Following a poll which showed 70% of its viewers owned an air fryer, daytime ITV show, Lorraine, featured a segment on the appliance today (10 April 2024).
The feature looked at whether air fryers are indeed better for our health and wallets. Consumer expert Gemma Godfrey and GP Dr Hilary joined presenter Christine Lampard for ‘Air fryers: Are they worth it?’.
Discussing the trend of air fryers, Dr Hilary said: “It’s all the rage. Everyone is talking about them. Even Emmerdale ran a storyline on them this week. Channel 5 has run nine documentaries in 124 days with about a million viewers watching each one. It’s phenomenal, people are really interested in the air fryer.”
Gemma added: “It can revolutionise the way that you cook. Yes, it could be healthier, but it could also save you money, save on your electricity bill, but also on your time as well. People are very busy, working families can cook food much quicker.”
Gemma went on to highlight research by Utilita that shows that the average air fryer costs 48p per hour to run, compared to a conventional over, which costs £1.11 per hour.
When discussing the health benefits, Dr Hilary said: “On the plus side, it’s a convection method, so you’ve got the circulation and movement of very hot air over the food inside it. So it’s using very fine oil droplets rather than a deep fat fryer, so it’s using much less oil, fat and calories.”
He went onto explain that there’s evidence to suggest air fryers retain more nutrients and reduce the presence of acrylamide.
However Hilary did caution that despite these benefits, the appliance is still a fryer, which is a less healthy way to cook than other methods.
The air fryers shown on the show and on Coronation Street were supplied by Salter.
You can watch the segment on ITVX here from around 37 minutes.
