Is Air-Frying Healthy?
Meghan: Hey Stacey! Just wanted to hear your opinion and/or what you know about an Air Fryer?? I have a friend who loves fried food and would like to know if this is a smart/healthy alternative.
Stacey: So the way they work is by you coating the food with oil and then it blasts hot air over the surface of the food. Versus traditional frying which dunks the food in super hot oil. Either way, we know that food can only absorb up to 42g of fat, depending on how much water can be displaced (the more water content a food has, the more oil it can absorb), and the higher the temperature, the more water can be displaced. So, if she's pouring oil on the food before blasting it with hot air, and she can keep less than 14g (less than 2 Tbsp of oil) across the entire amount of food she's cooking, and then of course, consider proper portions (to where her portion only contains 2 tsp of oil, or 1/3 of the cooked food, she only needs to add 1 Fat exchange for "air frying"), we would initially expect no difference between this method and baking/roasting with olive oil drizzled over top. However, if she uses more than that, it can be assumed that the caloric results would be the same as or similar to deep frying. To take this a step further, we also know that by slow-cooking food at lower temperatures, less water is displaced, and therefore less oil is actually absorbed. By baking or roasting the food at a temperature lower than the air fryer, even if she used the same amount of oil (2 Tbsp) the food would not absorb it all, she could pat the excess oil off, and achieve a crisp without the extra fat.
Some other things to keep in mind:
1. Oils deteriorate at different temperatures. Using a "healthy" oil like olive oil under such high heat would be dangerous to her health in other ways, as the oil would reach its smoking point and release carcinogens into the food, even if there is little to no visible smoke coming out of the fryer. This is one of the reasons drizzling olive oil over food before putting it in the oven or on the grill drives me nuts. It's safest to use an oil that can handle higher heat, such as peanut oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil.
2. The results from an air fryer are (according to the reviews I read) not much different than using the broiler setting on your oven - it's not the same as fried food, but you do get a pretty good crisp. Only with an oven you don't need to use oil, and what you do use may not get absorbed. I'm not sure what would happen if you didn't use oil in the air fryer...
3. For many people, the fried food is more about the batter - which consists of flour, egg, spices, and either more flour, or breadcrumbs. This is going to add a substantial number of calories. Leaving the skin on meats is also popular with frying and can also add to the caloric value of the food.
Might be beneficial to brainstorm some alternative recipes together with her to help target the true attraction to fried food, and combat the issue at its root, rather than trying to replicate the food entirely.
But, just to help you get started, here's an excerpt from cookingscienceguy.com:
"The recipe for easier French fries developed by Cook’s Illustrated calls for adding the raw potatoes to cold oil, and heating the oil over high heat for 25 minutes until the temperature of the oil reaches a little less than 280° F. The French fries cooked this way are just as golden brown on the outside, and creamy soft on the inside as the French fries cooked by the classical two-stage method. Laboratory analysis of the fat content of fries cooked by the two methods showed the fries cooked at the lower temperature, but 2.5 times longer, contained 30% less oil."










