Turns out (as science directs its analytical glare to every aspect of life) that there’s lots of ways to die. The old fashioned stuff like eaten by a bear, accidents, disease, or dying at war are being overshadowed by what we keep finding out from studies.
Well, yeah, everyone dies, but the idea is not doing stuff to hasten it. And you can do everything from eating better protein, fiber, beans, veggies, fruits, getting exercise etc etc is good, but then “feces occurs” and you’re dead at 45 from something else. What are we supposed to do? Not dying turns out to be a lifelong pursuit.
Now it turns out that something as regular and almost impossible to avoid, as sautéing food (never mind in what material pan) releases carcinogens, and roasting anything from coffee to chocolate to toast, meat, veggies is an acrylamide danger. Death lurks.
Nonstick stuff is a convenience. Professional kitchens use it too. But I never did except for my breakfast cooks…frying eggs when you’ve maybe got 5 different pans going; non stick egg pans are useful. Most big boy kitchens have dish and pot stewards, whereas homes are DIY in that regard, thus convenience is a virtue. What part of life’s necessary stuff do we adjust?
A non stick pan that’s used properly is fine, but if we want to educate users about how not to die from using it, then a little warning on the thing’s tag or packaging might tell folks “don’t super heat it”.
I have one nonstick pan at home. It is still basically in good shape, though there are patches that aren’t. I don’t worry, it’s time to replace it, and I will. Everyone needs to know when its useful lifespan has been reached. Toss it as needed.
Most of my pans are either carbon steel or cast iron. These can be non stick if you form a polymerized surface treatment. Its. It is not a hobby to do it, it’s simply respecting your tools. Do it and you’ll never have to toss it. Thus less waste and rubbish. Takes a minute after cleaning it to refresh the polymer. It’s not difficult. My pots are all stainless steel. Even a SS pan can be made non stick. YouTube informs how.
I think folks ought not worry about their pans.
Cooking food, not purchasing premade stuff is probably the best thing someone can do to live longer. And better. But the rush and the stress and everything that makes life faster works against people being able to take more time for themselves. Modern life is worry and stress filled. Cancer is a disease that’s primarily a fact of living long enough to get it. So much of how industry has changed our environment, and all the various chemicals and processes used by it, and what we breathe, drink, and eat can eventually kill you. How to find peace and calm is probably a better time spent than worrying over your non stick. Especially if you’re over 50…it takes time for stuff like this to kill. What me worry?
Use whatever are your pans and pots to make fresh food. Stop buying crap. That’s your best bet for extending your spell here. Cook simply, eat better, live longer, and then die. I’m sorry if that’s glib; it’s really just natural.
I don’t like Lodge brand cast iron bc it has a coarse grain surface. There are better brands. A pan that has undergone a polishing of the surface is better and easier for making it non stick. Or, just hire a pot washer and don’t worry about sticking stuff crusting on as you cook. Everyone it seems wants to be chef. Somehow that got to be cool. Well, you need staff. :)
Unabaker, I was going to say everything you mentioned above. But I have to add when I was a kid I regularly drank water from the garden hose and 60 years later I am still blessed by God to be healthy. I think stop burning your non stick cookware and stop eating seed oils and processed foods will be some easy ways to keep yourself healthy. :)
I remember the garden hose slurp well. Plus we had public water fountains everywhere. Never thought twice about either. I also recall on a hike in the Virginia country side as a 10 year old cupping my hand to get a drink from a creek running through property. When I lived in Old Snowmass there were streams through my property fed by two different creeks, their water being snow melt from the nearby peaks. I would nvr drink it, but mainly bc I was correctly fearful of beaver, deer and bear pee in the streams…
What you say makes sense, however, please look at the research on PTFE and birds, i.e., the "Teflon and parakeets" story. If heating Teflon causes airborne toxins that can kill household birds, then I don't want to breathe it, either. Unrelated to this, I switched long ago to carbon steel skillets and could not be happier -- they are far lighter weight than cast iron and become truly nonstick with minimal effort.
