Are your pots and pans making you sick?
Your liver plays an important function in helping to detoxify your body. Unfortunately, your liver may become overwhelmed with the amount of toxins that are entering your body, and so it becomes sluggish.
Kitchen utensils can also add to this toxin load. One of the things we can do is to change to “cleaner” cooking utensils. Let’s look at a few suggestions.
Dump your black plastic utensils
Polyamide plastics are often used to make kitchen utensils, such as spatulas and spoons. Unfortunately, polyamide chemicals can migrate into our food during the cooking process.
Nearly one in three black plastic utensils that have been tested, exceeded the upper safety limit [1]. What is more frightening, is that up to about one-third of utensils were found to be contaminated with flame-retardant chemicals [2].
So what is the alternative?
Change to wooden and stainless-steel cooking utensils.
Non-stick pans are a no-go
But what if you have Teflon-coated cookware and need the black plastic utensils to cook with in the pans? To avoid scratching the pan?
Well, here is the issue. Non-stick pans seems great, but unfortunately they are not safe.
Research found that at normal cooking temperatures, the Teflon-coated cookware released various gasses and chemicals – and it presented mild to severe toxicity [3].
Also, the coating itself can degrade over time, and so some of the Teflon can chip off and make its way into your food. Definitely not something you want to eat.
What are your options? Stainless steel, cast-iron and carbon steel pots and pans are all great options.
References:
- Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, ‘Polyamide Kitchen Utensils: Keep Contact with Hot Food as Brief as Possible’, Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, BfR Opinion No. 036/2019, published September 17, 2019. https://mobil.bfr.bund.de/cm/349/polyamide-kitchen-utensils-keep-contact-with-hot-food-as-brief-as-possible.pdf
- J. Kuang, M. A. Abdallah, and S. Harrad, ‘Brominated Flame Retardants in Black Plastic Kitchen Utensils: Concentrations and Human Exposure Implications’, Sci Total Environ 610–611 (2018): 1138–46. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28847134/
- M. Sajid and M. Ilyas, ‘PTFE-Coated Non-stick Cookware and Toxicity Concerns: A Perspective’, Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 24, no. 30 (2017): 23436–40. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28913736/
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