The Health Benefits of Cooking with an Air Fryer

How Air Fryers Work

Air fryers work by using a fan to circulate hot air. They are basically mini convection ovens. Because it uses circulating hot air to cook food, air fryers can grill and bake food, using little to no oil, and they can make fried foods, without actually having to deep fry them. It's also faster to air fry food compared to traditional frying or baking.

You can cook many different foods in an air fryer, and because they are so quick and easy to use they have become a very popular kitchen appliance. They are touted as a healthier way of preparing your favorite fried foods, so I thought it was important to review the health benefits of air frying, and whether the benefits do outweigh the risks of using an air fryer. 

1. Using Less Oil

Compared to deep fryers, air fryers use much less oil, so using an air fryer is a healthier way of making fried food. Studies comparing deep-fried and air-fried French fries found that air-frying leads to food with substantially less fat compared to traditional deep frying so by using an air fryer it can cut down on your fat intake.

By cooking with an air fryer, not only are you using less oil, but this also often leads to food that has fewer calories and is lower in fat.

Plus most deep fried foods are cooked in oils and fats that are not great for our health such as trans fats. Trans fats are associated with an increased risk of many health conditions, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

Additionally, fried foods are often cooked in processed vegetable oil or seed oils which may contain trans fats before heating. When these oils are heated to high temperatures, such as during frying, their trans fat content can increase. One study even found that each time an oil is reused for frying, its trans fat content increases. By using an air fryer at home, you can choose healthier oils to cook your food in like coconut oil, avocado oil, butter or even ghee! Even when compared to frying food in a pan, you will use much less oil when you cook food in an air fryer instead. 

One important note is that it is the artificial trans fats that are problematic. Natural trans fats that occur in foods like meat and dairy products have not been shown to have the same negative health effects as those found in processed food and fried food.

2. Weight Loss

Eating deep fried food is associated with weight gain and other health conditions including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Hence if we are able to switch from eating deep fried food to home made food in the air fryer it should help prevent weight gain. Of course there have been no actual studies examining this yet but hopefully there will be! 

3. Can decrease the formation of harmful compounds

Besides making food higher in fat and calories, frying food can create potentially dangerous compounds like acrylamide. Acrylamide forms in certain foods cooked during high-heat or higher temperature cooking methods, including deep frying, baking and air frying. Because of this acrylamide is found in up to 1/3 of the food we eat, including air fried foods. 

Acrylamide has been classified as a probable carcinogen and exposure to acrylamide causes numerous cancers in animal models. However, whether acrylamide increases cancer risk in humans is still not clear.

Air frying food instead of deep frying may even lower the acrylamide content of food. One study found that air-frying reduced the amount of acrylamide by up to 90%, compared with deep-frying.

However, it is still not clear how air frying affects the formation of other potentially harmful compounds. It is possible that other compounds such as aldehydes, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are formed with high heat cooking could still be produced when you air fry food.

4. Safer than Deep Fryers

One of the dangers of deep frying food is that you can get burned by the hot oil, which can't happen when you air fry food. While air fryers do get hot, there is no risk of spilling, spraying, or accidentally touching the hot oil since the oil is enclosed in the air fryer.

Other Benefits of Air Frying

Besides the health benefits, there are other benefits of cooking with an air fryer. One of the best things about air fryers is how fast they cook food. Cooking food in an air fryer saves so much time compared with baking, frying, or deep frying foods. 

Another benefit is that the clean up is really easy. You just put the racks and the tray in your dishwasher after you're done using them and let the dishwasher do the work. Plus cleaning the inside of an air fryer is way easier than cleaning the inside of an oven.

The risks of cooking with an air fryer

No cooking method is perfect. And there are some risks with using an air fryer which I thought it was important to discuss. 

Like any other high heat cooking method, cooking meat in an air fryer can lead to the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines. Like acrylamide, these compounds have been associated with an increased cancer risk in animals. However, whether or not they increase the risk of cancer in humans is still unclear.

You can still cook unhealthy food in an air fryer. Just because you aren't deep frying food doesn't mean the food itself is healthy. Always be sure to read ingredient lists and try to avoid processed or refined ingredients as much as you can.

Sadly, most air fryers on the market are coated with non-stick coatings. Unfortunately, non-stick coatings are not good for our health. Typically the term “non-stick” means that the surfaces have been coated with perfluorinated chemicals or PFAS. These chemicals are toxic to both humans and the environment and have been linked to numerous health issues including colon cancer, thyroid diseases, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, reduced fetal growth, increased cholesterol and ADHD. Because of their health risks you want to avoid air fryers coated in PFAS chemicals.

But don't worry, there are a few different air fryers on the market that are made without PFAS. You can see the best ones in my review of the best non-toxic air fryers.

Our expertise:

Dr. Erin Carter, MD, FRCPC, is a physician with board certifications in internal medicine and rheumatology. She is passionate about nutrition, environmental health and low toxicity living and has been doing research and publishing information in this area for years.