What happens when you eat a lot of fried foods?

Deep frying is a quick and economical cooking method. The taste of fried foods can be attractive and stimulate the taste buds, but they often contain a lot of calories and trans fats. Eating too much of these foods can negatively affect your health.

Increase calorie intake

Compared to other cooking methods, deep frying adds a lot of calories. Most fried foods are often coated with flour or flour before cooking. When foods are fried in oil, they lose water and absorb fat, increasing the calorie content.

Fried foods contain significantly more fat and calories than non-fried foods. For example, a 138 g small baked potato contains 128 calories and 0.18 g fat, while the same amount of french fries contains 431 calories and 20 g fat.

Contains a lot of trans fats

Trans fats form when unsaturated fats undergo a process called hydrogenation. Fats in foods are often hydrogenated under high pressure with hydrogen gas to increase shelf life and stability, but hydrogenation also occurs when oils are heated to very high temperatures during cooking.

This process changes the chemical structure of fats, making it difficult for the body to break them down, which can ultimately lead to negative health effects. Consuming too much trans fat is linked to an increased risk of many medical conditions, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. Because fried foods are cooked in oil at extremely high temperatures, they are likely to contain trans fats.

Fried foods cooked in processed vegetable or seed oils may contain trans fats before being heated. When these oils are heated to high temperatures, their trans fat content can increase. Each time oil is reused for frying, its trans fat content increases.

Increased risk of disease

Heart disease

Eating fried foods contributes to high blood pressure, low HDL (good) cholesterol and obesity, all of which are risk factors for heart disease.

Diabetes

Frequently eating fried foods increases your risk of type 2 diabetes. The high calorie, fat and sodium content of fried foods can lead to weight gain, insulin resistance and other health complications that contribute to the disease.

Obesity

High calories from fried foods can contribute to weight gain. Furthermore, trans fats in this type of food may play a significant role in weight gain, as they can affect hormones that regulate appetite and fat storage.

Safe cooking methods

Healthy oils

The type of oil used for frying greatly affects health risks. Some oils can withstand much higher temperatures than others and are therefore safer to use.

• Coconut oil: More than 90% of the fatty acids in coconut oil are saturated fatty acids, which means this oil is very resistant to heat. Deep-frying coconut oil for 8 hours continuously may not degrade the quality of the oil.

• Olive oil: Olive oil mainly contains monounsaturated fats, which are relatively stable when cooked at high temperatures.

• Avocado oil: The composition of avocado oil is similar to olive oil. This oil is also extremely heat resistant, making it a better choice for deep frying.

Alternative cooking options

• Grilling: This method involves grilling food at very high temperatures (232 degrees Celsius), giving the food a crispy texture with little or no oil required.

Oil-free frying: You can also use an oil-free fryer. They work by circulating extremely hot air around food. Foods are crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, just like regular fried foods, with 70-80% less oil.