A few weeks ago my wife called me concerned about something she’d heard at work. She said that they’d had a seminar on how the statistics on overweight Americans are the worst they’ve ever been, and that we needed to act now to protect our future and our children’s future.

For me the seminar sounded kind of preachery, but this probably comes from my own denial of the severity of the problem. It certainly did highlight some important issues. America is fat. Let’s face it.

They also introduced several easy methods each person can use to reduce their waistline without dieting to ultimately improve their overall health. One of the recommendations was a super simple thing that we can start doing straight away. It was replacing the deep fryer that we currently use (don’t judge us! Everyone in the South has one) with an air fryer.

If you haven’t heard of air fryers, where have you been!? These machines are pretty awesome and most only require a tablespoon of oil (and sometimes none at all!) to fry food. Do you need an air fryer? Well, as far as your health is concerned (no matter how old you are), you should definitely go and get one. Here are some of the amazing features of an air fryer that you can benefit from:

• Air fryers help in reducing the amount of oil by up to 70%
• Temperature goes up quickly — you don’t have to wait too long for it to warm up.
• Timing can be monitored and controlled
• Most (or all) air fryers have an automatic shut-off
• Easy and no-mess cleanup!

Everyone can benefit from using the air fryer, including:

• The weight-watchers – I think the weight-watchers are the air fryer’s biggest market! People who are particularly concerned about their weight will be happy to use the air fryer. It uses a minimum amount of oil but the food that it cooks still comes out tasty and delicious. They will definitely include the air fryer as part of their healthy lifestyle.
• The busy working moms – Working moms are too occupied to spend more of their time in the kitchen. With an air fryer, they don’t have to bother with putting on the lard before cooking, and cleaning off the grease after using it (as they do to ordinary pans and deep fryers).
• The young people – Promote a healthy lifestyle to your younger children and teens early on by introducing oil-free and guilt-free dishes. Using the air fryer will make your kids’ favorite fried chicken and French fries extra yummy, without the extra grease. Plus, they will find this appliance pretty cool!
• College students and singles – The air fryer is so convenient to use that any single men and women can do it in preparing smaller portions of meals.
• The elderly – Aside from cooking fat-free food that is beneficial to their health, the air fryer is also easy to use with no complicated buttons or switches. Plus, like I said before, most air fryers have an automatic shut-off — so in case our senior folks forget to turn it off, no problem! Their food won’t end up over-cooked or burnt. They will have no trouble cooking their classic kitchen favorites with the air fryer!

It has now been a week that we have been using our air fryer, and I have to say, it has certainly made a difference. I do feel lighter and more energetic although this could also be the rush of buying a new appliance (we all know how much I enjoy that). Honestly, the food does not taste too much different from what we are used to, and in some ways it tastes even better. We had become accustomed to wiping dripping oil off of our food and using napkins to clean up the mess which certainly wasn’t fun.

It also makes me feel better that Isaac isn’t going to grow up consuming the same amount of oil as we did. This is something I worried about when he was born. I think it’s the hardest thing in the world to change the human mind, particularly as we get older, so I’m happy that we are introducing some healthy habits early on.