'fry light' and olive oil for frying ?

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Mark87

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I'm currently attending "slimming world" which to those who don't know it is basically another weight watchers type diet programme. They swear by a product called "fry light" but apart from bring told by a nutritionist that it's no good I find it really bad for cooking or frying anything.. especially eggs!. Coincidentally I did a short "healthy cooking made easy" course and some of the ingredients call for olive oil. I bought a bottle of it today and did some roast veg and it turned out lovely, I doubt I would have gotten the same result with fry light. I'm just concerned with the calories or "syn value" involved with olive oil. I was told that I could use the bottle of fry light and put some olive oil in it instead and use it that way. All trial and error I suppose. Any opinions?
 
Fry light (I have some in the cupboard) is lightened up by adding water and xanthan gum. Neither of those things work well when frying. Olive oil has more or less same calories and any other oil - so from a slimming perspective it makes little difference whether you use olive oil, sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

You do need a certain amount of oil to fry an egg but if you drain off that excess oil it isn't so bad. Use a slotted or perforated spatula to drain excess oil back into pan as you remove the egg and then place the spatula on a piece of kitchen paper and pat the top of the egg with kitchen paper. This way, quite a lot of the oil is removed or absorbed by kitchen paper. Use the oil left in pan to fry next time.

I will do an experiment tomorrow by frying an egg and measuring oil before and after to see how much is 'used up' in terms of calories. Watch this space!

Alternatively, you could learn how to make a poached egg - no oil at all!
 
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I've switched from olive oil to canola oil, it is said to be lighter in taste & flavor. But I hardly fry. I mainly use it for sautéing. :wink:
 
My mum has been doing Slimming World off and on for the past 20 years and she also uses Frylight. I have to say that I don't see the point of it really - it rarely delivers a good end result, I don't think there's enough oil in it to actually fry anything properly. I guess it fits in well with the SW way of doing things but in many cases its totally pointless..... many things (eg. bacon) can be dry fried in a decent non-stick pan - or even better grilled! One of the things she uses it for is roast potatoes....they come out with a weird leathery skin (instead of crispy).

@morning glory's advice on fried eggs is spot on - especially if you have a good non-stick pan and don't let it get too hot.

Mark87 said:
I was told that I could use the bottle of fry light and put some olive oil in it instead and use it that way. All trial and error I suppose. Any opinions?
Click to expand...
Yes if you want to reduce the amount of oil you use just put the oil into a spray bottle and use that...without all the additives.
 
Tested a fried egg and oil used, today - photo to follow. But my estimate from measuring oil before and after is that approximately 20 cals at most of oil adhered to the egg. That is after draining on kitchen paper and patting with kitchen paper.

Average egg = 80 cals. So a fried egg with as much oil removed as possible is about 100 cals.
 
morning glory said:
Fry light (I have some in the cupboard) is lightened up by adding water and xanthan gum. Neither of those things work well when frying. Olive oil has more or less same calories and any other oil - so from a slimming perspective it makes little difference whether you use olive oil, sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

You do need a certain amount of oil to fry an egg but if you drain off that excess oil it isn't so bad. Use a slotted or perforated spatula to drain excess oil back into pan as you remove the egg and then place the spatula on a piece of kitchen paper and pat the top of the egg with kitchen paper. This way, quite a lot of the oil is removed or absorbed by kitchen paper. Use the oil left in pan to fry next time.

I will do an experiment tomorrow by frying an egg and measuring oil before and after to see how much is 'used up' in terms of calories. Watch this space!

Alternatively, you could learn how to make a poached egg - no oil at all!
Click to expand...

Excellent advice mg.
I normally poach my eggs, placed on baked beans and toast. But sometimes I like a fry up, and to hell with the calories. I refuse to use synthetic margarines etc as much as possible. It's not good for ya I tell ya.!!

Russ
 
I very very rarely deep fry.
For sauteeing or making fried eggs - I typically use avocado oil, which is hard to find, but I get it at Trader Joe's or Costco-like warehouse stores. (There's a type of avocado oil suitable for high heat, look at the label.) Grapeseed oil is also sometimes used here.

Although there are some days I just want butter. (Never margarine, no, never!)
 
Canola oil has a bit of a mixed reputation, some say that it's the elixir of life, others that it's pure poison. I don't know, but I do try to avoid anything that is heavily processed (GM in this case) or full of additives. Fry-light would fall into this category.
 
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