Well, yesterday I attended my first IRL with other Skoolers in North Carolina and it was GRAND. It was really good to meet everyone and we had a great time! That's our very own @Gabby Roberts in the photo with me. She put it all together like a champ.

Skillet cornbread!

Pretty much everyone loves fried things. Fried chicken is obviously a standard but there are also pickles, okra, pork chops, snickers bars, tofu, zucchini, asparagus, peppers, fish, potatoes, sweet potatoes, the list goes on and on. You can pretty much fry anything. And it is delicious. Crispy, hot, salty...that experience is universally liked. But also most everyone says that fried foods are "bad". So let's explore that a bit. Let's first say that there is a BIG difference between making something fried at home and what you get in a restaurant. I'm making an assumption that you are at least semi-health minded. What's the difference? Restaurant version : Let's start with the cooking medium : most likely it will be canola oil or a canola/seed oil based shortening (which is even worse). We do know that Canola and other seed oils are not great for us and that is mostly due to the manner of extracting the oil. In many cases chemical solvents are used. You know that stuff to clean oil off your engine? Yes that stuff. And it is often extracted at very high heats, which damages the oil molecule, making it more likely to turn rancid and making a large percentage of the oil molecules carcinogenic. Yes, cancer causing. And everything in a restaurant is fried in that oil. Why? because it is cheap and restaurants just don't have the budget to fry in Avocado oil. Breading : it is so crispy and light! That crunch does something to our brain; it is a satisfying texture and makes us want more. To get a batter/crust like that oftentimes super refined starches are used because of the size of the starch grains (super tiny). This provides a light, crisp crust that traditional flour just can't touch. These starches really raise your blood sugar and do it very quickly (spike). Process : the process of frying creates millions of microscopic fissures all over the surface of the item being fried. And even when the food is removed from the fat and drained, all those microscopic fissures still hold onto the oil. Ever leave a piece of fried chicken on a paper towel? That's what I'm talking about. And how your fingers get coated just from handling the food. Now, fat isn't "bad" HOWEVER, speaking nutritionally, fats have 2X the calories of protein and carbohydrates. That means that it is really easy to get more calories than you need when eating fried foods. That fried food just holds onto the oil, and you eat it.