The Recipe Doctor
From low-fat recipes to recipes designed for persons with diabetes, Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, shares recipes and advice to create healthy meals that are guaranteed to please. [Editor's note: Elaine no longer contributes to Silver Planet, but we have made her archived blog entries available as a service to our readers.]
Why Are Deep-Fried Foods Bad for Us?
We know they aren’t our best choices, but they’re hard to resist because they taste so good. I’m talking about deep-fried foods.
I’ve written a series of medical nutrition books covering conditions such as acid reflux, type 2 diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In most cases, one of my key dietary recommendations is to avoid deep-fried foods, which tend to be “trigger foods” for people with acid reflux and IBS. Eating them frequently can make achieving normal blood sugar levels and weight loss more difficult for some people with type 2 diabetes.
Deep-fried foods exacerbate many health conditions, but why aren’t they great choices in general? It basically comes down to the fact that they tend to be higher in fat (and sometimes trans fat, depending on the type of fat used) and therefore higher in calories compared to the same foods prepared another way.
Let’s see what happens nutritionally when we deep-fry our favorite veggie and favorite meat.
A large baked potato (7 ounces) contains about 220 calories and 0.2 gram of fat. That same baked potato turned into French fries contains 697 calories and 34 grams of fat. Wow!
Deep-frying has a similar effect on every other type of food. A roasted chicken breast has approximately 142 calories and three grams of fat. A breaded and fried chicken breast, with skin on, has about 364 calories and 18.5 grams of fat.
By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
The Recipe Doctor Blog
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