[Health Knowledge] Attention! This item in the kitchen is more harmful than gutter oil! It poses the greatest risk to women! Pay close attention!

Air pollution is a topic that many people are concerned about, as it is closely related to the health of our lungs.

However, while we are closely monitoring the outdoor air quality every day, there is a loophole in indoor air pollution called kitchen fumes.

Kitchen fumes are almost present in every Chinese household, but many people do not pay attention to them.

So, how "toxic" are kitchen fumes? Some people call them "as harmful as gutter oil"!

It is understood that cooking oil fumes produced at high temperatures may contain over 200 harmful substances, which have a significant impact on the respiratory system.

In addition, the latest national cancer report for 2018 released by the National Cancer Center in China also revealed a puzzling phenomenon: the proportion of non-smoking women diagnosed with lung cancer is rapidly increasing!

Experts speculate that this may be related to Chinese women's long-term exposure to kitchen fumes.

In this regard, the Shanghai Tongji University Cancer Institute has found in a study that more than 60% of non-smoking women are exposed to kitchen fumes for a long time; 32% of women like to use high-temperature oil for frying food, while keeping the kitchen door and windows closed or poorly ventilated.

Furthermore, a relevant study was published in the prestigious international academic journal Lung Cancer, which found that cooking oil fumes increase the risk of lung cancer in non-smoking women by 3.79 times.

Not only that, but oil fumes attached to the skin can affect the skin's normal breathing, leading to loose and rough skin over time.

How to reduce oil fumes:

Choose the right oil

When stir-frying, try to avoid using oil that has been repeatedly deep-fried.

Some people reuse the oil used to fry fish or ribs in order to save oil, without discarding it. However, they do not realize that it contains many carcinogens.

In addition, do not use coarse or unrefined oil, as unrefined oil and leftover oil contain more impurities and have a lower smoke point, releasing more oil fumes when cooking.

Low-temperature stir-frying

In general, when vegetable oil is heated to over 270°C, it produces carcinogenic substances.

The commonly used sunflower seed oil smokes at 107°C, olive oil smokes at 190°C, and peanut oil smokes at 160°C. It can be seen that the temperatures at which these oils start to smoke do not exceed 270°C.

In other words, if you can avoid smoke when cooking, you can effectively avoid the harm caused by oil fumes.

In addition, when frying food, you can also measure the temperature of the oil by observing the color and bubbling of the food. If the food starts bubbling and smoking quickly, turning brownish-yellow, it indicates that the oil temperature is too high.

Use a thick-bottomed pan

Choose a thick-bottomed frying pan, as it has slower heat transfer, which prolongs the time it takes for the oil temperature to rise and reduces the production of oil fumes. A thin-bottomed pan, on the other hand, produces a large amount of oil fumes because the oil temperature rises too quickly.

Steam and boil more

In terms of cooking methods, try to steam, boil, stew, and cold mix instead of stir-frying, grilling, and deep-frying to reduce the production of oil fumes.

Even if you need to stir-fry, try to use less oil and rely on the natural fats of the ingredients for cooking, as it is the best choice.

How to remove oil fumes:

If the generation of oil fumes is unavoidable, choosing a powerful range hood is also a protective measure.

However, even if you have a range hood, it will be useless if you use it incorrectly!

So, how do you use a range hood correctly? Let's take a look to see if you are doing it right~

Open the windows

When using a range hood on a regular day, if you don't close the kitchen windows and door, the indoor air will circulate, making it difficult for the range hood to effectively remove the oil fumes in the kitchen, and the oil fumes may also spread to other rooms.

If you close all the windows and doors, the kitchen will become a negative pressure area, and the suction power of the range hood will decrease while the noise increases.

Therefore, it is recommended to keep the kitchen door closed when the range hood is working, but leave a small opening in the window to ensure normal air flow. This will allow the range hood to work better.

Turn it on early and turn it off late

Turn on the range hood before using the stove, and continue to let it run for 5 minutes after cooking to ensure that the unburned exhaust gas and oil fumes are fully sucked away.

Don't install it too high

When using a top-suction or side-suction range hood, it should be installed horizontally above the stove.

Considering the operation and smoke extraction effect, the distance between the top-suction range hood and the stove is generally around 70cm, while the bottom distance of the side-suction range hood can be closer, usually recommended around 40cm.

In general, if you can't smell the cooking odor when you are one meter away from the stove after turning on the range hood, it means that the range hood in your home is working effectively.