trans-fatty acids, fat substitutes to replace specific fats and frying oils plus the cause and effects of cholesterol oxidation in the cooking process i.e as noted before re the development of cancer causing effects in certain fried foods through deep frying processes, as seen and reported by scientists investigating this in Sweden recently.

As the effect of indirect heat on protiens and compounds in oils (and the effects are varied by the temperatures used in frying which will also vary according to the products used / the finished 'dish') will be seen as well as tasted, along with the results in health such as unseen compounds building up in the human system.

Oils are transformed in the process of frying. The use of sunflower oil (zero cholesterol, high in Vit E) is preferred to many other oils as this oil will also allow for high temp boiling over prolonged periods without breaking down. It will also transfer very little flavour from one food product to another, a real problem with cheaper oils or those that have added vit E to extend useful life before filtering or disposal. Animal derived fats - e.g. lard have other properties that suit certain tyrps of cooking. Think fish and chips - most chippies use lard for the 'oil', KFC uses a liquid chicken lard (yum..) as well as partially hydrogenated oils (a guy in the US is suing them at the moment cos he didn't know he was easting this sort of oil - not sure of the results so far of his success...), and there are other food products that will taste best in animal oils - fried potato in goose fat comes to mind...

[nickmo]

Advocates of certain types of frying will also favour specific oils - maize/corn perhaps, or groundnut, etc. Allergies - some s/flower allergies are being seen now as well as the well known peanut allergy - can have a bearing as well simple avilability of the oils. Some oils are best used as flavourings - mustard seed oil, pumpkin seed, etc. and are not suited to high temp frying.

Polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fats are the things to be aware of and the prevalence of 1 type will outway the benefits of others. You have to have essential fatty acids - Omega 3 & 6 in the diet or you can't function as they are needed for the uptake of nutrients. Monosat. fats are like those in veg oils - olive oil has oleic acid which has been studied a lot and found to be beneficial as most people are aware. But there are needs in the diet for all types of the fats found - animal and veg as the human body uses fats in many ways - bile for example is made from fat and digests food.....and cholesterol is needed for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain - natural happy feeling stuff, so balance the diet for the best mix of fats.

Now, re frying:-

The use of hydrogenised oils in cooking - basically had hydrogen added by a heating process in production to create a stable oil for cooking has for 30 plus years allowed a stable 'taste factor' to guarantee a texture as well as flavour in fried foods - goujons, tempura, chips, etc .But. These oils have high trans fats, so now companies are loking for options to them - Denmark has actually banned the use of these oils since 2003 due to links to coronary heart disease...

The plant growers have been seeking varieties of soy, groundnut and sunflower that will provie seeds - to make oil - that perform well in high temps needed for frying but have the better health benefits as well as having components that won't deteriorate into cytotoxins in high temps -

[nickmo]

Cytotoxins break down DNA and attack the aging process by the way�so are not to be ingested.

The use of fry pans - a brief high temp frying of some chicken rather than a long period immersion frying on an industrial scale - will not be a problem at home for some cooking. The downside comes from using old oil - because of the breakdown of the proteins to undesirable products as well as having poor taste in the oil itself.

The frying process is also about the starches in food - i.e carbihydrates - being affected by heating processes so that they become gelatinous so causing a change in both the surfaces and content of the food. In food terms this is: '..thermal energy affecting the structure development through starch gelatinization and protein denaturation..' or cooking a doughnut to you and me....but not the cooking oil barons of this world.

I would suggest that in summary :- deep frying whilst suiting some cooking styles is to be done sparingly; flash frying with minimal or no oils is best but won't provide the optimum results in all recipes; use of a wok or similar which cooks foods rapidly but evenly is also another positive method.

Frying introduces lipids into the human system so as above we need some to function but too many causes a lot of negatives.

If you fancy some info on other chemicals in the food processing and other fields, this is a good link: http://www.health-report.co.uk/index.html and there are umpteen resources to trawl through on the web if you want further info.

Hope this helps..? And not too much waffle here o apologies if its longwinded but this is a broad field to go over.

[informashun]

i was recently in hospital and a nutricienist told me that the only thing i should use to fry is rapeseed oil.

[Sweet G]

Thanks for taking the time to answer Nickmo.

Informashun, did the nutrionist explainwhy you should only use Rapeseed Oil?