What will happen to your body if you eat one fried dough stick every day? Is the aluminum content in fried dough sticks really excessive?

Youtiao is the "kingpin" of breakfast! Soy milk with youtiao is a must-have for many people's breakfast. The golden color, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside of youtiao are so attractive that people even become more and more addicted to it!

However, fried dough sticks are the representative of "unhealthy" among many staple foods, and there are many rumors, such as eating fried dough sticks can cause cancer, eating fried dough sticks will make you stupid, and fried dough sticks contain excessive aluminum. Ah... fried dough sticks are too unhealthy! So what effect will it have on the body if you eat one fried dough stick every day?

Why are you addicted to eating fried dough sticks?

Fried dough sticks are a traditional Chinese delicacy. There is a legend about it: During the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Qin Hui killed the national hero Yue Fei. In order to express their hatred for the treacherous minister, the people molded the images of Qin Hui and his wife Wang onto dough cakes, and stuck the two cakes back to back and fried them in a pan of boiling oil. This dish was named "fried hui", which later became fried dough sticks.

Every time I pass by a breakfast stall, the smell is so delicious! The aroma of fried dough sticks is mainly the result of the combined effects of oil oxidation and Maillard reaction. Maillard reaction is one of the main reasons for the formation of flavors, with baking and caramel aromas. According to tests, there are more than 100 volatile flavor substances in fried dough sticks, and aldehyde compounds are the main flavor components of fried dough sticks. Different aldehydes can give food bread flavor, fresh flavor and fruity flavor.

During the frying process of fried dough sticks, the oil will undergo oxidative degradation. After oxidation, oleic acid will produce aromas similar to sweet orange, honey, citrus, fat, and nuts. Oxidative degradation of linoleic acid will produce a mushroom aroma.

In addition, the surface of the fried dough sticks just out of the pan will become crispy after losing moisture, and it has an attractive golden appearance. When you bite it, there is a pleasant "crunching" sound, which is simply addictive.

Taking all the above factors into consideration, fried dough sticks attract us from multiple aspects such as smell, vision and hearing , so we want to eat more and more and gradually become addicted.

What will happen to your body if you eat one fried dough stick every day?

The advantages of fried dough sticks are that they are delicious and filling. Although the potassium content is good, higher than that of steamed buns, the calories and sodium content of fried dough sticks should not be underestimated.

Half a stick of oil weighs about 50 grams. Image source: Xue Qingxin

Not conducive to blood pressure control: The sodium content of fried dough sticks is 585mg/100g, which is nearly 4 times that of steamed bread. Eating one fried dough stick (about 100g) can consume nearly 1.5g of salt, accounting for 30% of the upper limit of the recommended daily salt intake in the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents". If you do not control your salt intake throughout the day, or even eat one fried dough stick every day, it is not conducive to blood pressure control and will increase the risk of hypertension.

Not conducive to maintaining weight: The calories of fried dough sticks are astonishing, up to 388kcal/100g, nearly twice that of steamed buns and 3.3 times that of steamed rice, almost equivalent to 3 small bowls of rice. Just think about eating 3 small bowls of rice every morning, it is really easy to gain weight.

As a fried food, fried dough sticks are not only high in calories, but also high in fat, and are considered the "big oil-user" among staple foods. Eating 100 grams of fried dough sticks can ingest 17.6g of fat, most of which is oil, which directly reaches nearly half of the lower limit of oil intake recommended in the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" (25~30g/d). If you also eat other foods containing cooking oil throughout the day, it is easy to exceed the daily oil intake standard. Some fried dough sticks will produce oil when you pinch them, and the fat content is even higher.

A high-fat diet can lead to an increase in body fat percentage, obesity, and can also induce a series of chronic diseases.

