It seems that fried food not only interferes with keeping our bodies fit but it also has an effect on the weather. Scientists have discovered that when we cook there are droplets of cooking fat released into the air and they form into structures that will attract moisture and will produce clouds.
In London, 10% of the particles from the air are cooking fat and this would have a big impact on the weather that we all know it already is pretty rainy.
Cooking Fat is Not so Bad – At Least Not to the Weather
At the universities of Reading, Bristol and Bath, it seems that the chemists reached and interesting conclusion. Global warming might be slowed down with the cloud formation from cooking fat, so if the effect persists, it might cool off the planet.
At the University of Reading, Dr. Christian Pfrang, Associate Professor of Physical and Atmospheric Chemistry, has said that he believes cooking fat might have an ‘impact on cloud formation.’
Dr. Christian Pfrang also stated that ‘these structures have a significant effect on water uptake of droplets in the atmosphere, increase lifetimes of reactive molecules and generally slow down transport inside these droplets’. While he says that cooking fat might be benefic for the weather, he doesn’t encourage unhealthy food consumption either.
The structure of the cooking fat in the atmosphere works like a sponge and keeps droplets of water longer in the atmosphere, increasing the chance of creating clouds. So far, the researchers have only conducted experiments in a lab and they’re aiming at conducting some of their experiments in an open environment and see how the droplets react.
Associate Professor of Biophysics and Materials at the University of Bath, Dr. Squires also said that they know that this structure is similar to other fatty acid molecules (soap in water, for example). But they want to see what actually happens ‘in the air above our heads’ and to understand what ‘cooking fats are really doing to the world around us.’
