There is something called an air fryer that is quite popular recently. Its selling point is that it can cook with low oil or even no oil, so that it can achieve the taste of traditional frying. The thing is indeed useful, but it is not very good in terms of health, because when the air is heated above 120°C, it will produce carcinogens.

The principle of the air fryer

Before exploring this issue, we can first understand the principle of the so-called "air fryer". First, through the baking device above, To heat the air, the built-in fan can accelerate the circulation of the air, and then through specific lines, a heat flow vortex is generated, which makes complete contact with the food. In this way, the moisture on the surface of the ingredients can be taken away and the surface of the ingredients becomes crispy.

For traditional fried foods, the heat conductivity of oil is used to heat the food, allowing the moisture on the surface of the food to vaporize, and the water vapor will move into the interior of the food, heating the entire food.

The dangers of traditional frying and air frying

It is said that fried food is unhealthy, so why is it? First of all, fried foods contain trans fatty acids. Trans fatty acids can interfere with some normal metabolism of the human body, increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and even affect the development of infants and young children if they eat too much. At the same time, those fried foods we eat outside are more dangerous because we don’t know whether the oil used in them is healthy. In addition, not changing the oil for a long time will greatly increase the production of carcinogens. And if the food is not cooked well, the outer layer of the food may be cooked but the inside may still be raw, which will not effectively kill the germs. Fried foods also have a very high fat content and are not easy to digest, which can lead to obesity, nausea, internal heat, loss of appetite and other problems.

Later on, something called the "air fryer" came out of the blue, and it appeared in everyone's field of vision with the selling point of low-oil and oil-free cooking. But oil-free does not mean healthy. According to its principle, it heats the air. However, any high carbohydrate cannot be overheated. This temperature is 120℃. For the French fries we usually eat, the temperature that the air fryer needs to be set is between 180-200°C. In this way, it is easy to produce something called acrylamide, which is a type 2A carcinogen. Generally speaking, it is a substance that is likely to cause cancer.

After analyzing its harm, how should we choose? It's very simple. If your cooking skills are not very good and you can't accurately control the oil temperature and frying time, then I still recommend that you choose an air fryer. Although the flavors produced by the two are different, the difference is not very big.

There are certain advantages to using an air fryer. You can set the temperature, put the ingredients in it, and just wait for a period of time without observing whether the temperature is too high or whether it will fry into pieces. It's charcoal. The most important thing is that it saves fuel. Usually we have to put a lot of oil in French fries and other things, and then throw them away after using them two or three times. At this time, the advantages of the air fryer are revealed, saving money. However, fried food is still delicious, including food made in an air fryer, so don’t eat too much.