What exactly does the process of frying a food break down to make it unhealthy? Does the opposite happen to unhealthy foods when fried (i.e. an Oreo)?
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Frying isn’t inherently unhealthy nor does it make the food unhealthy.
I think we are getting to an extreme point of blame shifting. Healthiness and unhealthiness has got to do as much with the subject (ie who is consuming it) as it does with the object (what is consumed). The “healthiest” food is not healthy if consumed in large amounts frequently. Even “unhealthy” foods introduce few issues if eaten in reasonable amounts when the person eating it is active and exercises.
Having said that
a) Frying is a high temperature process. Done incorrectly, it can break down certain materials into harmful byproducts. The obvious one being that it can burn food. Whereas cooking can increase the digestibility of foods (cooked rice is more digestible than raw rice), it can also chemically change the property of certain foods to make it less digestible and nutritious. For example, certain vitamins are destroyed at high temperatures.
b) Frying is typically defined as cooking in high temperature oil. Oil itself contains nutritional product, mainly fat. Even done properly, frying introduces more fat into the food. Whether this is healthy depends a lot on the total dietary consumption.
Frying oreos isn’t likely to make it more healthy. Starting with a calorie dense, high sugar, high fat food and adding more calories and fat isn’t going to improve its nutritional content.
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