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Who doesn’t love some golden crispy French fries or some scrumptious chicken nuggets? Just the thought of these delicious fried foods can bring water to your mouth. Unfortunately, they aren’t the healthiest foods around.
Not only does fried food mess with your fitness plans, but it can also lead to a variety of health issues in the long run, including cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer. You can always opt for baked versions of these fried foods, but they usually don’t have the delicious crispiness of conventionally fried foods.
So do you have to choose between taste and health? No. In fact, you can enjoy fried food without all the side effects. Read on to learn how.
About the size of a regular coffee maker, air fryers are a popular device that can conveniently be placed on any kitchen counter. All you have to do is place your raw French fries, nuggets, chicken, or anything else that you want to fry, lightly coat it with oil and let the device do its magic. Within minutes, you’ll have delicious French fries or fried chicken without all the oil.
In theory, an air fryer works a bit like a convection oven. A fan pushed heated air, up to 400-degree Fahrenheit, around the food. This circulating air starts cooking the food from the outside and then slowly works its way inside, giving the food a crispy exterior and leaving the insides soft and juicy.
Unlike baked versions of fried foods, air-fried foods actually mimic conventionally fried food very closely. In fact, anyone who doesn’t know that the food has been air-fried would likely never be able to tell the difference.
Benefits of An Air Fryer
It Can Help You With Your Fitness Goals
One of the main reasons people keep falling off their fitness goals is because they miss all the delicious oily food and eventually end up succumbing to their cravings. With an air fryer, you can easily overcome this issue.
Switching from deep-fried food to air-fried foods allows you to cut out a lot of calories from your food while simultaneously making the food healthy. Not only does this mean that you can enjoy your favorite food without any guilt, but since you will be eating delicious food regularly, there will be lower chances of cravings.
Safer To Use
When you have to deep fry food, you have to come in close contact with large woks of scalding oil. This can pose very obvious safety risks. You can never let your kid around the kitchen while frying deep food to avoid any accidents.
An air fryer poses no such risk. While the machine does get hot, it isn’t fatal. There is no risk of accidentally touching the oil or burning yourself. Plus, since it uses minimal oil, it reduces the risk of splashing and spilling as well.
Reduces Risk of Toxic Acrylamide Formation
Fried food is bad for you in more than one way. In addition to being extremely high in calories, frying food for prolonged periods of time can lead to the development of dangerous compounds, such as acrylamide.
Acrylamide is linked to various types of cancers, including ovarian, pancreatic, endometrial, breast, and esophageal cancer. According to some studies, switching to an air fryer reduces the risk of developing acrylamide in the food.
However, it is important to keep in mind that your entire diet shouldn’t consist of air-fried foods. While air-fried foods are a great way of reducing unhealthy food in your diet and help stave off cravings, they aren’t the healthiest foods you can consume.
Ideally, you should focus on having more whole grains, lean protein, vegetables, and fruits in your diet. However, on occasions when you feel like treating yourself, getting an air fryer is a great way of doing it without any guilt.
