James Bond’s famous catchphrase “shaken, not stirred” does not exactly refer to a beacon of health, since it is his standard order for a martini. But his consistent demand is a strategy we can adopt in choosing “grilled, not fried” foods.
When you see the word fried on a menu, you look further. The basic oil mostly used today in frying food is animal-based and full of the saturated fat you want to avoid. Just think of all the fried foods you eat. French fries, fried fish, fried chicken, and the list goes on and on. Down South, you even see fried green tomatoes.
Some restaurants do use the “good” fats, but the majority use the oils that are high in saturated fat. If you are cooking foods at home, use oils that are high in the good fat. They are found in the canola oils and olive oils. Though still think grilled rather than fried, not only because of the bad oils used in the frying, but also because frying a food adds about a third more calories than grilling the same food. Grilling cuts down on calories as well as saturated fat.
From this day on, you want to imagine fried foods on a scale and weigh the outcome of what will happen to the arteries in your heart and brain if you continue consuming them as you now do. When you do this evaluation, I’m sure that your mantra will become as instant and unwavering as James Bond – “grilled, not fried.”
“Bond” image courtesy of www.vecorfree.com
