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Why Deep-Fried Food Is Deadly

By Joseph Okoghenun
30 January 2015   |   11:00 pm
DEEP fried foods have become the order   of the day   for some people. From   parties to fast food restaurants, fried foods are common phenomenon in Nigeria. But do not be deceived that because   a number of   people eat deep fried foods, they are healthy method   to prepare foods. Various…

Fried-chicken

DEEP fried foods have become the order   of the day   for some people. From   parties to fast food restaurants, fried foods are common phenomenon in Nigeria. But do not be deceived that because   a number of   people eat deep fried foods, they are healthy method   to prepare foods. Various researches by   medical scientists have shown that it is both deadly and unhealthy for anyone   to eat deep fried foods. 

    Deep fried food is any food which is cooked in submerged hot oil. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan. In industrial settings, it is done through a pressure fryer or vacuum fryer.  Scientists say foods from such processes are deadly.

    According to a research published in the  American Journal  of Clinical  Nutrition  in mid-2014, deep fried foods are associated  with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 

   For the purpose of the study, a U.S.-based study team analysed diet and disease data collected from more than 100,000 men and women. Compared to people who ate fried food less than once a week, those who gobbled foods like fries, fried chicken, or other deep fried snacks four to six times a week saw their risk for Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease jump by 39 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. The risks rose even more for people who ate fried food on a daily basis.

     According to one of the   researchers, Leah Cahill, a research fellow in Nutritional Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, cooking oil tends to break down during the frying process—a chemical transformation that changes the oil’s fatty acid composition. Foods simmering in that degraded oil absorb fatty acids and other unhealthy compounds. 

   That is a problem, because those acids and compounds contribute to ballooning waist lines, unhealthy cholesterol and blood pressure changes, and higher levels of oxidative stress—all of which could explain the links between fried food consumption and higher rates of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 

     The study also agreed with an earlier study that showed that regular consumption of deep fried foods such as deep fried potatoes, fried chicken and doughnuts is associated with an increased risk for type-2 diabetes.  The latter study was published in Diabetes Care in 2011. 

   Another  study published in Nutrition and  Food Science in 2013 clarified  that  it is not just deep fried foods that increase one’s diabetes risk, as  the study found that women who ate shallow-fried foods daily were more likely to suffer from diabetes than those who ate these foods less frequently. Because deep-fried foods are primarily eaten outside the home, it is possible that the link between these foods and prostate cancer risk may be a sign of high consumption of fast foods in general, the authors wrote, citing the dramatic increase in fast food restaurants and fast food consumption in the U.S. in the past several decades.

 Deep fried food is also a risk factor for prostate cancer.  According to a study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Dr Janet Stanford, co-director of the Hutchinson Center’s Programme in Prostate Cancer Research, and colleagues found that men who reported eating French fries (deep fried potatoes), fried chicken, fried fish and doughnuts at least once a week were at an increased risk of prostate cancer as compared to men who said they ate such foods less than once a month.

 While previous studies have suggested that eating foods made with high-heat cooking methods, such as grilled meats, may increase the risk of prostate cancer, the study became the first to examine the addition of deep frying to the equation.

   The researchers controlled factors such as age, race, family history of prostate cancer, body-mass index and PSA screening history when calculating the association between eating deep-fried foods and prostate cancer risk.

“The link between prostate cancer and select deep fried foods appeared to be limited to the highest level of consumption – defined in our study as more than once a week – which suggests that regular consumption of deep fried foods confers particular risk for developing prostate cancer,” Stanford said.

However, deep fried foods have previously been linked to cancers of the breast, lung, pancreas, head and neck, and esophagus.

   With such deadly outcome, the wise thing for anyone to do is to opt for cooking methods that use little or no fat. Rather than deep-fry or pan-fry, cook your food by steaming, baking, broiling, roasting, grilling, or stir-frying (fry meat, fish, vegetables rapidly over a high heat while stirring.)

Eat at least two servings of cooked fish per week, using one of these healthier methods, to help improve your cholesterol levels and the health of your heart.

Limit your total fat intake. 

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