Does an air fryer really help reduce cooking oil intake?

Air fryers have become increasingly popular at home in recent years. It uses hot air to cook food instead of traditional deep frying, thereby claiming to reduce the amount of fat ingested. Many ads even claim that using an air fryer allows you to enjoy fried food while staying healthy. Can using an air fryer help reduce cooking oil intake? This article will explore this issue.

First of all, it needs to be clear that the role of fats and oils in food is to give it taste and aroma. Traditionally, when we fry food, we often need to fry it in a large amount of oil to create a crispy outer layer on the surface of the food. The air fryer uses the high-speed operation of hot air to fry the surface of food without using a large amount of oil. Therefore, using an air fryer can reduce the amount of grease used.

One of the advantages of using an air fryer to cook food is the grease that is released during the cooking process. In traditional fried cooking, because food absorbs a lot of oil, the amount of fat in your stomach will increase accordingly. With an air fryer, because only a small amount or even no oil is used, the fat content of the food is greatly reduced, thus reducing the intake of cooking oil.

Additionally, air fryers can drain some of the grease. When food is cooked in an air fryer, grease tends to drip from the surface of the food. Although it is impossible to remove all the fat, the air fryer can still reduce the fat in food to a certain extent compared to traditional frying.

However, while an air fryer does reduce your cooking oil intake, it doesn't mean you can completely avoid it by using this device. Foods often contain natural oils, such as fish, nuts, etc. Even if you cook these ingredients in an air fryer without adding any oil, their grease content is still present. In addition, some foods release their own oils during cooking, such as chicken wings, chicken legs, etc. Therefore, you will still consume a certain amount of fat when consuming food cooked in the air fryer.

On the other hand, people who use air fryers may have the misconception that no matter how much fried food they eat, it is healthy. This notion is inaccurate to a certain extent. While using an air fryer can reduce the likelihood of consuming too much grease, you should still be careful about the types and amounts of fried foods you consume. Excessive consumption of fried foods can adversely affect health by increasing the intake of calories and fat.

Therefore, using an air fryer to reduce cooking oil intake still requires attention to the type and quantity of food. Choosing low-fat ingredients and controlling portion sizes are crucial to maintaining a healthy diet.

Finally, it should be pointed out that there is a certain difference in taste between the cooking method of the air fryer and the traditional frying method. Since a lot of oil is not used, the result of food cooking in an air fryer may not be as crispy and crispy. This is a factor to consider, especially for those who enjoy traditional fried foods.

After summarizing the above, it can be concluded that air fryers reduce the amount of grease ingested by using hot air to cook food instead of traditional frying. But the food itself still contains some amount of natural oils, so using an air fryer doesn't mean avoiding oils entirely. In addition, eating too much fried food is also harmful to health, so you still need to pay attention to choosing ingredients and controlling food intake. Finally, food cooked in an air fryer may taste somewhat different from traditional fried food.