You’ve likely asked this question, is air fryer healthier than oven? Many are seeking a healthier way to enjoy those crispy, golden-brown treats, but without all that excess fat and oil that you get from deep-fat frying. So which appliance is better for your health, a conventional oven, or that buzzy countertop gadget everyone’s been raving about?
This exploration into this question is designed to help aspiring chefs and health-conscious cooks get all the juicy facts so you can make an educated decision in the kitchen. We’re gonna go deep into what makes an air fryer different from conventional ovens.
You’ll learn about how cooking methods like deep-frying impact food on a chemical level and how air frying impacts foods that have high starch content like potato wedges, french fries, tater tots and more.
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How does air frying actually work?
While an air fryer might feel like a relatively new invention, they were first patented back in 2010, by Philips, and actually hit store shelves even earlier. Air fryers work by rapidly circulating hot air, which gives food a crispy outer layer without having to add much, if any, fat. This makes certain foods low in fat and a healthier alternative to deep frying.
Both the oven and an air fryer cook your food by surrounding it with hot air. The main difference is, as reported by CNET, air fryers use powerful fans to whip the hot air around faster and the baskets used for air frying food are generally smaller than a standard oven’s.
And because these units have a more powerful airflow, cooking time is often much faster than a traditional oven.
Deep-diving into deep frying: Understanding how oil and heat impact food on a molecular level
Whether you’re air frying or deep-frying, cooking food through methods that use a lot of heat is well known to produce chemical compounds that could potentially be harmful.
Advanced glycation end products (known as AGEs), and a carcinogenic compound called acrylamide are well documented examples of what forms in high heat. Acrylamide tends to accumulate in starchy foods like potatoes when they’re cooked in high heat, especially from deep fryers, and can also be present, but to a much lower extent, from air frying as well.
Because air fryers require only a fraction of the cooking oil that deep fryers do, some studies have shown an up to 90% reduction in oil left on the food that has been air-fried versus deep-fried foods.
Deep frying necessitates hot oil, which is absorbed by the food, increasing the calorie and fat content. On the other hand, air frying uses little to no oil, instead exposing the food to very hot, circulating air, providing a healthier alternative to traditional deep frying.
It is also thought that less oil equals a reduced number of chemical compounds that could be considered harmful, making an air fryer appear much healthier in these situations.
Air fryer healthy: Does the fact that it requires less oil make air fryers healthy?
Even if an air fryer can reduce the oil left on food by as much as 90%, does that actually mean that it’s healthy? Deep-frying is associated with a host of issues from inflammation to higher rates of heart disease. Air frying healthier options can significantly lower calorie and fat content in the food.
Deep-fried foods also contain dangerous chemical compounds that form due to high temperatures, which often include trans fat, acrylamide, heterocyclic amines, as well as hydrocarbons. Because many air fryers can deliver similarly crisp textures to deep fryers, air frying is often seen as a healthy way to cook similar food.
Although they are certainly healthier than deep fryers, air frying doesn’t magically transform an unhealthy dish into one that benefits you nutritionally. However, air frying healthy foods can reduce fat and calorie intake, potentially decreasing the risk of health issues associated with high levels of fat and calories.
What types of air fryers can you find?
You can generally find a couple core types of air fryers these days: air fryers in an all-in-one style like a pressure cooker with an air fryer function; standalone basket fryers; as well as toaster-oven style with air fryer features built in.
If you're after one device that can do everything, including pressure cooking, rice cooking, and air frying to perfection, I recommend looking for an all-in-one design. However, if your kitchen is already home to many helpful devices and you have a craving for truly crispy food, a stand-alone basket air fryer will often get the best results.
Also read: Air Fryer vs Gas Oven: Which Saves More on Energy Costs?
Air fryers and cooking methods
Many believe an air fryer is a quick fix to help you cut down on those greasy, calorie-heavy deep-fried foods. When comparing an air fryer versus an oven, you should know that not every recipe you make will get a “health boost” just by popping it in your air fryer.
Both air frying and oven cooking primarily use hot air, but oven cooking may retain more moisture, which can affect the formation of certain breakdown products in the food.
