Could Fried Food Be Healthy?

Fried food is bad for you. We all know that, right? A steady diet of deep-fried food is supposedly what got celebrity cook Paula Deen in so much trouble and could be the reason she developed Type 2 diabetes. But now a study in the British Medical Journal suggests that not all fried food is the same – and it's not all equally unhealthy.

Researchers found that people who frequently ate food fried in olive oil were not any more likely to have heart disease than people who did not eat fried food on a regular basis.

But that doesn't mean you can regularly indulge in fried chicken or French fries. This study looked at only one thing: the type of oil used. We already know that olive oil is better for you because it is less likely to degrade during cooking.

It's also important to note that the people in this study were screened first so that they had no coronary heart disease and their regular diet did not consist of more than 7 percent fried food for a total of about 5 ounces a day (which isn't very much).

What have we learned here? Olive oil is better and moderation is best.