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Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Healthy fried food
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“You want fries with that?” is not a simple yes or no question if you’re keeping track of your fat and calorie intake when eating out.
Instead of a quick answer, try asking, “Well, first tell me how they’re made.”
Even though fried foods are on the go-easy list for dieters, there is a big difference in how greasy (and therefore, how calorie-filled) fried foods are. It all depends on how they are prepared.
And while you can’t take over the fry cook’s job every time you dine out, it’s important to know what’s going on in the kitchen so you can demand restaurants straighten up and fry right.
Basically, the hotter and fresher the frying oil the lower the amount of total fat that will end up in your food.
For example, if you order deep-fried egg rolls that are soaked in so much oil you could wring them out and fry another batch, it’s probably because the oil wasn’t hot enough, possibly because the oil was used so many times it lost the ability to reach its maximum heat.
When done right, frying can taste great and still not load you up with fat.
Fried shrimp is a great example; it’s at its best when the seafood, not the batter, gets top billing from your taste buds. Also keep in mind that the smaller the item being fried, the less time it’s in the oil.
Peanut oil, soybean oil, canola oil and safflower oil have the highest smoke points (the temperature at which the oil starts to smoke and break down), followed by corn oil, sunflower oil and olive oil — so these are great choices for deep-fat frying.
If a restaurant has fried food right, the oil stays on the outside, where the surface is browned and crispy. The inside is cooked to perfection from the heat, not from penetration of the oil.
We hear a lot about trans fats being removed from packaged foods because of new labeling regulations, but those rules don’t apply to restaurants. That means many still use hydrogenated solid shortenings that create a crispy product but contain trans fats.
McDonald’s and other burger chains say they’re trying to find a trans fat-free oil that also tastes good. Ruby Tuesday switched to trans fat-free canola oil last year. Chick-fil-A has been frying chicken in trans fat-free peanut oil since the 1960s and its waffle fries since 2004.
What’s your favorite fried food? Have you figured out a way to make it lighter?
