Delicious argentinian cutlets

[perlina]

Greetings to all,

I have been a lurker in this forum for a long time but never registered to post. Since everyone seems so nice, I finaly decided to.

I've been cooking a lot with chicken lately. I love making argentinian cutlets, my family devours them! The problem is that they are fried and I am concerned about cholesterol. I was wondering if anyone knew if eating fried food will have a negative impact on health... even when cooking with vegetable oil? It says it has no cholesterol. If vegetable oil has no cholesterol, then what is all the talk about cholesterol in fried food?

I look forward to participating in this great forum. Thanks for all the great info.


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www.withperlina.com - my recipes

[MarkV]

Perlina:

You're confusion is understandable, particularly given the incomprehensible level of ignorance and fat-phobia that dominates our society. This is NOT a criticism of you, (you are merely the victim of American food neurosis), but your question truly highlights the multiple erroneous asusmptions that people make about food.

For starters, cooking food in oil is not AS BAD as the fat-phobes would have you think, IF IT IS DONE RIGHT. And that means bringing the oil to a high enough temperature. With hot oil, there is minimal absorption of the oil into the food. Culinary professionals have demonstrated this by measuring the cooking oil pre and post cooking.

Second: All fats are not created equal. While every fat in the world has the same caloric content, (9 calories a gram), they differ greatly on the impact on biochemistry. Vegetables oils do not contain cholesterol, (but that doesn't matter anyway which we'll get to shortly). Most vegetable oils (excluding palm and cococnut oil), are dominated by either monosaturated and/or polyunsaturated fats. Both of these, but particularly monosaturated fats have clearly been demonstrated to lower cholesterol and may also have anti-hypertensive and anti-cancer properties. Olive oil and canola oil are predominantly monosaturated fats.

Third, it is not the direct consumption of cholesterol that is the issue but the consumption of saturated fat. Saturated fat is the bad guy. When you consume cholesterol, your liver, (which makes cholesterol every day), adjusts by compensating it's output. Intake of cholesterol per se has less to do with serum (blood) levels of cholesterol. Consuming saturated fat however, directly increases serum cholesterol. So if you're issue is heart disease, reduce saturated fat intake and don't worry about monounstaurated fat, polyunsaturated fat, or Omega-3 fatty acids, (also a "good" fat).

And finally, heart disease has a plethora of causes: genetics, sex, age, weight, diet, physical activity, stress, personality type, smoking, alcohol and drug consumption, environmental influences, and the coexistence of other medical disorders. Many physicians feel that genetics is the biggest factor and that there is only a limited range within which we can exert any difference.

NEVERTHELESS, I find it interesting that out of all these factors, society is most focused on fats. All the vegetables and fruits in the world will not save you if the other factors are against you.

In the grand scheme of anyone's life, a pan-friend chicken cutlet here and there is not going to make a measurable difference.

Mark

[diane]

What Mark V has to say is right on the button Perlina. Fat hysteria has taken over for now, but flavour usually suffers. And is often replaced by sugars. Reading labels carefully shows some yoghurts (for example) are 99% fat free and approx 25% sugar. Either way are ingesting something so called 'bad'. I would go for the fats anyday. Much safer.