Is anyone else still using an air fryer as their primary grill? I started it for wings and now everything from pizza to steak goes through that thing, but I'm starting to wonder about nutritional differences versus a real charcoal setup -- any of you

Opening thread commentary.

Same here, haven't touched my grill since 2019 and no regrets so

honestly man i'm deep in it with you and don't feel bad about looking at charcoal — there IS a real difference, just maybe smaller than people make out for every-day cooking.

the chemistry is fundamentally different: a real grill has pyrolytic compounds from the wood/charcoal that coat the meat, which gives you that specific flavor profile air fryers can't replicate because they're basically just high-speed convection ovens with a basket. and there are micronutrients in grilled meats that get partially destroyed at those temps — not enough to matter for one dinner but compounding over years if it's your only method forever.

that said, the "nutritional difference" argument gets hyped up by people who

I'm firmly in the air fryer camp and don't plan on leaving, but I get the question. The short answer: nutritionally the difference between a 400F convection oven (what an air fryer is) and a charcoal grill is negligible for most food groups — it comes down to acrylamide formation at high heat and PAHs from fat drippings onto coals, both of which are less pronounced in an air fryer than on a bad open-flame grill.

A few points worth noting though:

• Maillard reaction: The convection fan gives you more uniform browning than a standard oven but not the same char as radiant heat + smoke from fat drippings. You lose some flavor complexity that comes from wood/charcoal combustion, which is why steak in an air fryer won't taste like it came off a Weber.
• PAHs: This is where grilling has real risk — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons form when meat fat drips onto burning