Ben, the detail that deserves the widest circulation is the 2,500 fold jump in emissions from an empty pan left on high heat. That turns a vague chemical fear into one specific habit anyone can fix tonight. The frying fumes section is the part most readers will not expect, because acrolein and acetaldehyde in kitchen air are a far better documented exposure than anything coming off an intact coating. An extractor that vents outside does more for the lungs than a new set of pans.
Good, common sense guidance, no matter what one about those coating polymers. If the coating begins to look dull, even without minor scratches or peels, it is best to retire the cook ware. All non stick cook ware are made of Aluminium. What is the chemical interaction between Aluminium and the flourinated chemical coatings. Especially under regular heat use conditions. To get into a bit of inorganic coordination chemistry here, those fluorine carrying polymer chains might act as excellent ligands for Aluminium, facilitate Aluminium leaching into the food you are cooking, especially acidic substances like tomato, berries, lemon, other citrus foods, tamarind etc. I am sure I am prompting you to consult an Inorganic chemistry professor immediately.
With our propensity now to look everything under the lens, what about stainless steel cookery ? For example chromium leaching from the foods being constantly cooked under heat in them ? Any thoughts ?
My household gave up pure aluminium cook ware long ago, minimised our collection of non stick to just two pans ( replacing them reasonably frequently), switched to a mix of cast iron, iron and stainless steel wares, with a couple of stone pots and a brass wok coated with tin. Some decades ago, before Alumnium and stainless began swamping our kitchens, tin coated brass ware was very common for all types of cooking needs. Poor mobile artisans who would do fresh tin coatings at your door step was very very common. By turns, keep doing the re coating of tin. It was almost a cultural tradition. That door step service is long gone, slowly there is a part return to such brass ware. Large cook ware shops provide this re coating service. It used to be said that tin coating is good for health. But the hold of stainless steel on the cookware scenario is difficult to shake.
Turns out (as science directs its analytical glare to every aspect of life) that there’s lots of ways to die. The old fashioned stuff like eaten by a bear, accidents, disease, or dying at war are being overshadowed by what we keep finding out from studies.
Well, yeah, everyone dies, but the idea is not doing stuff to hasten it. And you can do everything from eating better protein, fiber, beans, veggies, fruits, getting exercise etc etc is good, but then “feces occurs” and you’re dead at 45 from something else. What are we supposed to do? Not dying turns out to be a lifelong pursuit.
Now it turns out that something as regular and almost impossible to avoid, as sautéing food (never mind in what material pan) releases carcinogens, and roasting anything from coffee to chocolate to toast, meat, veggies is an acrylamide danger. Death lurks.
Nonstick stuff is a convenience. Professional kitchens use it too. But I never did except for my breakfast cooks…frying eggs when you’ve maybe got 5 different pans going; non stick egg pans are useful. Most big boy kitchens have dish and pot stewards, whereas homes are DIY in that regard, thus convenience is a virtue. What part of life’s necessary stuff do we adjust?
A non stick pan that’s used properly is fine, but if we want to educate users about how not to die from using it, then a little warning on the thing’s tag or packaging might tell folks “don’t super heat it”.
I have one nonstick pan at home. It is still basically in good shape, though there are patches that aren’t. I don’t worry, it’s time to replace it, and I will. Everyone needs to know when its useful lifespan has been reached. Toss it as needed.
Most of my pans are either carbon steel or cast iron. These can be non stick if you form a polymerized surface treatment. Its. It is not a hobby to do it, it’s simply respecting your tools. Do it and you’ll never have to toss it. Thus less waste and rubbish. Takes a minute after cleaning it to refresh the polymer. It’s not difficult. My pots are all stainless steel. Even a SS pan can be made non stick. YouTube informs how.
I think folks ought not worry about their pans.
