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11 Myths About Deep Fried Food That You Should Stop Believing
Nadine MurphyTue, March 25, 2025 at 1:15 PM EDT
15 min read
Wooden tray with fried chicken and fries and a small white bowl of ketchup, on a grey table - Sorin Banica / 500px/Getty Images
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Deep fried food gets a bad rap. The image of a plate of fried chicken swimming in fat or a flabby portion of undercooked fish can put even the most enthusiastic cook -- not to mention, eater -- off. The truth is that deep frying is an excellent way to lock in flavor and moisture, and who doesn't love to bite into a crispy, crunchy, flavor-filled deep-dipped delight.
Deep fried foods are commonly thought of as unhealthy. Naysayers state deep frying can remove nutrients and protein while adding trans fats and calories -- this can be true, but only if done incorrectly. The trick is to use the appropriate oil, perfect your batter, and, above all else, get the temperature exactly right. We spoke to Maricel Gentile, chef and owner of Maricel's Kitchen in New Jersey, and Patricia Tanumihardja, author of the cookbook "Mortar and Pestle -- Classic Indonesian Recipes from the Modern Kitchen," to get the real truth about deep fried foods.
Read more: 10 Kitchen Tools You Should Be Using Differently
Deep Fried Food Is Always Unhealthy
A metal basket filled with fries, fries lie on the marble table surface - Faramosh Khan/Shutterstock
It's no secret that deep frying isn't the healthiest choice on the menu. Even the most carefully curated fried food can add calories and fat versus other cooking methods such as broiling or baking. Deep fried foods aren't unhealthy when properly cooked, particularly if you consider the food you are frying (vegetables) and use a light batter and healthy oil.
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In deep fat frying, food is submerged or partially submerged (think donuts) in an oil of choice at temperatures of between 350°F (177°C) and 375°F (191°C). Choice is the key word, as it is here that you can make healthy decisions. Almost anything can be deep fried -- in the U.S., we tend to stick to chicken, potatoes, and calorie-dense foods, but in other cultures, deep-fat frying is considered a delicate cooking form. Consider Tempura, the Japanese method of deep frying in which vitamin and mineral-dense foods like vegetables and fish are cooked in a lighter batter that absorbs little oil. To prevent oil from absorbing into your deep-fried foods, you need to ensure the temperature is exactly right — too hot, and the food will burn; too low, and the oil will seep into the batter, making it flaccid and fatty.
Deep Frying Removes Nutrients
A bamboo bowl with a white napkin in filled with crispy fried chicken on a wooden background - Hiroyuki Nakai/Getty Images
It's a common misconception that deep frying can remove nutrients. A review by Henry CJ Fillion from the Institute of Food, Science and Nutrition showed that "frying has little or no impact on the protein or mineral content of fried food, whereas the dietary fiber content of potatoes is increased after frying due to the formation of resistant starch." Deep-fried foods are cooked at very high temperatures, so their cooking time is much shorter than other cooking methods. This shortened cooking time means fewer vitamins are lost during deep frying than broiling, boiling, or baking.
A similar study on the effect of fish and oil nature on the frying process by the Journal of Food Science states that the Omega-6/Omega-3 ratio increased in fish, providing more healthy nutrients after frying than before. When deep frying starchy foods such as potatoes, vitamin C and B vitamins are preserved, and the amount of fiber increases. Once again, temperature is the key to preserving the nutrients within fried foods. The higher the temperature and the longer the cooking time, the more nutrients are lost.
Deep Frying Always Adds Trans Fats
three glass bottles filled with different types of healthy oil against a white background - 12 Studio/Shutterstock
Trans fats are bad. There, we've said it. Industrially-produced trans fats cause more than 278,000 deaths each year. These unsaturated fatty acids clog your arteries, cause high cholesterol, and can lead to a heart attack. So we definitely don't want them in our food.
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Trans fats are found in industrially produced foods like margarine, vegetable shortening, and ghee, as well as naturally from cows, sheep, and goats, and their products like cheese and milk. When it comes to deep frying, it's easy to replace oils that contain trans fats with healthier oils; as long as you cook using oils without trans fats, your deep-fried food will be free of them.
When considering the right oils for deep frying, you must look for a stable oil with a high smoke point. The healthiest oils for deep frying are coconut, avocado, peanut, and animal fats, such as lard, tallow, and pure ghee. Note that ghee is a clarified fat made from butter that has had the water and milk solids removed. Vegetable ghee DOES contain trans fats and should not be used. Unsuitable oils because they contain polyunsaturated fatty acids include soybean oil, corn oil, canola or rapeseed oil, safflower oil, rice bran oil, sunflower oil, and sesame oil.