Vacuum-Fried Snacks: The “healthy junk food”

Let’s face it: We Pinoys love our fried food! There’s something unmatched in the crunch and taste of anything fried, which make them so addictive. Fried chicken, French fries, fried bananas: you name it, it’s awesome fried. But the traditional frying process is as bad as it is good, since frying requires food to be immersed in hot oil, which not only increases their trans fat and cholesterol content, but also releases carcinogens in the oil.

Enter vacuum-fried food. It’s what you imagine: Putting into a chamber with a vacuum function and cooking it in there. It’s how the food is fried that makes all the difference, though: A vacuum fryer cooks food using air pressure and hot oil, at a temperature that preserves more of the oil’s nutrients, reduces its boiling point and thus releases less carcinogens. The result are crisp vegetables (even fruits), which in some studies have shown to retain more nutrients than conventional frying.

So basically vacuum fried snacks are more nutritious than regular fried food, and they taste awesome. It’s an alternative method to reduce the amount of oil absorption of a food, making it less fatty. They also retain more of their natural color, since they are not subject to incredibly high temperatures and are not saturated during the frying process. Natural flavors in the fruits or vegetables are amplified, and characterized by a crunchy texture.

Here’s something interesting and geeky: The Pontificia Universidad Catolia in Chile conducted a study on the health benefits of vacuum frying and included the findings in the Journal of Food Science. According to this study, findings showed that vacuum-fried potato chips contained 50 percent less oil than regular potato chips. And get this: Vacuum-fried potatoes retained 95 percent of their vitamin C content!

So it simply means that if you want to binge on your usual bag of potato chips (we’re only talking about actual vegetable chips here), go for a vacuum-packed variant. While no food nutritionist will recommend you get your veggie intake from vacuum-fried options (Please eat a balanced diet!), these vacuum-fried selections are a way to enjoy healthier alternatives to junk food.

Raw Bites Recommends: Giving Tree Vacuum Fried Broccoli. (http://givingtreesnacks.com/about/)

Giving Tree is one of the world’s first companies to create high-quality freeze-dried and vaccum-fried snacks, and we’ve got them here at Raw Bites! Your box includes Giving Tree’s flavorful Fried Broccoli, which is vacuum-fried in 2% rice bran oil. Rice bran oil is rich in anti-oxidants and also physterols, which has been shown to lower bad cholesterol.