Is Air-Fried Food Really Healthier?

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Air-frying has a reputation for being healthy—and it generally is, provided it’s used carefully:

Just one thing to watch out for

An air-fryer is basically a small convection oven that uses circulating air rather than immersion in oil to cook food. The smallness of an air-fryer is a feature not a bug—if you get an air-fryer over a certain size, then congratulations, you just have a convection oven. The small size it what helps it to cook so efficiently. This is one reason that they’re not really used in industrial settings.

The documentary-makers from this video had their food (chicken, fish, and fries) lab-tested (for fat, cholesterol, and acrylamide), and found:

  • Air-frying significantly reduced saturated fat (38–53%) and trans fats (up to 55%) in some foods.
  • Cholesterol reduction varied depending on the food type.
  • Acrylamide levels in air-fried potatoes were much higher due to cooking time and temperature.

About that acrylamide: acrylamide forms in starchy foods at high temperatures and may pose cancer risks (the research is as yet unclear, with conflicting evidence). Air-frying can cause higher acrylamide levels if cooking is prolonged or temperatures are too high.

Recommendations to reduce acrylamide:

  • Soak potatoes before cooking.
  • Use lower temperatures (e.g. 180℃/350℉) and shorter cooking times.
  • Avoid over-browning food.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

Unlock Your Air-Fryer’s Potential!

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  • Nonverbal Epiphany – by Dr. Stephen Furlich

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    The subtitle of this book, “Steps To Improve Your Nonverbal Communication” suggests that this is principally an instructional book—it’s not. Rather, it’s mostly informational, and it is left to the reader to interpret what to do with that information.

    But, what a lot of information!

    And well-sourced, too: this book has scientific paper citations at a rate of one or two per page, with many diagrams and infographics too. It is, in effect, a treasure trove of physiological, psychological, and sociological data when it comes to nonverbal communication and the various factors that influence it.

    So, what can you hope to gain from this book? A lot of sorting out of science vs suppositions, mostly.

    From digit ratios to crossed arms, from eye-contact to attire, do things really mean what we’ve been told they mean?

    And if they don’t, will people perceive them that way anyway, or will textbook rules go out the window in a real conversation? How about in real nonverbal interactions?

    (What’s a nonverbal interaction? It’s the behavior exhibited between strangers in the street, it’s the impression given and received by your profile picture, things like that).

    Bottom line is that this book is data, data, and more data. If ever you wanted to sort the psychology from the pseudoscience, this is the book for you.

    Pick Up Nonverbal Epiphany on Amazon today!

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  • The Book of Lymph – by Lisa Levitt Gainsely

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The book starts with an overview of what lymph is and why it matters, before getting into the main meat of the book, which is lymphatic massage techniques to improve lymphatic flow/drainage throughout different parts of the body, and in the context of an assortment of common maladies that may merit particular attention.

    There’s an element of aesthetic medicine here, and improving beauty, but there’s also a whole section devoted to such things as breast care and the like (bearing in mind, the lymphatic system is one of our main defenses against cancer). There’s also a lot about managing lymph in the context of chronic health conditions.

    The style is light pop-science; the science is explained clearly throughout, but without academic citations every few lines as some books might have. The author is, after all, a practitioner (CLT) and/but not an academic.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to improve your lymphatic health, whether for beauty or health maintenance or recovery, this book will walk you through it.

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  • Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Querying Quercetin

    Quercetin is a flavonoid (and thus, antioxidant) pigment found in many plants. Capers, radishes, and coriander/cilantro score highly, but the list is large:

    USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods

    Indeed,

    ❝Their regular consumption is associated with reduced risk of a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and neurodegenerative disorders❞

    ~ Dr. Aleksandra Kozłpwsla & Dr. Dorota Szostak-Wegierek

    Read more: Flavonoids—food sources and health benefits

    For this reason, quercetin is often sold/consumed as a supplement on the strength of its health-giving properties.

    But what does the science say?

    Quercetin and inflammation

    In short, it helps:

    ❝500 mg per day quercetin supplementation for 8 weeks resulted in significant improvements in clinical symptoms, disease activity, hs-TNFα, and Health Assessment Questionnaire scores in women with rheumatoid athritis

    ~ Dr. Fatemeh Javadi et al.