Not good for cardiovascular health: Frying dough sticks for a long time will produce trans fatty acids, especially when some merchants do not frequently change new oil and repeatedly use the same pot of oil for frying. A study compared the trans fatty acid content of three different edible oils, rapeseed oil, palm blended oil, and soybean oil, after frying dough sticks. It was found that rapeseed oil had the highest trans fatty acid content, followed by palm blended oil, and soybean oil had the least. In addition, the amount of trans fatty acids in palm blended oil and soybean oil will increase with the increase in the number of times the dough sticks are fried, but the trans fatty acid content of rapeseed oil shows a fluctuating downward trend with the increase in the number of times it is fried. There are also studies that have tested the trans fatty acid content of sunflower oil after frying dough sticks for a long time, and found that with the increase in frying time, its trans fatty acid content tends to gradually increase. Excessive intake of trans fatty acids in the diet increases the risk of coronary heart disease and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

In addition, another study explored the relationship between fried food intake and cardiovascular disease risk and all-cause mortality in adults, and quantified the intake dose. The results showed that eating 114g of fried food per week (equivalent to 1 medium-sized French fries or 1 fried dough stick in a fast food restaurant) would increase the risk of major cardiovascular disease events, and the risks of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and heart failure would increase by 3%, 2%, and 12%, respectively.

Not conducive to blood sugar control: The GI value of fried dough sticks is 75, which is a high GI food. It is also rich in carbohydrates. Eating one fried dough stick can have a glycemic load of up to 37.5, which is a high GL food. If the food is not properly matched, eating one fried dough stick will cause a surge in blood sugar after a meal, which is not conducive to blood sugar control. Especially for people who already suffer from high blood sugar or diabetes, it is best to eat less or not eat it.

Increase digestive burden: Eating one fried dough stick in one meal will increase the gastrointestinal digestive burden and may cause indigestion. In the long run, it may also increase the risk of gastrointestinal diseases.

Image source: pixabay

May increase cancer risk: Deep-frying dough sticks is a high-temperature cooking method, with temperatures as high as 190°C. Carbohydrates at high temperatures above 120°C will produce acrylamide, which is a potential carcinogen and a Class 2A carcinogen. This means that it has been proven to cause cancer in animals, but there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are also produced during the frying process. These ingredients have chronic toxicity and carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects. Heavy PAHs are more harmful than light PAHs. For example, the well-known benzopyrene is more harmful to health. Researchers collected 10 samples from restaurants, supermarkets, and mobile stalls in 17 cities in Shandong Province, totaling 170 samples, to test the content of PAHs. Benzopyrene was detected in 10 samples, with a detection rate of 5.88%. According to my country's limit standards, none of them exceeded the standard. However, the detection rate of light PAHs is relatively high, at more than 83%, which is potentially harmful to health.

May affect the health of bones and nervous system: Eating fried dough sticks every day may lead to excessive intake of aluminum, which affects the health of bones and nervous system. It may also affect the growth and development of children, and in severe cases may even cause osteomalacia.

I heard that the aluminum content in fried dough sticks exceeds the standard?

In the traditional production process of fried dough sticks, it is necessary to add appropriate amounts of alum, baking soda, and salt to prepare the dough, and then pull the dough into strips after it is fully proofed. After the dough is prepared, an appropriate amount of alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) is added, which can decompose a large amount of carbon dioxide gas during the frying process, making the fried dough sticks crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

However, this will also leave some aluminum in the dough sticks, which many people say can cause Alzheimer's disease. In fact, there is currently insufficient evidence to show that aluminum can cause Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, regular dough stick processing now rarely uses alum directly, and more often uses aluminum-free compound leavening agents .

my country's "Food Additives Use Standards" stipulates that the aluminum residue in fried noodle products must be ≤100 mg/kg.

From 2012 to 2020, Xuchang City, Henan Province selected large and medium-sized restaurants and roadside breakfast shops as monitoring points, and randomly collected 590 fried dough sticks for aluminum content monitoring. It was found that 363 fried dough sticks exceeded the aluminum content standard, and the exceedance rate was as high as 61.5%.