You must consider the food and the method. Because air fryers use powerful fans to blast food at high temperatures to brown and crisp the outer layers, similar to how deep fryers work, it’s tempting to use this setting all the time.
Oven baking, on the other hand, is good for baking, broiling, and roasting larger meals, and it offers different nutritional values and health effects compared to air frying.
I’ve personally noticed that even foods like chicken are often at their best when you air fry for about 15 or 20 minutes rather than half an hour.
If you have a family-sized 7 quart air fryer you can fit an entire chicken inside (in our tests an air-fried chicken weighed between 2 and 3 kilos) with crispy skin and tender, juicy meat after only about 40 minutes at high temperature, rather than cooking for more than an hour using traditional methods.
Check out this recipe: Air Fryer Corn On The Cob
Is an air fryer good for you: Can switching to an air fryer help to make what you eat healthier?
The air fryer is most certainly healthier than a deep fryer in a situation like with those addictive potato wedges we’ve just talked about, where even homemade French fries only needed 1 tablespoon of oil per kilogram.
You are unlikely to get that same low-fat content with the deep fryer that requires several liters to fry in the first place. Deep frying is linked to much higher rates of inflammatory issues and potential health consequences over time.
However, a deep fryer is different from a regular oven. This means you have to compare oven-cooked food with air-fried food to decide if air fryers make a difference to your daily health.
The air fryer uses a heating element in conjunction with a powerful fan to circulate hot air, allowing for the production of crispy fried foods with less oil and fewer calories compared to traditional frying methods.
Can you cook the same types of meals using an air fryer as in an oven?
You've likely heard endless tales of the meals that an air fryer can prepare and while they do an excellent job of giving fries and wedges crispy outsides without cooking the middle through, how well does it stand up when it comes to things that are not "fried"?
Is the air fryer healthy enough to roast a whole chicken for you and the family on Sunday afternoon? The results that I got when I tested a few of these suggest that it absolutely can but the meat came out a little drier than when I slow-cooked in an oven because of those faster cook times and hotter temperatures that are present in air fryers.
This was before I knew the exact temperatures and adjusted the time of my meals. You have to know how to adjust those recipes and times. Now that I know how it works, I wouldn't swap my air fryer out for anything!
This might help: Air Fryer Hacks: Genius Ways to Use Your Air Fryer
Should you always get the more advanced, high-end air fryer with fancy extras?
Air fryers can get complicated. They've evolved a lot from those little basic, two-quart bucket-style machines that hit shelves back in 2010. There's now an endless array of additional functions from grill and toast, right up to a built-in rotisserie.
While I think you can definitely make a tasty meal with one of those less expensive models, you are getting more for your money these days, but the high-end air fryers can cost upwards of $300 if not more. It depends on what's right for your situation and what meals you need help with.
The more complex an air fryer gets with its ability to also broil and pressure cook, in addition to all those standard modes, it's likely there's an extra drop or two of fat needed as well - particularly for things you have to flip to cook both sides properly, or foods that generally stick to the basket like cheese. And these can be tough to clean.
FAQ's
In our testing, I've found that an air fryer can provide a much healthier alternative than deep fryers and can be incredibly useful if you have a habit of preparing fried food with high amounts of oil that could contribute to poorer heart health, weight gain, or cancer risks.
The ability to air fry a dish that would normally be deep fried is great, but the act of frying itself doesn't contribute any particularly healthy properties or elements that aren't already present in the raw ingredients in the first place, as you are simply using heat and pressure.
The air fryer can potentially cut up to 80% of the calories that deep frying uses by the sheer fact that it requires just 1 tablespoon compared to deep-frying. Even using traditional stove-top pans for quick frying recipes could produce healthier results. This depends on the amount of oil you decide to use on the air-fried foods.
Conclusion
It comes down to a couple of core considerations. Air frying can help a great deal, particularly when you swap air frying for deep frying and use little to no additional oil.
Overall though, even when deep-diving into this question of is an air fryer healthier than an oven, it's far more important to first think about the health properties and benefits that already exist in the ingredients you eat and then choose your desired cooking method afterward.
No appliance, even the fanciest state-of-the-art kitchen equipment on the market today, can do that work for you.
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