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from Natural Life Magazine, November/December
2001 What kind of pots and pans live in your kitchen cupboards? Ideally, your cooking utensils should be made of an inert substance that does not peel, chip, crack, craze, vaporize, dissolve or harbor bacteria. Plus, it should be a good conductor of heat in order to cook food uniformly, and it should be easy to clean thoroughly. And it would be great if it was also aesthetically attractive! There are many types of cookware available, but no one substance seems to fit those ideal criteria. Take aluminum, for example. It’s a great heat conductor, lightweight, inexpensive and easy to clean. However, some aluminum is dissolved into food when you are cooking acidic foods like fruits and tomatoes or anything containing vinegar. Even if there is little risk from exposure to the levels of aluminum released into food from cooking, we are exposed to aluminum cumulatively from many other environmental sources. In addition, salty water or food can pit aluminum cookware, making older pots a possible source of trace amounts of substances like arsenic and fluorides. An alternative is aluminum or steel coated with porcelain-enamel. As long as the coating remains in good condition, the surface of these pots is durable, with no metal leaching into the food. Good quality cookware will have an extremely hard finish that is fused to the metal and won’t scratch, rust, fade or peel. However, some lower-priced cookware, which resembles porcelain-enamel, has an easily-damaged baked enamel finish. Ironware may be a good choice for some cooks, although cast iron is heavy and takes a great deal of care to prevent rusting. Cast iron cookware releases some iron into food – one of the few instances where metal leaching into food from cooking utensils is considered desirable. Although the iron is not easily absorbed by the body, it interacts with foods and provides some beneficial dietary iron. Iron saves energy, since it retains heat after the element is turned off. Many health-conscious people swear by stainless steel cookware. But while stainless steel is relatively inert compared to other metals, the metals present in the alloy can be released into food in extremely low quantities. These metals can include nickel, molybdenum, titanium, aluminum and carbon steel. Researchers differ on the health effects of these metals leaching from stainless cookware. Most say that while these quantities are not hazardous to the average person, they may affect those with sensitivities. A 1995 study found that stainless steel pans contributed markedly to the levels of nickel in cooked food. In contrast, another study, also released in 1995, found only minor increases in nickel concentrations in acid foodstuffs when new stainless steel pans were used. Aside from the slim possibility of leaching metals, new research suggests that copper may be a better choice for cookware than stainless steel. According to a team of researchers from the University of Southampton in England, using copper pots may lower the risk of infection from potentially deadly bacteria such as E. coli 0157. “Stainless steel is used throughout the world because of its perceived hygienic properties...But a closer look reveals scratches and marks that, on a microscopic scale, are more like valleys. It is very easy for pathogens to get into these crevices, and rubbing a cloth or brush across the surface may not be sufficient to get them out,” says Bill Keevil, the microbiologist who headed up the study. Keevil and his team found that, at room temperature, E. coli 0157 survived for 34 days on stainless steel and only four hours on copper. Some health experts, however, warn of high levels of cooper leaching that can occur when acidic foods are prepared in copper utensils, which can cause chemical toxicity and illness. Copper is both a toxic heavy metal and a mineral that is essential to good health. Symptoms of copper toxicity include trouble concentrating, tender calf muscles, unexplained nausea, irritability, hyperactivity, constant fatigue, and chronic joint pain. Scientists and nutritionists agree that most diets contain enough copper to prevent a deficiency and not enough to cause toxicity. The capacity of healthy human livers to excrete copper is considerable and few cases of chronic copper poisoning have been reported. Whatever your choice of cookware, keep it scrubbed scrupulously clean with soap and water, do not use harsh scouring pads or cleaners, and follow manufacturers’ care instructions. New pots are definitely better than old ones, with the possible exception of cast iron. And finally, if in doubt about whether or not to use it for cooking, plant flowers in that lovely looking pot with which you can’t bear to part! Wendy Priesnitz is the Editor of Natural Life Magazine and a journalist with 30 years of experience. She has also authored nine books. Read her blog. |
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