Here's how your fried chicken can help save the planet

Find Your Forecast Search for a location

Cheryl Santa Maria

Digital Reporter

Thursday, November 23, 2017, 5:35 PM - If you ever feel guilty about indulging in fatty foods, consider this: You might be helping to curb climate change, albeit in a small way.

No, really.

A new study published in the journal Nature suggests the fatty acids released into the air from deep fat friers help form clouds that cool the environment.

"Cooking fats in the atmosphere may affect climate more than previously thought," researchers from the UK's University of Reading, one of the universities involved in the study, says in a statement.

"Scientists demonstrated for the first time that fatty acid molecules emitted during cooking can spontaneously form complex 3-D structures in atmospheric aerosol droplets."

Researchers say the fatty acid molecules persist longer, allowing them to travel farther in the atmosphere and assist with seed cloud formation.

Still, scientists are quick to point out cooking fatty foods isn't the way to save the planet.

"I'm not saying we should cook more meat to solve global warming, because obviously (there are) other implications of meat cooking that might have a negative impact," lead author Dr. Christian Pfrang of the University of Reading says via CNN.

"Deep frying obviously has many implications, and it is very likely that the negative impact on human health from high-fat foods vastly outweighs any potential benefit these fatty acids may have on cloud formation and cooling."

Dr. Pfrang stresses the results spring from laboratory testing and further, real-life research is required.

"It looks as if certain molecules can survive much longer in the atmosphere than previously thought," Dr. Pfrang said.

"So it's urgently needed that more research is done in this area."

Sources: CNN | Nature

VIDEO: HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER DEEP-FRY A TURKEY:



