“In the last two decades that I have been involved in cellulite reduction I have rarely heard from people mentioning fried food as a cause of cellulite. Many people mention chocolate, caffeine, not drinking water, etc, but almost no-one mentions frying as a cooking method that results in inflammation, glycation, free radical damage and consequently cellulite. In fact, frying is the #2 nutritional cause of cellulite after sugar. Here I am analysing fried food as a cause of cellulite and in other articles I am also discussing other unmentionables, such as charred food, smoking food and plastics/BPA as causes of cellulite.”
Oxidised fatty acids in Fried food are major causes of cellulite, skin aging and skin laxity
Fried food, a major cause cause of cellulite and skin aging
Frying, lipid peroxidation, glycation, inflammation and cellulite
Saturated fat peroxidation and coconut oil
“I only go to expensive restaurants where they use good oil for frying”
So, shouldn’t I eat fried food ever again?
To avoid cellulite and cardiovascular disease, fry rarely
Advanced lipid peroxidation end products in oxidative damage to proteins. Potential role in diseases and therapeutic prospects for the inhibitors
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Fried food, a major cause cause of cellulite and skin aging
When it comes to cellulite, skin looseness, skin aging and overall aging, fried food is one of the worst type of foods you can possibly put in your mouth.
As a cause of cellulite, fried food is only second to sugar, not because it is better than sugar (it’s as bad or worse) but because most people eat much more sugar than fried food.
Of course, fried sugary foods, as in the case of doughnuts, and pure evil for your thighs, your skin, your gut, your heart and your blood vessels.
Fried oils/fats are damaged fats which accumulate in cell membranes, causing chronic, low-grade, whole-body inflammation and damage to all organs and tissues in the whole body, including blood vessels, adipose tissue and skin - and therefore cellulite.
Chronic, low-grade, whole-body inflammation and the consequent blood vessel, skin, adipose tissue and other tissue damage and malfunction are hallmarks of cellulite and skin looseness.
So it is no surprise that fried food is one of the three most important dietary causes of cellulite, together with hydrogenated/trans fats and sugar.
Frying, lipid peroxidation, glycation, inflammation and cellulite
The high temperatures used during all forms of frying - including sautéing, shallow frying, deep frying and stir frying - leads to Advanced Lipid Peroxidation End-Products (ALEs) and Advanced Glycation end products (AGEs).
Frying to smoking point is even worse, as smoke coming out of food/oil simply means damaged, peroxidised fatty acids. Examples include:
Using coconut oil to fry "because coconut oil is saturated and therefore stable” (no, it isn’t)
When your kitchen fills with smoke after charring a fatty steak or burger
Frying at high temperature with smoke being produced from the oil/fat, regardless if it is deep frying, shallow frying or wok frying
Both ALEs and AGEs are proven by multiple studies to cause cell damage, tissue damage and inflammation. One of them clearly states:
“Reactive carbonyl compounds (RCCs) formed during lipid peroxidation and sugar glycoxidation, namely advanced lipoxidation end-product (ALES) and advanced Glycation end-products (AGEs), accumulate with ageing and oxidative stress-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes or neurodegenerative diseases.”
The authors of the above study were of course not interested in cellulite but in overall human health.
However, given that skin, adipose tissue and blood vessels, are especially vulnerable to glycation, inflammation and oxidative damage, I would definitely add cellulite to the list of the above ageing and oxidative stress-related conditions.
In fact there is a huge overlap between the causes and manifestations of civilisation diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cellulite.
Saturated fat peroxidation and coconut oil
Indeed, saturated fat is less prone to lipid peroxidation - but not always. Coconut oil is a good example of an oil with low smoke point that is easily damaged by frying - no matter what clueless instagrammers say.
Ideally if you want a healthy, acne-free, cellulite-free, less prone to ageing skin you should minimise the consumption of fried and charred food.
“I only go to expensive restaurants where they use good oil for frying”
Great, I am happy for you that you’re rich. But when it comes to fried food, “expensive” does not mean “healthy”.
Indeed, some restaurants advertise that they use quality oil for frying, so apparently their food is “healthy” 😂
However, the fact is that no restaurant in the entire world fries their tempura or chips or other food with quality oil used only once, as any health-conscious person would - and should - do at home (and only once a month or less).
In the best case scenario they would use monounsaturated, high-oleic sunflower oil (which is more stable than the normal polyunsaturated sunflower oil) and in the worst case scenario it could be anything they baptise as “healthy”.
