I need to be thoughtful of my Oil Intake But I just can't give up fried food. Is an Air fryer a good Investment?

[AedenD]

My weight has been consistently increasing for the past few years owing to my sedentary lifestyle (props to covid) and stress-eating (props to covid x2). I snack on fried foods despite knowing that those are the most calorie dense foods I could be eating. I have been contemplating over getting an air fryer for a week or so. I know for a fact that it certainly reduces calories in your foods but wouldn't that alter the taste as well? I'm yet to eat something out of an air fryer. Can someone tell me how much of a difference does it make to the taste?

Also, while researching about it a bit, I found that air fryers can also be used as dehydrators? (I read it here: bestkitchenbuy.com/can-you-.... My wife has been wanting a dehydrator for the longest time. If this is true, I'd be more than willing to throw in a couple hundred dollars and get a good air fryer home. I'll apreciate if someone can help.

[Hidden]

Hi AedenD, I wonder if you'd consider one of those combination machines which do air fry very well, but also bake, steam, simmer and pressure cook. The best known comes in two sizes and even for a smaller household I'd say the bigger capacity one was the better investment. The reason I suggest this, is that air 'frying' still isn't really frying. It will cut down a lot of the fat you'd get in fried food, but there is a difference between the two things, and air fryers alone are still quite an investment. With a machine which can cook in several ways, if air frying proves not to be for you, you'll still have some other functions which would probably be useful.

I love mine and use it all the time. It often saves lots of fuel energy too as it's small and heats quickly so it's eco-friendly also. I'm not sure of the US cost but definitely in UK my model (admittedly bought nearly two years ago), came in at just under $200. And it will dehydrate when used on a lower heat setting, but I've never used this function so can't say how efficient it is for that. Also I think the capacity for dehydrating might be less for any air fryer as to dry efficiently foods need to be done in single layers and dehydrators generally allow for this.

Hope this helps.

[Panz]

I love mine air fryer…it is also a toaster, baking oven and air bake…it is just great!

Panz 🎄🎄🎄

[Eryl]

The frying is probably not the biggest reason for putting on weight but the thing that your frying. i.e. high carbohydrate foods. These will raise your blood sugar levels and insulin levels and trigger fat storage from triglycerides in your blood made in your liver from the blood sugar.The high blood sugar also effects your eating patterns as by increasing the hunger hormone and suppressing the sateity hormone which means that you'll feel stronger hunger pangs and when you eat you won't get a strong 'enough' feeling.

[sailaway51]

Yes

[Cooper27 Administrator]

We have an air fryer, and it's alright, but probably not a massive difference from an oven in terms of taste. It wouldn't hurt to give it a go and work on trying to change your taste buds.

One thing I'd mention is that there are different kinds: one is just a bucket, and you have to remove it to stir your food every 5 mins or so (e.g. Tower air fryer). The other will actively stir your food for you (e.g. the Actifry). I have the bucket kind, but if I were buying again, I'd opt for the one that stirs for you - I think it would give a better end result that might be closer to a real fryer.