Deep frying with healihier oils

[psychedelicsoul]

As long as I use healthy stuff like coconut oil and oils with those fancy mono or poly unsaturated fat... Does that completely remove the risks of eating deep fried foods?

 

[GrymReefer]

The risks can be mitigated by frequently changing the oil and trying not to reuse as much as possible. Try to get quality refined oils that possess high smoke points. Lower qualities oils have a tendency to possess trans fats (or the oil eventually creates transfats from constant heating/cooling and contamination from food) and the constant thermogenic activity on the oil eventually puts you at risk of potentially unhealthy byproducts. Also, try to avoid foods that are mass produced ready to fry kind of deals. Those are generally heavily processed and will put transfats into your oil and negate the whole premise of buying quality oil for frying.

There will always be skepticism in regards to the simple nature that you are "frying" a food besides a healthier alternative of baking/boiling/etcetc. If I were you I would just worry about eating your favorite fried foods in moderation. Try to see if you can ration the desire to just once or twice a week.

p.s I secretly love deep fried foods so I understand the mental struggle in your head. Sometimes its almost a fair trade. 10 or 20 years off my life, but I get to gorge my face with onion rings, mozzarella sticks, chicken, fried ice cream. I've put frozen chicken nuggets into my fryer. Just make sure they are ice glazed!

 

[CFC]

You might find this a useful read on healthier fats for frying (admittedly not deep fat frying, but the same findings should still be relevant).

Having never gotten around to reading in more detail, do you know which is more important Grym - high smoke point (eg like grapeseed oil) or whether the oil has more or less % of poly/mono/saturated fat?

I always used to assume smoke point was most important when it comes to frying, due to risk of free radicals, but the recent findings linked above seem to imply that oils I rarely use to fry for fear of that (eg olive) are actually some of the best to use, alongside animal oils (like lard and butter)...

 

[GrymReefer]

You might find this a useful read on healthier fats for frying (admittedly not deep fat frying, but the same findings should still be relevant).

Having never gotten around to reading in more detail, do you know which is more important Grym - high smoke point (eg like grapeseed oil) or whether the oil has more or less % of poly/mono/saturated fat?

I always used to assume smoke point was most important when it comes to frying, due to risk of free radicals, but the recent findings linked above seem to imply that oils I rarely use to fry for fear of that (eg olive) are actually some of the best to use, alongside animal oils (like lard and butter)...

From what I've interpreted over the years is that raw oils contain a greater density of fats in regards to the whole plethora (poly,mono,saturated) and with that they can add flavor. However, they aren't necessarily ideal to cook with because a greater concentration of fats and enzymes puts the oil at a greater probability to react to heat. Once oil begins smoking its already breaking down the fatty acids and releasing free radicals. Also, having a oil that has a higher smoke point allows you to heat the oil to a greater degree which in turn reduces cook time, improves heat penetration for proper cooking, and reduces the chance of unknowingly feeding yourself a nice little carcinogenic meal.

So using extremely refined oils may not offer you nutritional values in regards to fat consumption, but they do mitigate the consumption of transfats and carcinogens. I'm sure this probably doesn't happen too often, but if someone uses a low smoke point oil and it smokes for a while...sometimes things just go boom! Fat has a flash point and I've seen it before being a line cook at a hole in the wall restaurant.