Is fried food bad for you?

I keep hearing "fried food is bad, you should stew it instead." Both of my parents believe it, and it is a common enough perception among the older generations.

I always argued that the only reason it is considered bad is, the amount of fat you introduce because you need the grease.  In response I heard a variety of things from the crust that forms on the food being unhealthy to... Oh well, I don't even remember any more.  It didn't make that much sense anyway.

OK, I am with you on french fries and any other junk food notorious for using hydrogenated oils in the frying process.  Another reason, frying is bad has to do with Omega 6/Omega 3 ratios.  Vegetable oils are mostly Omega 6.  The AMA recommends staying at 4:1. Lower is better.  Corn oil is 40:1.  How do you like that??

There is a much more important reason to avoid improperly fried foods.  I found a great answer at, of all places, Yahoo Answers!  What do you know?  :-)

Oils contains unsaturated fatty acids. You see, the normal form of the double bond of this fatty acids is on the "cis" form. When altered (e.g. :due to high temperature when cooking) , it undergoes isomerism and change into "trans" form. This form of fatty acid is due to catalytic hydrogenation of oils. These are found in food such as cookies, candies, and fried foods (espcially french fries). When ingested by humans, "trans" fatty acids do not accumulate in our body, thus it circualtes all through out in the blood and can be vulnerable to lipid peroxidation. 

Lipid peroxidation can cause free radicals which are harmful to our cells. These free-radicals can damage our tissues, which may cause cancer, inflammatory diseases, atherosclerosis, aging, and other cardiovascualr diseases. 

That's why it is advisable to use oils w/ high saturated fatty acids when cooking because it contains less double bonds, thus less conversion of "cis" to :trans" fatty acid double bonds. Furthermore, once you have already used the oil in frying or cooking, you should already disregard it and use another if trying to cook another set of food.

So, it's not just the evil food companies that create trans-fats!  You are doing the deed right there in your kitchen!  Now you know.  When frying use ghee, coconut oil, butter or another source of animal fat.  (I advise against using butter at high heat as it burns really easily due to the solids present in it, which are removed by the process of clarifying it and creating ghee.)