Eating Fried Food is Unhealthy

By Dr. Harold Gunatilake

Sri Lankans prefer to consume fried foods to others. Just walk through the corridors of any condominium unit in Colombo about mid-day, and you’ll experience the most appetising smells of fried food emanating from the pantry windows. Starting from onions dried chillies to cumin seeds everything seems to be fried in vegetable oils before adding on the main ingredients like meat, fish, vegies, among others

Biriyani and Lumprai purchased from road-side hot food outlets with less cooking traditional plain rice and curry seem to be the staple foods for lunch or dinner in most homes. The taste buds when accustomed to fried foods demand more, and you tend to eat more, and go for it daily.

It is this calorie- dense fried food that causes the big bellies so prominently visible among most men and women in the cities.

Sri Lankans traditionally do not have a side dish of salads with their main meal. High fibre is obtained from the finely cut leafy vegetables, and their goodness disappears by frying curry leaves and spices in oil.

The popular “Pol Sambol” frequently made in most homes is fried (tempered) with curry leaves and dried chillies to acquire that spicy crunchy taste.

Papadams, gram (kadale), and peanuts are available as bites sold by hawkers, and most pasty foods are fried treats in Sri Lanka

 Trans fats

 Deep frying causes hydrogenation of the unsaturated vegetable oil, turns it into trans-fats. Trans-fat increases the risk of having heart diseases, cancers, and many other chronic diseases.

Fish and chips

 In take away joints, you could see how the slices of fish (fillets), coated with batter are fried in large containers filled with boiling oil. Such cooking destroys all nutritious values of the fish except the unique taste.

Furthermore, frying potato chips in the same oil will destroy the nutritious values including the vitamins in the chips. It is also a known that the brownish colour produced in frying starchy foods emanates a cancer producing chemical called ‘Acrylamide”.

Frying or barbecuing meat and fish containing proteins creates polycyclic hydrocarbons, such as benzopyrenes, which are also one of the main constituents in cigarette smoke that cause lung cancer.

Colombo is loaded with American hot food joints: you only have to drive through Rajagiriya area to notice the number of such places, pizza huts, MacDonald’s, KFC’s, and other names mainly patronized by the young generation. Fortunately, you hardly see any fish and chips food outlets, other than fried chips served in these hot food joints.

Boiled foods vs. fried foods

 Boiled foods only reach a temperature of 212F, while fried foods often reach a temperature of 350F, which creates delicious flavours. Fried foods are often crunchy or crispy, which has an evolutionary appeal for humans.

Boiled foods normally are overcooked and thus tough, whereas frying is fast, leaving food tender as in gourmet foods.

Heart failure and fried food

 The risk of heart failure and other disease seems to be high among people who eat fried foods regularly, a study reveals. An associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston and researcher Dr. Luc Djousse says, “It might be wise to reduce the frequency and quantity of fried foods consumed weekly in order to prevent heart failure and other chronic conditions.”

Dr. Luc points out that in the above studies, men who consume fried food one to three times a week have an average 18 percent increased risk of developing heart failure. When the same fried food was eaten four to six times a week, heart failure risk was 25 percent higher, and at seven times or more weekly 68 percent greater.

A glaring similar example is shown among black people who live in the so called “stroke belt” in United States, which stretches from the Carlinas to Arkansas and Louisiana where stroke rates and heart disease are among the highest in the country, are less likely to eat the recommended two servings of cooked fish per week. Further, people in this State when they eat fish have it in fried form.

Frying fish loses its omega-3 fatty acids and is replaced by trans-fat due to the vegetable oil used.

A healthy diet which does not affect the health of the heart is a diet high in fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains.