Dangers of Fried Food

Goal179

Hi MFP

ok, I just read an article that says that oil becomes carcinogenic once it is heated beyond a certain temperature. The oil releases cancer causing chemicals. Fast food places reuse their oil which triples the negative effect. Does anyone know if that is true? What if I fry something at home using my own oil? Does the same thing occur?

neanderthin

Any oil that is heated past it's smoke point repeatedly will potentially create toxic compounds. If you decide to research this topic you'll soon see that using polyunsaturated fats for deep frying is not a good idea, even though that is the most common fat used in the food industry. The more saturated the fatty acid the less oxidation takes place when heated. Personally I use duck fat, lard, coconut oil, tallow and olive oil if I do any deep frying, and the results are better in my opinion when it comes to taste. Basically imo stay away from refined vegetable oils, especially the ones higher in poly oils like soy, canola, corn, sunflower. If you can't bring yourself to using saturated fat, because most people believe it's the devil try an oil high in monounsaturated fat like avocado, macadamia or olive.

Goal179

Olive oil and coconut oil are the best things on earth IMO. I just love them both. But if what you are saying is true about fried foods, why would anyone eat fried foods ever again? I know they taste delicious, but this is truly scary. Scared me away.

neanderthin

It is inevitable that you will be consuming some of these toxins produced from high heat, not just deep frying. Anytime a food is cooked and we get a browning effect we're consuming compounds that aren't there with different cooking methods (boiling, braising, steaming, poached or consumed raw. BBQ'ing, roasting, sauteing, frying, deep frying are all cooking methods that produce these chemical reactions. Carbon {charring) on a steak or burger is effected the most by these compounds, which generally speaking are polycyclic hydrocarbons, AGEs and acrylamide, you can google to to learn about them.

Basically any processed foods that have created this browning effect will have them like potato chips, cereals, pastries etc. Personally I don't worry too much about it, it seems just about everything causes cancer or disease and I certainly won't be removing my rib eye from the bbq to throw it in a pot to boil anytime soon. Keep in mind that we need context and dosage for relevancy, and amounts needed to show deleterious effects can be outside normal consumption.

randrews0407

Article link?

neanderthin

Article link?

No link, just my thoughts on the subject based on my own research. Try researching maillard reaction and the compounds I mentioned.