A Healthy Kitchen

Kitchen products abound in all shapes, sizes, colors, uses and prices. Everyone thinks that health is only within the food they purchase and consume. This is not always true. The products you use to cook or prepare the food can be just as crucial to your health. So what should you or shouldn't you be using? That is a very good question. One quick example is when making or reheating pasta sauces. Tomato sauces are very acidic. You may have heard the term "Non-Reactive". A pan can be reactive or non reactive to food. An aluminum pot or pan is reactive to acid foods. This means that the pasta sauce actually eats away at the surfaces of an aluminum pan it touches. There are trace minerals in the human body. Two of which are aluminum and copper. These trace minerals can become toxic if you consume too much. So using a copper or an aluminum pan is not healthy when preparing tomato sauces. Copper is very toxic to your system and should not be used at all. Copper clad pans are good, but if you see any copper inside the pan from normal wear and tear, then you should stop using it. Copper pans are nice to showcase but not to use. Aluminum pans are good but not with acid foods. The best non-reactive cooking items are stainless steel, Iron, glass or ceramic.

Utensils used in cooking come in a lot of different forms. Metal, wood, plastic and silicone are among the most common. Metal and wood are the healthiest, which leaves the plastic and silicone to be questionable. Plastic combined with heat becomes pliable and can actually begin to melt. Tiny pieces can end up in your food which can become a health issue. Silicone, even though it is supposed to withstand heat has not been tested long enough. Like other plastics it may slowly brake-down over time or give off gasses that are unhealthy. These products are fine to use away from heat, like a whisk, but in my opinion they should not be used directly on hot surfaces.

Getting back to pots and pans, there are a great deal of them that use a non-stick coating called "Teflon". This is a widely used product and is applied to cheap and expensive cookware. The quality of the pan depends on the thickness of the pan and the thickness of the layer of Teflon. You should not use metal utensils on Teflon coated pans. The Teflon layer can be scratched from metal utensils or metal scouring pads. This Teflon can easily find its way into you food.

The Following is part of an article from Wikipedia on Teflon's (PTFE) safety concerns.

"While PTFE is stable and non-toxic, it begins to deteriorate after
the temperature of cookware reaches about 260 °C (500 °F), and
decompose above 350 °C (660 °F). These degradation products can be lethal to birds, and can cause flu-like symptoms in humans.
According to a synopsis of a 1955 study on the Fluoride Action
Network website, the pyrolysis of PTFE begins at 200 °C (392 °F).
Cooking fats, oils, and butter will begin to scorch and smoke at
about 200 °C (392 °F), and meat is usually fried between 200–230 °C
(400–450 °F), but empty cookware can exceed this temperature if left
unattended on a hot burner.
A 1959 study, (conducted before the US Food and Drug Administration
approved the material for use in food processing equipment) showed that
the toxicity of fumes given off by the coated pan on dry heating was
less than that of fumes given off by ordinary cooking oils."

Teflon is finding its way into the blood of many people, see the article titled "Teflon chemicals Found in Humans" in Consumer affairs.com at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/teflon.html.

And now a word about plastics. Microwave ovens can be useful tools in the kitchen. I am not fond of the apparatus myself but I use it. Plastic use in the microwave has become an issue. It seems that most plastics give off toxic gasses when heated. Some plastics are deemed safe for the microwave. But, the lids of these safe plastics may be made of the non safe type. Therefore, we now do not use plastic in the micro. What do we use? Glass dishes and pans, stoneware dishes and ceramics. As long as there is no metal or metal paint on them they will be perfect for microwave use.

What do I like to cook in the microwave? Omelets, I had one this morning. Here's how.

3 eggs scrambled with 2 Tbsp water, this adds fluffiness to the omelet
a slice of onion chopped
piece of leftover meat
cheddar cheese chopped

Place all ingredients in a ceramic dish, I used a 9x9 dish with cover. microwave on 50% power for 5 minutes. check for doneness. microwave as needed on 50% power in 2 minuets intervals until cooked. serve with toast and enjoy.

Be healthy and be warm

Bill