And no street food stall, fast food shop, pub or restaurant, even the most high-end ones would use any sort of oil that is:
cold-pressed
extra virgin
unrefined
organic
non-GMO
and contained in a glass bottle
…that a health conscious consumers like you buy. Forget about extra virgin olive oil, of course. It ain’t gonna happen. Plus, even if they did, the high quality oil would be totally damaged by the 20-times-over frying.
But in any case, most places, even the high-end ones, use cheap oil:
Often soya or corn
Often GMO (even in the UK where it is illegal - I have seen it with my eyes and nobody inspects)
Contained in a BPA-lined tin drum
And filled with chemical additives in order to be able to be fried twenty times over
Perhaps at some little traditional restaurant in some forgotten village in Crete, Andalusia or Sicily they might use locally cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, because they have so much of it and it is made locally. However, when frying even that is still used - and peroxidised - multiple times, not once.
So, shouldn’t I eat fried food ever again?
“This is extreme, how can I live without fried food or sugar?”, I can hear some saying, to which my answer is “Not a problem, cellulite or skin ageing doesn’t kill”.
Of course, I could not say that for the “atherosclerosis, diabetes or neurodegenerative diseases” mentioned in the above study, which do indeed kill.
So perhaps the answer is moderation.
To minimise oxidative damage, inflammation and glycation from fried food, avoid eating fried food at restaurants or aim for home cooked meals (restaurant food is 90% based on pan frying, shallow frying, deep frying, wok frying, sautée frying etc).
And do not fry often at home either.
To avoid cellulite and cardiovascular disease, fry rarely
And when you RARELY do fry:
Use high quality monounsaturated oil (e.g. high oleic sunflower oil or extra virgin olive oil), which is more stable than polyunsaturated oils (normal sunflower oil and God forbid other horrid seed oils, such as soya oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil, cottonseed oil or the highly atherogenic peanut oil).
Do not use ANY other oil, including “saturated fat which is stable”. Saturated fat is indeed stable but it is not that good for you even unfried, despite what instagram says.
Do not allow the oil/food to smoke - fry at lower temperatures
Do not over-fry, as with brown/dark brown fries
Do not reuse any oil after frying with it (yes, it gets very expensive, which takes us back to the main point of “fry rarely”)
Do not double-fry or triple-fry (as in refried beans or triple-cooked chips). Who the hell ever thought of this? The crispiness from triple cooked chips comes with extensively peroxidised lipids, AGEs and ALEs, which a few hours after eating will be incorporated in your heart blood vessel lining cells. Do you want that?
And do not cover the food with sugar-based marinades (such as honey or BBQ sauce), which will add a lot of AGEs to the ALEs produced by frying. Fried sugar is the worst thing you can ever put in your mouth.
Similarly, do not fry carbs, as in doughnuts, which will also add a lot of AGEs to the ALEs produced by frying
And as mentioned twice above, never fry sugary food. Think of it: fried AND sugar - what can go wrong, right?
Advanced lipid peroxidation end products in oxidative damage to proteins. Potential role in diseases and therapeutic prospects for the inhibitors
Research paper link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17643134/
Abstract: Reactive carbonyl compounds (RCCs) formed during lipid peroxidation and sugar glycoxidation, namely Advanced lipid peroxidation end products (ALEs) and Advanced Glycation end products (AGEs), accumulate with ageing and oxidative stress-related diseases, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes or neurodegenerative diseases. RCCs induce the 'carbonyl stress' characterized by the formation of adducts and cross-links on proteins, which progressively leads to impaired protein function and damages in all tissues, and pathological consequences including cell dysfunction, inflammatory response and apoptosis. The prevention of carbonyl stress involves the use of free radical scavengers and antioxidants that prevent the generation of lipid peroxidation products, but are inefficient on pre-formed RCCs. Conversely, carbonyl scavengers prevent carbonyl stress by inhibiting the formation of protein cross-links. While a large variety of AGE inhibitors has been developed, only few carbonyl scavengers have been tested on ALE-mediated effects. This review summarizes the signalling properties of ALEs and ALE-precursors, their role in the pathogenesis of oxidative stress-associated diseases, and the different agents efficient in neutralizing ALEs effects in vitro and in vivo. The generation of drugs sharing both antioxidant and carbonyl scavenger properties represents a new therapeutic challenge in the treatment of carbonyl stress-associated diseases.
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