Walking-by some street foods’ vendors is so tempting. The aroma from the fries just harasses your sense of smell and makes you think of stopping more than going forward.
Often times, you stop to buy few fries and spend small amount of money to satisfy the triggered desired.
Truly, fried street foods are delicious especially when you need to quench hunger.
But there are issues with these street foods that you should know.
Health Issues With Eating Street Foods
Before you decide to buy them and snack on them, here are things that you should consider.
1. Street Foods Are High In Calories
Street foods which we call fries are often high in calories.
Frying foods make them lose the water in them and because there is no vacuum in life, they will absorb the oil.
For instance, when you bake 100 grams of potato it contains contains 93 calories and 0 grams of fat, but when you fry the same quantity, the story changes.
The same 100 grams could contain over 300 calories and 17 grams of fat. This is worse with the fries coated with flour (1).
2. Oil Oxidation Dangerous To Health
One trouble with fried foods is that vendors reuse oil. After frying with the oil the first time, they allow it cool down, and they pour it into a keg for further use. The next day, they will use same oil.
This practice exposes the oil to oxidation, hydrolysis and thermal polymerisation.
According to a study, this reuse of oil for frying purposes is responsible for many health hazards in human population (2).
The reuse alters the fatty acid composition of the cooking oil, making it dangerous for consumption.
3. High In Trans Fat
Street foods are high in trans fat.
Basically, this happens because hydrogenation occurs when you heat your oils to very high temperatures during cooking.
This high heat changes the chemical composition of the fats in the oil. When this happens, it becomes difficult for your body to break down this fat. It is then sored in your intestine as fat.
According to studies, trans fats are associated with an increased risk of many diseases – heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity (3, 4).
4. Street Foods Increase Risk Of Diseases
Furthermore, when you eat street foods that are high in trans fat, it could result on clogging of your arteries.
This fat stores in the intestine and escapes into the arteries. It begins to close the arteries up, making blood flow difficult.
The clogging then affects the heart, leading to heart diseases.
A study found that there is a higher risk of developing chronic disease when fried foods are consumed more frequently (4 or more times per week) (5)
Therefore, eating fried street foods, exposes you to heart disease, type-2 diabetes, obesity and cancer (6) (7) (8).
Health Benefits
Are there health benefits that are attached to fried street foods?
Well, the benefits are few and you can get them from other foods without facing so much risk. This is why we do not recommend that you fry your foods often.
Remember, eating fries more than 2 times a week increases the risk of diseases (9).
1. Increase Fibre
Basically, when you fry your foods the fibre content increases because frying makes soluble fibre present.
For instance, a study says that the dietary fibre content of potatoes increases after frying due to the formation of resistant starch (10).
2. High In Vitamin E
The same study says fried foods are generally a good source of vitamin E. However, it adds that some unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant vitamins are lost due to oxidation.
3. Retained Vitamin C
This is not much of a benefit, since all it says is that the vitamin C in the food item stays intact even after frying it.
Action Point
While fried street foods could have the benefits above, you can also get them from other food items.
Why expose yourself to risk of diseases when you can reduce fries and add other nutritious foods to your diet.
We know the taste great, but an adage says “sweet things kill”.
Excess consumptions is an abuse and we know that it is easier to abuse foods than to maintain healthy consumption.
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As a result, it is necessary that you reduce how often you eat these street foods to guard against the health risks that are way higher than the benefits.
You must have seen that there is an increase in cases of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
We recommend that you do away with fries or eat them minimally to stay safe.
Please, do not just read and consider this as one of those articles on healthy living, take action.
We have seen people come down with diabetes letter in life just because they ignored some of these things they should guard against.
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