How your air fryer can be as good as Ozempic: It's a weight-loss miracle if you know how... DR SARAH SCHENKER shows you

Wander around any family kitchen these days and you’re likely to see an air fryer. Research shows that almost half of UK households (around 51 per cent) now own one and, in the space of just a few years, they have become the third most used kitchen appliance behind toasters and microwaves.

Most are bought in the belief that air frying is healthier way of cooking. But the vast majority of owners use them as a super-speedy way to get frozen chicken nuggets or fishfingers from freezer to table, pimp-up normally soggy oven chips or re-heat a pizza.

Clearly there’s nothing very healthy about that. But there is another way. When used wisely, your air fryer can help you eat well, feel better and lose weight. Indeed, with newly-announced rules making it harder to get your hands on so-called fat jabs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic – all new prescriptions now have to be verified by a doctor or pharmacist – your air fryer could be just the miracle gadget you need.

As a dietitian, I have been diligently experimenting with my air fryer to tease out every possible way its technologically-advanced features can be used to boost nutritional intake – and help my clients shift excess weight. What I’ve discovered is that an air fryer not only helps you reduce your fat intake but can also limit portion creep, boost your intake of nutrient-packed vegetables and increase your inclination to cook from scratch.

Dr Sarah Schenker has been experimenting with her air fryer to tease out every possible way its technologically-advanced features can be used to boost nutritional intake – and help her clients shift excess weight. Best of all, its speedy efficiencies make it possible to have a healthy, low-calorie meal on the table so quickly at the end of the day you just won’t have time – or the inclination – to pour yourself a gin and tonic and open a packet of crisps.

Making the best possible use of the air fryer features, I have created a nutritionally balanced diet plan that will expand your meal repertoire, boost your health and keep you feeling fuller for longer. And that, as we all know, is the key to weight loss . . .

Despite the name, there’s no actual ‘frying’ going on in an air fryer. Instead, food is cooked by a powerful hot air fan which picks up microscopic fat particles and carries them around, evenly dispersing a fine layer of hot fat on the food. That’s how the gadget is able to achieve the sort of crispiness you might expect from a deep-fat fryer but with a fraction of the oil.

And that’s how it can revolutionise the way you eat. Air-fried food absorbs less oil than if it is pan-fried or deep-fried and any fats in meat will usually drain off, which means you can easily produce very similar (if not better) tasting ‘fried’ delights with as much as 80 per cent fewer calories.

This is great news for all of us, regardless of whether you’re on a weight-loss mission or not, because regularly cooking with fatty oils has been linked to a host of different health conditions including obesity, coronary heart disease and various types of cancer.

The combination of the small oven space (which heats up very quickly) and the powerful fan blowing hot air all around the food means everything cooks quickly. In fact, much of the air fryer’s popularity undoubtedly lies in the way it can take food straight from the freezer to crispy deliciousness in minutes.

This rapid action definitely works in your favour if you are trying to lose weight because, as my recipe experimentation shows, you can whip up a healthy meal in less than the time it might take to order a takeaway and wait for it to arrive. Better still, if you’re counting the calories, you will be so busy marvelling at how quickly your food is cooking, there’s much less time (or inclination) to crack open a bottle of wine while you wait.

What’s more, when you cook using the air fryer you are naturally limited by the size of the tray. There are plenty of studies that show that one reason for the steady rise in obesity levels worldwide is that we are all eating so much more than we used to. Plates, bowls and glasses are bigger and portion sizes have gone crazy. But you can’t eat what you can’t fit into the fryer.

One factor that really excites me, however, is the research that shows how the air-frying process locks nutrients into food. It helps preserve vitamin C, for instance, which is useful for supporting healthy skin and immunity. It doesn’t nuke polyphenols like other cooking methods might – and these protective plant compounds have been shown to help improve blood pressure, insulin resistance and cardiovascular health.

That little spray of oil also helps boost the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients in many plant foods, such as vitamins A and E. This is the real jewel in the gadget’s crown. Sometimes vegetables can seem so dull but the air fryer will bring them to life with a spritz of oil and a little soy sauce or lemon juice – and you will never look back.