The smell of French fries or other yummy fat-soaked dishes made in hot oil releases mouth-watering odors that can be impossible to resist. But there’s a couple of things you should do for your health when only fried foods will satisfy that craving.
First of all, if possible, you should fry your own fried food. The oil used by a restaurant or food stand is often reused many times. Each time an oil is heated, toxins are formed that are called toxic aldehydes. At very low levels, they shouldn’t be problematic … unless they keep accumulating. And they do each time fry oil is reused.
When you consume them in your fried foods, the aldehydes can interact with the hormones and enzymes in your body and are linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The second tip is to eat food that is fried in coconut oil, or if that isn’t handy, olive oil.
Unrefined coconut oil is healthier than the refined variety in salad dressing because it retains more natural substances. But when doing high-heat cooking, like frying, refined coconut oil is preferable because it has a higher smoke point.
The smoke point of an oil is the temperature at which impurities in the oil start to burn and create toxins. The smoke point of refined coconut oil is 400 degrees F. The smoke point of unrefined coconut oil is only 350.
Research in Spain on olive oil shows that it can be heated to about 375 degrees F. safely when frying food. The Spanish tests showed that olive oil performed better for deep-frying than corn, sunflower or soy oil.
Of course, you shouldn’t eat fried foods very often. Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. shows that if you eat fried food once a week or more, your cancer risk climbs. But, eaten for an occasional treat, they should be OK.
As an alternative to French fries, what I do is simply slice up a couple of potatoes in strips, put them in a pan, cover the potato slices with coconut oil and cook in the oven at 350 degrees. Take them out of the oven after about 20 minutes and stir them around, then put them back in and cook another 20 minutes.
Put some salt on the potato strips when you take them out of the oven, plus some other spices if you want, and you have pseudo-French fries that can allay your hankering for the fast-food variety.