    Read more: The Effect of Quercetin on Inflammatory Factors and Clinical Symptoms in Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

    Quercetin and blood pressure

    It works, if antihypertensive (i.e., blood pressure lowering) effect is what you want/need:

    ❝…significant effect of quercetin supplementation in the reduction of BP, possibly limited to, or greater with dosages of >500 mg/day.❞

    ~ Dr. Maria-Corina Serban et al.

    Read more: Effects of Quercetin on Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

    Quercetin and diabetes

    We’re less confident to claim this one, because (almost?) all of the research so far as been in non-human animals or in vitro. As one team of researchers put it:

    ❝Despite the wealth of in animal research results suggesting the anti-diabetic and its complications potential of quercetin, its efficacy in diabetic human subjects is yet to be explored❞

    ~ Dr. Guang-Jiang Shi et al.

    Read more: In vitro and in vivo evidence that quercetin protects against diabetes and its complications: A systematic review of the literature

    Quercetin and neuroprotection

    Research has been done into the effect of quercetin on the risk of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and they found…

    ❝The data indicate that quercetin is the major neuroprotective component in coffee against Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease❞

    ~ Dr. Moonhee Lee et al.

    Read more: Quercetin, not caffeine, is a major neuroprotective component in coffee

    Summary

    Quercetin is a wonderful flavonoid that can be enjoyed as part of one’s diet and by supplementation. In terms of its popular health claims:

    • It has been found very effective for lowering inflammation
    • It has a moderate blood pressure lowering effect
    • It may have anti-diabetes potential, but the science is young
    • It has been found to have a potent neuroprotective effect

    Want to get some?

    We don’t sell it, but for your convenience, here’s an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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  • Built to Move – by Kelly starrett & Juliet Starrett

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    In our everyday lives, for most of us anyway, it’s not too important to be able to run a marathon or leg-press a car. Rather more important, however, are such things as:

    • being able to get up from the floor comfortably
    • reach something on a high shelf without twinging a shoulder
    • being able to put our socks on without making a whole plan around this task
    • get accidentally knocked by an energetic dog or child and not put our back out
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    Click here to check out Built to Move, and take care of your body!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • The Fascinating Truth About Aspartame, Cancer, & Neurotoxicity

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    Is Aspartame’s Reputation Well-Deserved?

    A bar chart showing the number of people who are interested in social media and Aspartame.

    In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you for your health-related opinions on aspartame, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • About 47% said “It is an evil carcinogenic neurotoxin”
    • 20% said “It is safe-ish, but has health risks that are worse than sugar”
    • About 19% said “It is not healthy, but better than sugar”
    • About 15% said “It’s a perfectly healthy replacement for sugar”

    But what does the science say?

    Aspartame is carcinogenic: True or False?

    False, assuming consuming it in moderation. In excess, almost anything can cause cancer (oxygen is a fine example). But for all meaningful purposes, aspartame does not appear to be carcinogenic. For example,

    ❝The results of these studies showed no evidence that these sweeteners cause cancer or other harms in people.❞

    ~ NIH | National Cancer Institute

    Source: Artificial Sweeteners and Cancer

    Plenty of studies and reviews have also confirmed this; here are some examples:

    Why then do so many people believe it causes cancer, despite all the evidence against it?

    Well, there was a small study involving giving megadoses to rats, which did increase their cancer risk. So of course, the popular press took that and ran with it.

    But those results have not been achieved outside of rats, and human studies great and small have all been overwhelmingly conclusive that moderate consumption of aspartame has no effect on cancer risk.

    Aspartame is a neurotoxin: True or False?

    False, again assuming moderate consumption. If you’re a rat being injected with a megadose, your experience may vary. But a human enjoying a diet soda, the aspartame isn’t the part that’s doing you harm, so far as we know.

    For example, the European Food Safety Agency’s scientific review panel concluded:

    ❝there is still no substantive evidence that aspartame can induce such effects❞

    ~ Dr. Atkin et al (it was a pan-European team of 21 experts in the field)

    Source: Report on the Meeting on Aspartame with National Experts

    See also,

    ❝The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior.

    The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.❞

    ~ Dr. Magnuson et al.

