Healthy Halogen

One of the best ways to lower your calorie intake is to reduce FAT.

Both the Halogen Oven and AirFryer cook with either no oil or very little oil. Some manufacturers claim a 90% reduction.  Well take it with a pinch of salt, but certainly AirFryers and Halogen Ovens do use very much less fat, to cook the food. 

We all love the taste that we get with fries. It’s a universal addiction, fat just tastes good. So, if cutting down is difficult, how can we get that same taste, but without the calories?

It’s a fact that excess calories will increase our weight. Anything we can do to reduce piling on the pounds, possibly leading to obesity has to be good. 

Let’s take a scientific look. Sharda Harrison recently investigated, for CNA*, on YouTube. The first point to emerge is surprising, although the Air Fryer heavily promotes its speed of cooking, it turns out that deep fat frying potato fries, is actually quicker. In Singapore where the tests took place, and is most likely true anywhere, workers taking their lunch break, obviously don’t want to wait any longer than necessary for their food.  So there is some resistance to using the AirFryer there. 

Is the taste of airfryer food the same as deep fat frying?

Yes, most of the people asked about the food, enjoyed the Air Fryer dishes, just as much as the deep fat fried dishes. And most had already heard that Air Frying was a better way, with much less fat and lower calories.

Cooking Fries at Home

The claims of 90% reduction in fat may or may not be true, for fresh cut potato chips, but what will you use at home. Convenience products, usually frozen, rule the shopping basket, they are cheap, easy ( don’t forget Halogens and AirFryers dont need to defrost first ) and save you time. But they do usually come coated in oil.  

So dont add any more, check out the label for what is actually added, and the amount. There really is no use in following the advice on AirFrying, but ignoring this important point. At the very least – Do not add any more oil to pre-prepare frozen fries.

Scientific Comparison

Sharda Compared 3 foods,  Fries, Selar Kuning ( fish), and Chicken wings, done in an AirFryer to the same, done by Deep Fat Frying.

They were tested for key health factors Cholesterol, Saturated Fat, Trans-Fats, and Acrylamide – a chemical that forms on starchy foods when cooked at high temperatures and may have links to cancer formation. However the World Health Organisation stated that it was only “a concern” and evidence on what levels are safe, has not yet been agreed.

Results from the Eurofins food testing laboratory are shown below. Food science consultant Carolyn Stephen explained the findings. 

Saturated Fat: 

The chicken wings had 38% less than the Deep Fat wings

The fish and the French Fries had 53% less fat!

Trans Fats: 

The air-fried Chicken had 55% less than the deep fried version

The Fish and the Fries had virtually no difference with either cooking method

Cholesterol: 

The Air fried Chicken had 25% less than the Deep fried Chicken

The Fish and Fries being naturally low in cholesterol, had only a 1% difference.

Acrylamide: 

Here there was a huge difference between the two cooking methods.

Deep frying only produced 10 ug/Kg, whereas different air fryer models were found in a separate study ** to give anything between 100 micrograms and 7038 micrograms per kg of acrylamides.

The EU benchmark of 500ug/kg was exceeded by 6 out of the 12 AirFryers tested. 

Keeping Acrylamide levels low. 

Fortunately, there is a way to keep these potentially harmful chemicals from forming, keep the temperature below 200°C. The test above was carried out at 200°C.  180°C is suggested by Philips Group Health leader Nicholas Lee, and to start off with, half the cooking time at 160°C.  Do not overcook.

Further, by soaking fresh potato chips first, a lot of the starch is removed. It is the starch that is responsible for acrylamide formations. Do not store these at low temperature, but use fresh after soaking and drying. 

It is especially important not to overcook frozen chips, aim for light browning only, shake or move around frequently and avoid a dark brown color which may indicate potential acrylamide formation.

Summary – For the best and healthiest Fries

• Use a Halogen or AirFryer – for the best cholesterol, trans fats and Saturated Fats results. 
• Use fresh-cut potatoes
• Soak after cutting
• Cook at 160 to 180°C for a safer, minimal level of Acrylamide chemicals