Finley Mack - Air Fryer Cookbook: 365 Days of Quick & Easy Air Fryer Recipes for Clean & Healthy Eating | Beginners Edition

The mere mention of fried food can make a persons mouth water. Crispy fried chicken, French fries, doughnuts, crumbed fish, samosas. Just reading the words can make you want to run out to your favorite fast food outlet.

For decades, weight and health issues have been linked to eating too much fatty food. If you cant manage to tear yourself away from your oily fried food obsession, you may be struggling to maintain a healthy weight, and your doctor may have told you to start keeping an eye on your cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

People dont just eat to fuel their bodies. A lot of us eat because we just love the taste of food. We love the crunchy texture of food cooked in boiling hot oil. We dig in, even though we know it is not good for us. It is the ultimate comfort food. If only there was a way to enjoy all of our favorite crispy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside, scrumptious foods, without feeling guilty about making ourselves fat and sick.

Enter the air fryer! It is the answer to all of our comfort food prayers. Delicious fried food, without the fat and the guilt. It offers you a revolutionary new way to cook almost anything with very little oil. And it is super quick and easy.

I have always been very cautious about the amounts and types of fats I use in cooking. I am all too aware of the consequences of eating an unhealthy diet. Every now and then, I will treat my family to a good old fry-up. And they always ask for more!

My mom always had a chip pot on the stove, full of oil that she used to make chips for supper, at least three times per week. I am not sure how often the oil was changed, but it wasnt as regularly as it should have been. Her chips were always great, though. I cant bring myself to do that, even with clean oil, every time I deep fry anything.

I had my eye on an air fryer for a long time. I went backwards and forwards, wanting one more than anything, and then talking myself out of it, asking myself when I would use it. Turns out, now that I have one (yes, I finally gave in to my desire), I use it all the time!

Like all busy moms, I am juggling all the balls: lunchboxes, the school run, work, extra murals, and, of course, cooking dinner every night. If only I had known sooner how much easier the air fryer would make getting dinner on the table. And I no longer feel guilty about serving up some crispy, steaming French fries.

On the odd occasion when it is just me and my husband at home, or its just me for dinner, I can pop something in the air fryer, and have something delicious to eat in almost no time at all.

Now that I know how wonderful the air fryer is, I am constantly wondering what I can cook in it. The recipes in this book offer a wonderful variety of quick, healthy meals. Did you know that your air fryer can successfully cook everything from eggs to fritters to muffins; zucchini fries to chicken wings to meatballs; roasted peppers to potatoes to green beans; fish to chicken to steak?

I hope you enjoy cooking with your air fryer as much as I enjoy cooking with mine.

Fried foods are bad for your health

Frying food normally involves some kind of fat; usually vegetable oil. It is heated to a temperature that is around twice that of boiling point. Very hot oil is important, to prevent too much oil being absorbed into the food you are cooking.

Your choice of oil adds a distinctive flavor to your fried food. Commonly used oils are sunflower oil, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, and sesame oil.

The oil is just part of the flavor profile of fried foods, though. Most of the irresistible flavor comes from what the heat does to the crumbs or batter that coats the food. The starches in the coating are caramelized, making them slightly sweeter, and more digestible - and dont forget, crunchy.

The combination of the high cooking temperature, the oil itself, and the browning reaction on the surface of the food is what gives fried food its distinctive, irresistible crunch and flavor. But the oil is the reason fried food is bad for our health.

While a moderate amount of fat is important for maintaining health, too much, and the wrong kind of fat, is a problem. Fat is a very dense source of calories, and it can be easy to eat too much, especially if you love fried food. This can make maintaining a healthy weight very difficult.

When oil is heated to the temperatures required for frying food, the chemical structure of the oil becomes denatured. These denatured fats and saturated fats, such as those found in cheese, meat, and chicken skin, contribute to raised cholesterol levels. They raise your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

That is why your doctor or dietitian will always tell you to cut back on fried food. There is strong scientific evidence to support this piece of advice.