Americans love fried foods. While it’s not always good for us, it turns out to be a fact. There is nothing we don’t like to fry, including ice cream. While the taste is out of this world, it is not necessarily good for you. So is grilling better than frying and why? Would grilling our food help?

Which cooking method adds the least amount of fat to your food, and are there other surprises we need to know about?

Realistically, common sense says that adding fat to a deep fryer or skillet adds fat to something that is already fatty, namely meat, which is the most commonly fried item. The least amount of fat that will be added is when the food is grilled, because the flames or the electric grill will cause the fat to melt from the food.

In a test conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, the differences were quite incredible. Three samples were made, one grilled, one lightly sautéed and the third deep friend. The roast beef sampler, made on a rotisserie had about one percent added fat, while the sauteed variety was about twice as high, but surprisingly it was almost exactly the same as the fried variety.

Where the problem comes in is that we usually put a lot of fried meats and other things in the dough. Honestly, meat doesn’t absorb that much fat on its own, but the breading and other factors absorb a lot.

Now using a lean fat, we see that frying may not be as egregious as I really thought, but … and there is always a but in the equation it is not there, many of us are not happy with just frying, we pay little attention to the types of oils with which we fry, often buying the cheapest variety instead of the best for us.

There are good fats and bad fats. Butter can be taken in moderation and if you fry food in it, you are asking for heart disease in the future. Vegetable oils, pure corn oil may be the way to go if you are going to fry and forget about flour or breading. Fry without it to keep fat absorption to a minimum.

Clearly, grilling is the best way to cook your food, as long as you do it on the kitchen stove. However, some of us thought that outdoor grilling was the answer. It cuts down on the fat, but there are also some grilling factor considerations.

California scientist James Felton studied the effects of cooking over barbecue coals, the traditional variety, and believes that some grilled foods can cause cancer.

There are two ways it can happen, but the more traditional way, according to Felton, is when the fat from the meat drips onto the coals, causing a chemical reaction when the flame ignites to blacken the meat. Moving the coals to the side so the fat doesn’t drip directly onto the coals tends to avoid doing so. Cooking on a gas grill can also help in this battle.

You can also try cooking at a lower temperature and moving the embers if you are grilling over traditional embers and also try using regular firewood instead of charcoal to grill the meat.

If none of that appeals to you, the reality is that grilled foods seem like the best option. First, the flame is coming from above and the fat drips into a pan below, secondary to that, there is less fat than frying, and thirdly, the grill may be doing things in your body that you are not ready for. .

Do we need better reasons to grill your meat or fish?