If you love deep fried chicken, plantain, akara, puff-puff and the likes, this one is for you. No, I am not coming for your deep-fried stuff, I just wanna submit a few things for your consideration and possibly action. Ready?
Let’s go… with Frying your food? Frying your heart!
There was a time I went deep into researching about oils. Typically, when we want to lose weight and get on any program, the term ‘oil-free’ just keeps being thrown around. I legit wondered what made oil such an enemy of my health and weight loss.
As I researched, I learned that not all oils are the same, and certainly some oils are the really good stuff. After all, ‘fats and oil’ is actually a legit food group just like carbs and protein.
However, the problem is really in the quantity/portion of oil our Nigerian meals seem to have (all that oil floating on top of soups and stews) and then HOW we use the oils in prepping our foods.
Even Palm oil that gets such a bad rap is really not that bad if we know how to consume it, in moderation and at the right temperatures.
Having truly reduced the amount of oil we use in our foods at home, I can tell you for free that we can still enjoy yummy soups, stews, and even the popular ofada sauce and ‘ewa agonyi’ without drowning it in oil.
And if you can truly get more skilful at cooking, you can enjoy oil-free and really oil-minimal meals too, as you so desire.
But you don’t have to give up on oils totally, or even fried foods. I am here to offer you better, healthier and yummier ways to include oils in your diet and enjoy its benefits.
I already talked about less oil in our soups and stews, and even beans. All you need is some research and you will see healthier ways to make those meals with minimal oil, or even zero oil. This blog will focus on fried foods because this love you have for them is frying your heart ooo.
So first of all, those things we call ‘vegetable oils’ are so heart unhealthy, full of the bad kinds of fat. I know we erroneously refer to them as GROUNDNUT OILS but they are not. If you have access to ORIGINAL GROUNDNUT OIL, please go for it. Use it for your stews, stir fry, pancakes, popcorn and baking. There are other healthy oils too like coconut oil and original olive oil (and you know how hard to find this one can be in Nigeria here). I would have mentioned other popular oils that people say are heart-healthy but really, I am YET to try them so I don’t know about them. So I am sticking to original groundnut oil and coconut oil
So replace your regular vegetable oils with either and your heart, in the short and long run, will thank you for it.
I replaced the oils in my home recently with real groundnut oil and I am so glad I found a vendor that gave the market price of vegetable oils a run for their money and didn’t cut my neck. I buy it from my sister Kibie 08023909007
I legit did this photoshoot and took pictures with the oil for FREE. I paid for the oil AND the pictures. I just wanted to share what I found that works for me and I don’t even know how to gate-keep a good thing…
Now, whether we are using the good oils or not, deep frying is still a NO NO NO. Why? Because when we expose oils to such high temperatures, there’s chemical reaction causing oxidation and producing free radicals that can damage cells and lead to chronic heart diseases. Plus any nutritional value in the oils are lost and we also reduce the nutrition in the food we fried!
And you know how HOT the oils get when we use it to deep fry, which we do not see when we are stir frying or shallow frying (still, use heart healthy oils for that one). I mean, for how sweet we say deep fried chicken is, I wonder if the health risks are worth it!
Then even worse is when we reuse the same oils over and over again… the oil further breaks down releasing free radicals which are even more harmful to the heart. So all those small chops, chinchin, road side akara, plantain, fried meat and the likes we are buying (or making at home) that are fried with the same oils over and over again, phew! Some maybe 20 times!
That’s double whammy.
Bad oils and then deep frying!
Your heart is sending you an SOS!
Please switch to safer methods of cooking like boiling and grilling and baking, and if we must fry, use an AIR FRYER! Invest in one!
Some of us can really not do without DEEP FRIED anything. But quite honestly, the taste is an acquired one. We say air-fried plantain and chicken is not as tasty as deep fried, but baby, you acquired that taste and any new taste can also be acquired!
For example, frying plantain with an air-fryer requires skills; time it and then open and turn at intervals if not we will come up with burnt and half fried plantain. Ditto chicken and fish and it is really not hard or cumbersome. After all, we stir the deep fried ones!
Wanna also encourage you to enjoy boiling and eating some of these foods we are always frying. Because even with these safe methods, we still want to be careful that every food is not fried, for even our heart health. The air fryer temperature is also high remember.
For akara, we can start to consider pankara. Is it the same as akara? No! But it is healthier and tastes really good in a class all by itself!
I even consider it tastier quite honestly.
Ok now, in making the transition to healthier oils, you don’t need to throw out the old ones. Just reduce gradually until you are done with it and then don’t buy again. Use it to stir-fry or pan-fry but certainly not deep fry. And if you use it to deep fry, don’t use it repeatedly. And you should shallow fry not deep fry after which you can use the oil for eggs, pancakes and other things that require just glazing the pan with oil.
I mean, I am giving you alternatives here as you make these transitions especially as we get into the New Year. Trust me, investing in an air fryer, frying less and using heart-healthy oils are certainly the HEALTHY UPGRADES your heart deserves!
I hope this helps!
To your heart health!
Eziaha.