In 2021, researchers collected a total of 22 fried dough sticks samples from various fried dough stick breakfast stalls, snack bars and chain stores in Zheng'an County, Guizhou Province, and found that only 9 samples had aluminum residues within the standard range, with a pass rate of 40.9%. The aluminum residues in the remaining 13 samples exceeded 100 mg/kg, and the unqualified rate accounted for 59.1%.

This shows that many businesses, in order to make the appearance and taste of fried dough sticks better and gain more profits, do not strictly follow the national limits on food additives in the use of alum, resulting in the aluminum content of fried dough sticks seriously exceeding the standard, endangering the health of consumers.

Eat fried dough sticks healthily, do these 3 things

Choose regular restaurants: In the test of 22 breakfast samples in Zheng'an County, Guizhou Province, it was found that most of the unqualified samples were concentrated in mobile stalls; those with high pass rates were concentrated in stores with shops and business licenses. These stores are relatively formal and have stricter requirements on the selection and use of materials, and the limited use of food additives, so consumers can eat with more peace of mind.

Choose fried dough sticks with clean color: New fried dough sticks are golden in color, without black spots, crispy and soft, and have a good taste. As the oil is used more and more times, the color of the fried dough sticks will deepen, turn into a burnt yellow, or even have more black spots, the expansion will be poor, the taste will be poor or even bitter, and it will be accompanied by the smell of oil smoke.

Image source: pixabay

If you see that the oil used to fry dough sticks is dark in color, turbid, contains a lot of foam, and has black impurities, then it is basically oil that has been used repeatedly.
Eat less and match them properly: If you really like to eat it, eat it once a week at most. It is better if you can share one with a friend. At the same time, eat it with dark vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, cherry tomatoes, spinach, purple cabbage, tomatoes, and protein-rich foods such as eggs, chicken breast, fish, shrimp, and soy products.

Therefore, for the sake of health, eating one fried dough stick a day is really not recommended! Especially with sweetened soy milk, it is even more not recommended!

References

[1] Wang Yongqian. Analysis and evaluation of fried dough stick flavor and preliminary study on its formation mechanism[D]. Hefei University of Technology, 2017.

[2] Yang Yuexin. Chinese Food Composition Table 6th Edition Volume 1[M]. Peking University Medical Press, 2018

[3] Zhang Haifeng, Zhou Xiaoyan, Li Hui, et al. Comparison of quality changes of three edible oils during frying of dough sticks [J]. Food Science, 2013, 34(22)

[4] Kang Xuemei, Li Guihua, Liu Bin, et al. Study on the quality changes of sunflower seed oil during frying of fried dough sticks [J]. Cereals, Oils and Food Science and Technology, 2014, 22(05) [5] Qin, Pei et al. “Fried-food consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of observational studies.” Heart (British Cardiac Society) vol. 107, 19 (2021): 1567-1575. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2020-317883

[6] Zhai Jun, Guo Tingmin, Zhao Yue, et al. Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contamination in fried dough sticks sold in Shandong Province[J]. Chinese Journal of Health Laboratory Technology, 2020, 30(18): 2277-2280.

[7] Hu Yaqi, Liu Keke, Ren Zenghui, et al. Monitoring of aluminum content in fried dough sticks sold in Xuchang City, Henan Province from 2012 to 2020 and dietary exposure assessment [J]. Henan Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2021, 32(09): 707-709. DOI: 10.13515/j.cnki.hnjpm.1006-8414.2021.09.018.

[8] Jiang Shuang. Analysis of aluminum content in edible fried dough sticks in food risk monitoring in 2021[J]. Food Safety Guide, 2023(04):94-96.DOI:10.16043/j.cnki.cfs.2023.04.058.

[9] Hu Peng, Xiong Zhengwei, Yu Zuwen, et al. Safety issues and countermeasures of frying oil in the process of making fried dough sticks [J]. Food Industry, 2018, 39(07): 152-157.

Planning and production

Author: Xue Qingxin, member of Chinese Nutrition Society, registered nutritionist, health manager, public nutritionist

Review | Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center

Planning丨Yinuo

Editor: Yinuo