I still remember the time when the first microwave ovens were released. It was amazing how in couple of minutes you had a hot glass of water for tea, and for a few more — warm food. We already know the real disadvantages of this technology as it slowly phases off fashion.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean the microwave technology is completely phased out! When was the last time you bought fresh bread from the bakery corner in the nearest supermarket? Did you know that bread there arrives when everyone’s asleep, unsightly, pre-baked to 70-80% readiness and deep-frozen afterwards.
Thanks to this technology — called bakeoff — a combination of infrared and micro waves is utilized so just for the fraction of time the product is defrosted and get the look of fresh bread, crispy croissant or a whole line of other products you’re all familiar with. In this case, the proverb „if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, so it must be a duck" is the gravest deceit.
When was the last time I took a flight on an airplane? You might recall the smell that spreads throughout the plane just before food is served. This food is also heated using a technology resembling microwave ovens, and you hardly know it.
The latest fad in healthy cooking.
Recently, more and more popularity has been gained by air frying devices. The industry segment is expected to exceed $1.2B. These devices "fry" the food in a chamber of circulating hot air instead of heated oil. The concept is really wonderful considering the reduced fat consumption. It began spreading initially in the Far East, where the local cuisine includes a lot of traditionally deep fat fried food - meat, chicken and vegetables.
As a result of air frying, chicken has 38% less saturated fat, which is a success in the fight against cardiovascular disease. Trans fats are reduced by 55% compared to the deep fat frying, which is a great victory in the fight against bad cholesterol and supporting the good cholesterol and, thus, it reduces the risks of cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol in air-fried chicken decreases by 25%
There are similar conclusions in the fish and potato preparation - saturated fats drops by 53%. But because regular potatoes don’t have trans fats and cholesterol (being plant food), they — alike to fish — have no visible differences in results in comparing the two processes.
Attention, Acrylamide!
The most surprising are the results for another criteria: acrylamide. While in the deep fat fried potatoes according to the classic technology it is below 10 µg / kg, in the air-fried ones it reaches 1400 µg / kg.
Acrylamide was first discovered in heat-processed starchy foods in Sweden in 2002 by scientist Eden Tareke. She found acrylamide in french fries and bread treated over 250℉. Subsequently, acrylamide was found in other foods such as Japanese mugicha tea (roasted barley tea), in rice crackers, in biscuits and others. Acrylamide is a white, odorless solid, soluble in water and several organic solvents. It’s highly toxic, and although epidemiological studies suggest that dietary acrylamide consumption doesn’t significantly increase people's risk of developing cancer, genomic analysis has revealed widespread contribution of acrylamide exposure to human carcinogenesis.
According to the European Food Safety Authority, the main toxicity risks of acrylamide are "Neurotoxicity, adverse effects on male reproduction, developmental toxicity and carcinogenicity". However, according to their research, the non-neoplastic effects are not a concern, and while the relation between consumption of acrylamide and cancer in rats and mice has been shown, it’s still unclear whether acrylamide consumption has an effect on the risk of developing cancer in humans and existing epidemiological studies in humans are very limited and do not show any relation between acrylamide and cancer in humans. Food industry workers exposed to twice the average level of acrylamide don’t exhibit higher cancer rates.
Panic, however, is needless, as there are still no benchmarks for safe levels of acrylamide, and even the WHO acknowledges that there is a lack of research and recommendations on the subject and that the main observations are limited to laboratory animals.
The amount of acrylamide depends on three factors: cooking time, cooking temperature and method of preparation. When air frying (and now on: any given of cooking a starchy food like potatoes, if you ask me) follow the recommendations below:
- Cook at a lower temperature. This means we can sacrifice the golden fries for a paler tan when we cook them at 320-370℉;
- Don’t cook for too long. The newest appliances have a timer for specific food types, incl. potatoes;
- Soak the potatoes in water before and after peeling and slicing. Some French chefs even recommend to very thoroughly rinse them — once sliced — to a point when water is clear;
- Keep the potatoes at room temperature before cooking and avoid storing them in the refrigerator altogether.
Do you have questions about healthy food choices? Maybe it's time to get rid of the burden of these decisions and seek support of a nutrition coach. You can only benefit from this.