Can air fryers cause cancer? Do these 4 things to eat healthily and use them with confidence!

French fries, fried chicken wings, potatoes... Are you drooling just by hearing the names?

However, although these foods are tempting, they are high in calories and fat, and are really not healthy at all.

Therefore, the new appliance "air fryer" has become widely popular. It claims to be able to cook food with a similar flavor to fried food without using oil, and it is both delicious and healthy.

But recently more and more people have questioned the air fryer, and the related topic has topped the hot search list on Weibo. There are even claims that "air fryers can cause cancer"!

So, is the simple and easy-to-use air fryer really healthy or just a waste of money? Today, Keke will take you to learn more about it~

Image source: Internet

01

How does the air fryer fry food?

An air fryer is actually an oven with a fan.

1. How the air fryer works

A general air fryer has a circle of heating tubes above the pull-out basket, and a fan above the heating tubes.

When the air fryer is working, the heating tube emits heat and the fan blows continuously, forming a high-speed circulation of hot air in the air fryer.

Under the action of hot air, the ingredients will gradually dehydrate and become cooked.

Because of the Maillard reaction and caramelization reaction, many ingredients will form a golden crispy crust and emit an attractive aroma, which is a bit like fried food.

2. Advantages of air fryer

①Compared to traditional frying, the air fryer does not even require oil, and the food cooked in it will have a lower fat content;

Moreover, food is cooked in a closed environment, which can better control the cooking temperature, avoid the fumes produced by traditional frying, and reduce the harm of fumes to the human body.

②Compared to ovens, some ovens can only generate heat through the upper and lower pipes to form an internal circulation, which may cause the food to be heated unstable, too hard, or too burnt.

The air fryer has an additional "small fan" that allows the food to be heated more stably.

02

Are air fryers healthy?

1. Can air fryers cause cancer?

The reason why some people say that air fryers cause cancer is that when cooking food at high temperatures, acrylamide, a Class 2A carcinogen, may be produced. But it should be noted that even if it is not an air fryer, acrylamide may be produced in ordinary woks, frying pans, and ovens as long as the temperature exceeds 120°C.

So the key to the problem lies in the food and temperature, and has little to do with the cooking utensils. It is completely unnecessary to label air fryers as carcinogenic .

2. Is the food made in the air fryer really “delicious and non-fattening”?

The air fryer only reduces the amount of extra oil added, but does not reduce the fat contained in the food itself. Therefore, whether it is fried pork belly or pork belly made in an air fryer, eating too much will make you fat.

3. Air fryers also have unavoidable shortcomings

① Loss of nutrients.

Although the air fryer uses the food's own oil for cooking, the high temperature will destroy most vitamins and reduce the nutritional density of the food. It is not recommended as the main cooking method for both obese and healthy people.

②Protein denaturation.

The higher the heating temperature, the more the protein structure in the food is destroyed, that is, "protein denaturation". As a result, the body cannot effectively absorb protein nutrients, which has an adverse effect on health.

③Fat oxidation.

If the temperature is too high, or the food is burnt or burnt, the fat will oxidize, producing a large number of free radicals that damage cells, causing damage to the body and accelerating aging.

03

Do these 4 things well and use the air fryer scientifically

1. Control time and temperature

When using an air fryer, you need to pay attention to setting the temperature not too high (try to keep it within 120°C) and the preparation time not too long (about 10 minutes) to avoid generating too many potentially harmful ingredients.

2. Cook less starchy foods

Whether the air fryer is healthier depends on what you are cooking. If you want to reduce your intake of acrylamide, it is recommended to fry less starchy foods, such as potatoes, bread, and fried dough sticks.

Relatively speaking, air fryers are suitable for cooking foods that contain more fat or water, such as meat and vegetables.

3. Not as the main cooking method

Although air fryers are easy to use and there are many related recipes on the Internet, it is not recommended to use air fryers as the main cooking method.

In daily life, try to use cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, stewing and blanching to retain the nutrients in food and reduce the production of harmful substances.

4. The magic of air fryer

In fact, in addition to frying food, air fryers can do many things:

①Thaw ingredients

The temperature is high in the summer, and thawing outdoors can easily breed bacteria, while thawing in a microwave often results in the edges being cooked but the middle still frozen hard.

The air fryer is actually a very useful thawing tool. Set the temperature to 40 or 50 degrees, put the ingredients that need to be thawed in, and it will be ready to use in more than half an hour.

② Food pretreatment

Using an air fryer to process some ingredients that need to be fried and absorb oil is very convenient and also much healthier.

For example, dishes such as stir-fried beans, dry-pot cauliflower, three fresh vegetables, and home-cooked tofu can all be made by using an air fryer to process beans, cauliflower, eggplant, tofu and other ingredients in advance.

This can reduce the amount of oil absorbed by ingredients during the cooking process.

③Air-dried ingredients

The air fryer can also be used as a fruit and vegetable dryer. Set the appropriate temperature, not too high, and put bananas, apples, dragon fruit and various vegetables in it to dry them into dried fruits and vegetables. It can also extend the shelf life of some vegetables.

Review｜Li Nannan Director of Hunan Science Writers Association, Deputy Director of Research and Publicity Department of Hunan Science and Technology Association, Second-level Researcher, Chinese Science Writer (Medical Field)

Source: I am a great doctor official account