Are fried foods always bad for you?

[liliaceae]

I'm sure this is probably a stupid question, but could someone please explain this to me? I don't really understand why frying food is bad. I use a cast iron skillet and EVOO, is it bad to fry chicken or eggs, or stir fry veggies? What about scrambled eggs?

[Magelet]

the reason fried food is "bad" is the fat. It's true that large quantities of vegetable and many of the other fats used commercially for frying are very bad for you, however frying foods in bacon fat, lard, butter, ghee, tallow and coconut oil (butter should only be used for low temp "frying" like eggs and stir fries, not deep frying, for things like eggs and stir-fries, olive oil is probably ok too. however not for higher temp. if it starts to smoke, it's too hot, and olive oil smokes at a low temp).

There are a lot of people who beleive that fat in any form is really bad for you, however your body needs some fat, and those fats I mentioned are among those which contain great things for your body, all of the animal fats containing fat soluble vitamins which your body can't absorb from a water-based source.

so, is frying bad? It depends on who you ask. If you ask almost any traditional foods person, (like me) they'll say that it depends on what fat you use. I'm sure there are other people who feel that frying is always bad because of the fat content, period. I feel very strongly that you need healthy fats, and there is lots of evidence to prove this, however, I've long since given up trying to convince people of this if they don't agree.

[treemom2]

I watched an Alton Brown episode on deep frying. According to this episode, as long as you are frying at the proper temperature then your food actually doesn't absorb much oil. I don't think frying food is bad as long as you are using the proper oils when you fry. . .I don't think I'd fry with olive oil since it has a low smoking point and is a lot healthier when eaten raw. I do cook a lot in butter, coconut oil, rendered fat (we keep all our beef fat, bacon fat, chicken fat in a jar in the fridge), and sometimes canola oil (not a big fan of canola oil, but it's what I can get where I live). I just ordered some ghee for cooking too, but it hasn't come yet.

[velochic]

I think cooking an egg/stir frying veg and frying chicken are not the same. I consider fried chicken to be deep fat frying and eggs/veg sauteing. I think that putting a teaspoon of good fat into a pan to saute is actually good for you. You have to have some fat in your diet.

Deep-fat frying (a food submersed in oil), I don't consider to be very healthy, but all things in moderation. I saw the Good Eats episode about frying, too. You still get more fat from frying because most things are breaded when you fry them. The breading does absorb more fat than it would if you didn't bread it and just sauteed it.

But like I said, all things in moderation. We still eat deep fat fried food sometimes. We don't eat fast food ever, but we'll get fries sometimes in a restaurant or a bloomin' onion at Outback Steakhouse (maybe once a year). I have some favorite holiday hors d'oeuvres that have fried components. So we haven't eliminated it from our diets, but fried foods are not staples, either.

[ollyoxenfree]

I make a distinction between stir fry and saute, and deep frying. With a stir fry or saute, I use about a tablespoon or less of oil for most dishes serving 4. I don't think that's terribly unhealthy. I don't deep fry ever. I think there's too much fat absorbed per serving portion.