Cooking food, not purchasing premade stuff is probably the best thing someone can do to live longer. And better. But the rush and the stress and everything that makes life faster works against people being able to take more time for themselves. Modern life is worry and stress filled. Cancer is a disease that’s primarily a fact of living long enough to get it. So much of how industry has changed our environment, and all the various chemicals and processes used by it, and what we breathe, drink, and eat can eventually kill you. How to find peace and calm is probably a better time spent than worrying over your non stick. Especially if you’re over 50…it takes time for stuff like this to kill. What me worry?
Use whatever are your pans and pots to make fresh food. Stop buying crap. That’s your best bet for extending your spell here. Cook simply, eat better, live longer, and then die. I’m sorry if that’s glib; it’s really just natural.
I don’t like Lodge brand cast iron bc it has a coarse grain surface. There are better brands. A pan that has undergone a polishing of the surface is better and easier for making it non stick. Or, just hire a pot washer and don’t worry about sticking stuff crusting on as you cook. Everyone it seems wants to be chef. Somehow that got to be cool. Well, you need staff. :)
Unabaker, I was going to say everything you mentioned above. But I have to add when I was a kid I regularly drank water from the garden hose and 60 years later I am still blessed by God to be healthy. I think stop burning your non stick cookware and stop eating seed oils and processed foods will be some easy ways to keep yourself healthy. :)
I remember the garden hose slurp well. Plus we had public water fountains everywhere. Never thought twice about either. I also recall on a hike in the Virginia country side as a 10 year old cupping my hand to get a drink from a creek running through property. When I lived in Old Snowmass there were streams through my property fed by two different creeks, their water being snow melt from the nearby peaks. I would nvr drink it, but mainly bc I was correctly fearful of beaver, deer and bear pee in the streams…
What you say makes sense, however, please look at the research on PTFE and birds, i.e., the "Teflon and parakeets" story. If heating Teflon causes airborne toxins that can kill household birds, then I don't want to breathe it, either. Unrelated to this, I switched long ago to carbon steel skillets and could not be happier -- they are far lighter weight than cast iron and become truly nonstick with minimal effort.
Ben, the detail that deserves the widest circulation is the 2,500 fold jump in emissions from an empty pan left on high heat. That turns a vague chemical fear into one specific habit anyone can fix tonight. The frying fumes section is the part most readers will not expect, because acrolein and acetaldehyde in kitchen air are a far better documented exposure than anything coming off an intact coating. An extractor that vents outside does more for the lungs than a new set of pans.
DRrTom Kane
Good, common sense guidance, no matter what one about those coating polymers. If the coating begins to look dull, even without minor scratches or peels, it is best to retire the cook ware. All non stick cook ware are made of Aluminium. What is the chemical interaction between Aluminium and the flourinated chemical coatings. Especially under regular heat use conditions. To get into a bit of inorganic coordination chemistry here, those fluorine carrying polymer chains might act as excellent ligands for Aluminium, facilitate Aluminium leaching into the food you are cooking, especially acidic substances like tomato, berries, lemon, other citrus foods, tamarind etc. I am sure I am prompting you to consult an Inorganic chemistry professor immediately.
With our propensity now to look everything under the lens, what about stainless steel cookery ? For example chromium leaching from the foods being constantly cooked under heat in them ? Any thoughts ?
My household gave up pure aluminium cook ware long ago, minimised our collection of non stick to just two pans ( replacing them reasonably frequently), switched to a mix of cast iron, iron and stainless steel wares, with a couple of stone pots and a brass wok coated with tin. Some decades ago, before Alumnium and stainless began swamping our kitchens, tin coated brass ware was very common for all types of cooking needs. Poor mobile artisans who would do fresh tin coatings at your door step was very very common. By turns, keep doing the re coating of tin. It was almost a cultural tradition. That door step service is long gone, slowly there is a part return to such brass ware. Large cook ware shops provide this re coating service. It used to be said that tin coating is good for health. But the hold of stainless steel on the cookware scenario is difficult to shake.