Most of us are pretty
confident when it comes to identifying the types of food that we should eat and
the types of food that we should avoid, yet despite our best efforts to
maintain a wholesome lifestyle, there always seems to be something in our
environment that is working against us. The
tide of human modernity has inevitably drifted towards a convenience-based
existence. This, in turn, has given rise to a unique scenario in which our
bodies are now languishing under the heavy burden of toxic compounds that we
absorb from various sources each day. Unfortunately, one of these sources in
most twenty-first century households is cookware.
The Inconvenient Truth About Convenient Cookware
Out of all the different
types of cookware available today, the most commonly used is PTFE-coated
"non-stick" cookware which is also sometimes referred to as Teflon
cookware. The most obvious benefit of this equipment is that it provides the
capacity to cook any meal without the likelihood of having to scrape burnt
remains off it afterward - an attractive proposition for convenience-minded
consumers. In 2014, U.S. retail sales of non-stick cookware amounted to around 1.45 billion USD. With the average piece of
non-stick cookware costing between $10-20 USD on Amazon.com, that figure boils
down to somewhere between 70 - 150 million pieces of non-stick cookware being
sold into American homes during 2014 alone. Extrapolate this data over a few
decades, and you end up with a tremendous number of conventional non-stick
cookware items in use across the United States.
So what's the issue with using
non-stick cookware and why should it matter to you?
Nasty Little Abbreviations
Fluropolymers such as
polytetrafluoroetheylene (PTFE) and substances containing polyfluoroalkyl and
perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAs) are commonly used to create conventional
non-stick cooking surfaces. These materials are extremely toxic and highly
resilient, both in relation to their interaction with the human body and also
the wider environment. These compounds contain fluorinated chemicals which give
rise to that slippery surface that we all enjoy cooking on. When exposed to
heat, most non-stick cookware becomes a source of perfluorooctanoic acid
(PFOA), which is a long-chain chemical compound that has been linked to a frightening range of health problems including thyroid disease,
infertility in women, organ damage and developmental and reproductive problems.
Interestingly, the US
Environmental Protection Agency has also declared
perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) to be "likely carcinogens", yet
despite the warnings, these chemicals are still used in a wide array of
household products. A study conducted by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered that
roughly 98% of Americans now have traces of PFA’s or PFC's in their bodies.
Simple Solutions
There's clearly no
argument as to whether conventional non-stick cookware has a negative impact on
human health, so with that in mind, what are the alternatives?
1. Ceramic
Ceramic cookware is
gaining popularity fast thanks to its ability to create a non-stick cooking
surface while containing no traces of PTFE or PFOA. Brands such as Neoflam are using
the most advanced ceramic technology to produce durable and heat efficient
non-stick coatings that are safer and more environmentally friendly than
conventional non-stick cookware.
2. Cast Iron
Cast iron is extremely
rugged, easy to clean, and if properly seasoned, it's also
"non-stick" (minus the toxic cocktail of chemical compounds). Cooking
with cast iron is a great way to experience many of the benefits that come with
using non-stick cookware while also minimizing your exposure to harmful
substances.
3. Heatproof Glass
Glass isn't the most
dynamic cooking material and it's somewhat limited in the styles of cooking
that it can accommodate, however, for oven baked dishes there aren't many
materials more safe and affordable than heatproof glass. When choosing
glassware for cooking, be sure to check that the glass is heatproof and of high
quality construction. Pyrex has
a great range of kitchen glassware for all sorts of different applications,
including cooking.
4. Stone wear
Similar to ceramic,
stonewear cooking equipment is a non-toxic alternative that usually involves a
combination of crushed stone and a PTFE-free coating in order to achieve
similar results to those of typical non-stick cookware.
5. Stainless Steel
Tried and tested, stainless
steel is one of the safest cookware materials in existence and is an excellent
non-stick alternative for many forms of cooking. It's worth noting that using
frying pans and skillets that are made from stainless steel will sometimes
result in ingredients sticking to the surface of the cookware when exposed to
high temperatures. However, if you use ample amounts of a high quality cooking
oil, you shouldn't have too much of a problem.
Article courtesy of
food matters http://www.foodmatters.com/article/is-your-cookware-safe
Further reading
references https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/PFCs_FactSheet.html
No comments:
Post a Comment