    Source: Aspartame: A Safety Evaluation Based on Current Use Levels, Regulations, and Toxicological and Epidemiological Studies

    and

    ❝The safety testing of aspartame has gone well beyond that required to evaluate the safety of a food additive.

    When all the research on aspartame, including evaluations in both the premarketing and postmarketing periods, is examined as a whole, it is clear that aspartame is safe, and there are no unresolved questions regarding its safety under conditions of intended use.❞

    ~ Dr. Stegink et al.

    Source: Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology | Aspartame: Review of Safety

    Why then do many people believe it is a neurotoxin? This one can be traced back to a chain letter hoax from about 26 years ago; you can read it here, but please be aware it is an entirely debunked hoax:

    Urban Legends | Aspartame Hoax

    Take care!

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  • A Fresh Take On Hypothyroidism

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The Three Rs To Boost Thyroid-Related Energy Levels

    This is Dr. Izabella Wentz. She’s a doctor of pharmacology, and after her own diagnosis with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, she has taken it up as her personal goal to educate others on managing hypothyroidism.

    Dr. Wentz is also trained in functional medicine through The Institute for Functional Medicine, Kalish Functional Medicine, and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, and holds certifications in Medication Therapy Management as well as Advanced Diabetes Care through the American Pharmacists Association. In 2013, she received the Excellence in Innovation Award from the Illinois Pharmacists Association.

    Dr. Wentz’s mission

    Dr. Wentz was disenchanted by the general medical response to hypothyroidism in three main ways. She tells us:

    • Thyroid patients are not diagnosed appropriately.
      • For this, she criticises over-reliance on TSH tests that aren’t a reliable marker of thyroid function, especially if you have Hashimoto’s.
    • Patients should be better optimized on their medications.
      • For this, she criticizes many prescribed drugs that are actually pro-drugs*, that don’t get converted adequately if you have an underactive thyroid.
    • Lifestyle interventions are often ignored by mainstream medicine.
      • Medicines are great; they truly are. But medicating without adjusting lifestyle can be like painting over the cracks in a crumbling building.

    *a “pro-drug” is what it’s called when the drug we take is not the actual drug the body needs, but is a precursor that will get converted to that actual drug we need, inside our body—usually by the liver, but not always. An example in this case is T4, which by definition is a pro-drug and won’t always get correctly converted to the T3 that a thyroid patient needs.

    Well that does indeed sound worthy of criticism. But what does she advise instead?

    First, she recommends a different diagnostic tool

    Instead of (or at least, in addition to) TSH tests, she advises to ask for TPO tests (thyroid peroxidase), and a test for Tg antibodies (thyroglobulin). She says these are elevated for many years before a change in TSH is seen.

    Next, identify the root cause and triggers

    These can differ from person to person, but in countries that add iodine to salt, that’s often a big factor. And while gluten may or may not be a factor, there’s a strong correlation between celiac disease and Hashimoto’s disease, so it is worth checking too. Same goes for lactose.

    By “checking”, here we mean testing eliminating it and seeing whether it makes a difference to energy levels—this can be slow, though, so give it time! It is best to do this under the guidance of a specialist if you can, of course.

    Next, get to work on repairing your insides.

    Remember we said “this can be slow”? It’s because your insides won’t necessarily bounce back immediately from whatever they’ve been suffering from for what’s likely many years. But, better late than never, and the time will pass anyway, so might as well get going on it.

    For this, she recommends a gut-healthy diet with specific dietary interventions for hypothyroidism. Rather than repeat ourselves unduly here, we’ll link to a couple of previous articles of ours, as her recommendations match these:

    She also recommends regular blood testing to see if you need supplementary TSH, TPO antibodies, and T3 and T4 hormones—as well as vitamin B12.

    Short version

    After diagnosis, she recommends the three Rs:

    • Remove the causes and triggers of your hypothyroidism, so far as possible
    • Repair the damage caused to your body, especially your gut
    • Replace the thyroid hormones and related things in which your body has become deficient

    Learn more

    If you’d like to learn more about this, she offers a resource page, with resources ranging from on-screen information, to books you can get, to links to hook you up with blood tests if you need them, as well as recommended supplements to consider.

    She also has a blog, which has an interesting relevant article added weekly.

    Enjoy, and take care of yourself!

    Don’t Forget…

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