New Study: Why cooking a stir fry might be bad for your health

You might think that eating a stir-fry is a healthier option. But that’s not really the case. According to scientist, when cooking oil and water combine, tiny particles of fat shoot into the air and could be hazardous if inhaled. In fact, foods such as poultry and vegetables are the biggest culprits as they contain a large amount of water content. Take Chinese stir-fry for example.

Jeremy Marston, assistant professor at Texas Tech University, said: “We’ve discovered that a very large number of small oil droplets are released when even a single, small droplet of water comes into contact with hot oil. The resulting phenomena is dramatic – you can see the explosive release when the water, trapped under the oil, vaporises all of a sudden. This causes the oil film to rupture and sends oil droplets flying. Our research may be particularly relevant to Chinese cooking methods in which water is added to hot woks.”

The scientists are using high-speed video to record and calculate the size and distribution of oil droplets released into the air and to see how far they can reach in a kitchen with, or without, ventilation.

“It’s known that millions of deaths worldwide occur due to indoor air pollution, but we don’t know yet how much cooking in poorly ventilated kitchens contributes to it. We’re planning to conduct a detailed study to quantify how much impact kitchen-based aerosols have on indoor air pollution. Ultimately, we hope that our research can guide designs for improved ventilation systems to remove these ultrafine aerosols.” Dr Marston added.

Does this make you think twice about using stir-fry as a cooking method?

Daphne Leo

Photo: Getty Images

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