Are Air Fryers Bad for You? Benefits and Risks of Cancer

There have been reports questioning whether air fryers are bad for you and if they pose a risk of cancer. While air fryers themselves don't cause cancer, air frying does produce compounds, called acrylamides, which are "probable" carcinogens (cancer-causing agents).

Air fryers are beneficial in that they give you the taste and texture of deep-fried foods but with minimal oil (reducing your risk of heart disease). The small amount of oil also reduces your exposure to acrylamides when compared to cooking in a deep fryer. Because the risk of carcinogens is lower in air frying than deep frying, it's generally considered a safer way of cooking.

Verywell / Jessica Olah

Air fryers differ from deep fryers in that they essentially work as a countertop convection oven. To air fry foods, a heating element near the top of the fryer emits heat into the cooking chamber. A high-speed fan simultaneously circulates tiny oil droplets and hot air around the food. This results in a cooking method that is closer to frying than baking.

Air fryers use very little oil compared to deep fryers. However, they tend to take longer to fry foods (especially larger pieces like chicken breasts) because the oil used in deep fryers has a higher specific heat than the heated air used in air fryers.

Generally speaking, air frying is regarded as being healthier than deep frying. This is especially true given the link between fried foods and heart disease.

A 2021 analysis of 19 studies concluded that the high consumption of fried foods was linked to a 22% risk of coronary artery disease, a 37% risk of heart failure, and a 37% risk of stroke.

There are other potential benefits of air frying:

The regular consumption of fried foods is linked to obesity. A 2015 review published in Nutrients reported that eating fried foods more than four times per week increases the risk of obesity by 37% compared to eating fried foods less than twice weekly.

This should not be surprising given that a 100-gram serving of french fries contains 2.7 grams of saturated fat (the type that clogs arteries) and 274 calories. By contrast, French fries cooked with an air fryer have 75% less saturated fat than those cooked by deep-frying, according to a 2015 study in the Journal of Food Science.

Obesity in and of itself is linked to many diseases, including:

Being overweight or obese is also a risk factor for 13 different types of cancer:

With air fryers, a few tablespoons of oil is all that is needed to "fry" food. With deep frying, not only is more oil used, but there is also a greater risk of reusing and reheating oil. This poses certain health risks.

Whenever cooking oil is heated at high temperatures, it changes its composition and releases a potentially carcinogenic chemical called acrolein. If the oil is repeatedly used (referred to as "thermally abused oil"), more acrolein is produced.

Thermally abused oils have a number of detrimental effects:

Because only a small amount of oil is used in air fryers, the risk of this is greatly reduced.

In fast-food establishments, as well as in the home, oil in deep fryers is often reused to reduce cost. In some countries, the number of times oil may be reheated is regulated. There are currently no such regulations in the United States.

According to research commissioned by the National Fire Protection Association, grills and deep fryers account for the largest shares of home fires each year. Deep fryers also account for the greatest rate of deaths when compared to all other types of home cooking fires.

Even in the absence of fire, deep fryers tend to cause more severe burns than other types of thermal burns. In commercial kitchens, nearly half of all reported burns are the results of deep frying.

Because air fryers use minimal oil, the risk of fires and oil burns is reduced. The units are also easier to clean.

Reheated oil is potentially carcinogenic, but so, too, is the process of deep frying. The two biggest concerns are potential carcinogens called acrylamides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are created in the process of cooking.

Acrylamide is a carcinogen that can form in certain foods during high-temperature cooking methods, such as frying, roasting, and baking. Acrylamides do not come from the cooking oil itself but rather when sugar and an amino acid called asparagine are exposed to extremely high temperatures. (Acrylamide also forms in cigarette smoke.)

Asparagine is mainly found in plant sources like whole grains, soy, nuts, legumes, asparagus, and potatoes. Animal sources include poultry, beef, eggs, certain fish and seafood, and dairy products.

Of all the cooking methods, deep frying causes the highest acrylamide formation. Far less is produced by roasting and baking (and little, if any, is produced by steaming or microwaving).

Because air frying uses less oil, less acrylamide is produced.

The Environmental Protection Agency classifies acrylamide as a Group B2 carcinogen, meaning a "probable carcinogen." While the greatest risk is from cigarette smoke, some studies have linked dietary acrylamide to breast, ovarian, uterine, and liver cancer.

Although it can't be avoided completely, you can further reduce acrylamide formation when air frying by:

Asparagine is not the only concern when it comes to cancer. Deep frying foods at high temperatures produces potential carcinogens called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are aerosolized in cooking fumes and inhaled.

Deep frying produces more PAHs than other cooking methods because more oil is used. A 2016 study from China found that PAHs in cooking oil fumes were directly linked to high rates of lung cancer among females in that country.

Because air frying uses far less oil (and cooking fumes are mostly contained within the unit), the exposure to PAHs is also less.

There is evidence that deep frying is associated with the production of carcinogens that can lead to different types of cancer. These include probable carcinogens like acrolein, acrylamides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

There is a potential risk of the same with air frying, although it is thought to be substantially less because only a small amount of oil is used, the cooking oil isn't aerosolized during cooking, and cooking oil is not reused (which is frequently the case with deep frying).

The bottom line is that air frying should be less bad for you than deep frying. However, some risks remain.

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By Lynne Eldridge, MD Lynne Eldrige, MD, is a lung cancer physician, patient advocate, and award-winning author of "Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time."