Deep frying is a common cooking method used across the globe. It’s often used by restaurants and fast food chains as a quick and inexpensive way to prepare foods.

Popular fried foods include fish, french fries, chicken strips and cheese sticks, although you can deep fry just about anything.

Many people like the taste of fried foods. Yet these foods tend to be high in calories and trans fat, so eating a lot of them can have negative effects on your health.

Compared to other cooking methods, deep frying adds a lot of calories.

For starters, fried foods are typically coated in batter or flour prior to frying. Furthermore, when foods are fried in oil, they lose water and absorb fat, which further increases their calorie content.

Generally speaking, fried foods are significantly higher in fat and calories than their non-fried counterparts.

For example, one small baked potato (100 grams) contains 93 calories and 0 grams of fat, while the same amount (100 grams) of french fries contain 319 calories and 17 grams of fat.

As another example, a 100-gram filet of baked cod contains 105 calories and 1 gram of fat, while the same amount of deep-fried fish contains 232 calories and 12 grams of fat.

As you can see, calories add up quickly when eating fried foods.

Fried foods contain more calories than their non-fried counterparts. Eating a lot of them can significantly increase your calorie intake.

Trans fats are formed when unsaturated fats undergo a process called hydrogenation.

Food manufacturers often hydrogenate fats using high pressure and hydrogen gas to increase their shelf life and stability, but hydrogenation also occurs when oils are heated to very high temperatures during cooking.

The process changes the chemical structure of fats, making them difficult for your body to break down, which can ultimately lead to negative health effects.

In fact, trans fats are associated with an increased risk of many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Since fried foods are cooked in oil at extremely high temperatures, they are likely to contain trans fats.

What’s more, fried foods are often cooked in processed vegetable or seed oils, which may contain trans fats prior to heating.

One US study on soybean and canola oils found that 0.6–4.2% of their fatty acid contents were trans fats.

When these oils are heated to high temperatures, such as during frying, their trans fat content can increase.

In fact, one study found each time an oil is re-used for frying, its trans fat content increases.

However, it’s important to distinguish between these artificial trans fats and trans fats that occur naturally in foods like meat and dairy products.

These have not been shown to have the same negative effects on health as those found in fried and processed foods.

Fried foods are often cooked in processed vegetable or seed oils. When heated, these oils can form trans fats, which are associated with a number of health problems, including an increased risk of several diseases.