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Should I throw out my aluminum cookware?

I am pursuing a science masters and am currently in a cell biology class where we are studying elements. Our teacher advised us to THROW AWAY all aluminum or copper cookware pieces...she believes that glass corningware followed by stainless steel are the best to cook with. She also claims that aluminum and copper are too unstable and will produce free radicals when we heat them. Therefore, cancer down the road...

What do you believe? Should I throw out my aluminum cookware?

Jon Socha
- NY, New York USA
2007

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2007

Hi, Jon. I believe students should be introduced to "the scientific method" by high school at the latest, and that a masters' science course in cell biology should have sufficient rigor that the instructor lacing it with casual apocryphal remarks about the subject matter would be totally out of the question!

But here we have a masters of science program to be guided by toss-away remarks from an instructor, and to be rebutted by chatter from anonymous internet posters? Can't you ask the instructor to make the formal substantiation or refutation of this issue an element of study for the cell biology course?

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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First of two simultaneous responses -- 2007

"Free radicals"? Good Lord.

A free radical is a reactive intermediate that is uncharged, but that has a free, unpaired electron. In aqueous solution, such species are generated by UV irradiation, ozonation, or the decomposition of peroxides. Their half life in such an environment is measured in nanoseconds.

The idea that such species would be generated in cooked food by contact with aluminum or copper metal, and that they would persist in the food after ingestion such that they would cause harm to you runs counter to everything I know. But, Heaven knows, I've been way wrong before. Does your professor have any citation from any reputable journal backing up these assertions? I would be very interested to see one.

However, it may not help your grade to make such inquiries. When dealing with numerous "health experts" in the city of Berkeley, California, I often thought that they should have a bumper sticker that said, "No, no, we didn't mean for you to question OUR authority."

:)

Dave Wichern
Consultant - The Bronx, New York

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

Well said Ted. Also lets suggest the students actually do some science by cooking something up for several hours in an Aluminium (sorry about the spelling) pot, and then analysing for aluminium and these 'free radicals' so they can actually see the effect.
Regards again.

Martin Rich
Ship Repair - Plymouth, UK
2007

About the aluminum cooking pots, I used them for years, but not now. I worked in medical research for many years, and some people I know did some quite good research on this that was accepted in a journal, of chemistry I believe. Their findings are or were that of course like iron pots you do get the metal in your body. It's just whether or not it is harmful. Aluminum, if freshly polished, is more prone to this than the dull, oxidized surface of one that is used over and over and not polished. Cooking acid foods in it was recommended to keep it shiny and white, not a good idea if you want to keep it out of your body. But it is good cookware. As far as I know none of us was effected by it, but there is dementia in a grandmother and an aunt who used these same pots all their married life. Mine was new when I married 50 years ago. It was always advertised with Brillo pads to stay shiny, to cook better, which of course it did. However there is evidence tying it to deposits in the brain, just as calcium is also found there and everywhere else in the body. As far as copper, I think it would be beneficial, as it is a necessary and natural element essential to health. Too much of it leaves a ring in the eyes, but that would be an unusual consumption of it such as someone working in a plant where it is smelted or other unusual situation, sucking on pennies(?) situation.

Daniel Fischerbach
- Ft. Worth, Texas
September 30, 2011

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Hi, Daniel.

Copper is not considered a food-safe material for cooking. While it may be true that it is a nutrient, acidic foods apparently can dissolve enough of it to be problematical. I don't think you will find copper pots or pans that are not lined with something on the food surfaces. Tinning of copper pots is universal even in the 3rd world, and centuries old.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October 4, 2011

P.S. August 2013: latest news is a possible link between Alzheimer's and excess copper consumption.