Cooking Addict

We take our pots, pans and other cooking utensils for granted; but are they safe for us to use? The type of cookware you use to prepare your food can have a huge impact on yours and your family’s health.

How They can Affect Your Nutrition

What you use to cook your food can have a huge affect on what goes into your body. There can be minute particles of dangerous substances that can leach into food as it is cooking. The three main substances that are used for cooking utensils are lead, aluminum and iron. Lead and aluminum have been linked to illnesses, and can harm the very young or old.

Aluminum cookware has been deemed fairly safe. It is thought that at least 50% of all cookware is made from aluminum. Researchers have said that the amount of aluminum that leaches into your food is minimal. Ceramic cookware is lead based. Children need to be protected from lead ingestion. Foods that are acidic such as tomatoes, vinegar or oranges will be more likely to cause lead to leach from the cookware. Leads are more likely to leach into hot beverages and soups rather than cold drinks.

You will also need to watch out for ceramic cookware that is labeled as a collectible, antique or a craft. The reasoning behind this is that these cooking utensils may not meet the government standards for safety. You can purchase a kit in order to test levels of lead that may be present in your ceramic cookware, but they may not be able to detect lower levels that can be equally dangerous.

Using cast iron cookware has been proven to increase the amount of the iron in your diet, although there is usually a minute source of iron present. You can feel fairly confident that any cookware bought from a reputable manufacturer will have all the safety guidelines covered to protect you and your family from harmful substances leaching into your food.

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