One taste of hot tea in a Styrofoam cup and you know you’re drinking more than tea. Even though the cup looks stable, it’s not. And have you noticed how dried foods stored in plastic bags start to taste like plastic? It’s because food ions react with synthetic or metallic ions.
Avoid adding toxins to your foods. Here are guidelines for choosing—and using—healthy cookware. Quality cookware helps you maintain good health and, in some cases, even enhances flavor. It’s also useful to know which foods most quickly react to plastic storage containers and to aluminum and cast-iron cookware.
There’s good reason why glass and ceramic beakers are used in a chemistry lab where it’s critical that containers don’t taint the experiment. Glass and ceramic are inert or non-reactive.
Before making your next kitchen purchase, consider the reactivity of various tools and cookware and, whenever possible, favor inert or non-reactive. Or, as second choice, use moderately reactive pots and utensils. As possible, avoid more reactive cookware.
Inert, Non-Reactive Cookware — A Superior Choice
Earthenware and ceramic are inert. Additionally, they emit a far-infrared heat, the most effective and beneficial heat for cooking, which enables a full range of subtle flavors to emerge. Excellent for lengthy simmering and baking, these beautiful but breakable items require special handling.
Xtrema has a full line of moderately priced ceramic cookware and bakeware. You may also find casseroles and pie pans from your local potter. Examples of terra cotta earthenware include Spanish cazuelas and Romertopf casseroles. (Note: antique ceramic or earthenware pots may contain lead; do not use without testing. To test for lead, purchase a lead test kit for $10 at a hardware store.)
Enamel is actually a fused glass surface. Le Creuset and Chantal are two quality enamel brands. With proper care, a fine enamel pot lasts a lifetime, whereas inexpensive enamel cookware from variety stores has such a thin enamel layer that it chips easily and is not worth its purchase price. Once chipped, discard enamel kitchenware or enamel fragments will find their way into your food and the underlying metal will react with food. If it’s affordable, favor enamel pots.
Titanium is nonreactive and lightweight but a poor heat conductor. So typically what is labeled titanium cookware is actually aluminum cookware that has a fused ceramic-titanium, nonstick coating. This cookware is expensive, but durable and a healthful, nonreactive choice.
Glass coffee pots and casserole dishes are inert and affordable. Favor glass containers for storing food.
Bamboo steamers and paddles as well as wooden spoons, chopsticks and crockery are non-reactive and modestly priced.
Paper Goods are, in some applications, effective. Line reactive aluminum cookie sheets or muffin tins with parchment paper or paper muffin cups. And for food storage, as is practical, favor waxed or butcher paper over plastic wrap or bags.
Silicone cookware is inert, FDA approved and safe up to 428 degrees F. If heated above its safe range, silicone melts but doesn’t outgas toxic vapors. Silicone is a synthetic rubber now made into baking pans, baking sheets, muffin tins, spatulas, ice cube trays, molds, rolling pins and more. It is the only non-reactive, non-stick material. The advantages of silicone include heat resistance (below 428 degrees), flexibility, the fact that it can go directly from the oven or microwave into the refrigerator or freezer and that it is generally easy to clean.
Moderately Reactive Cookware — A Good Choice
Stainless steel is the least reactive metal, and for many people, the most versatile and healthful cookware option. Of the various weights, heavy-gauge stainless or surgical steel is superior. It makes an acceptable set of basic pots, pans and bake ware. Remove food from metal as soon as it is cooked to minimize the food from developing a metallic taste. Once stainless steel has been scratched, through normal scouring, the leaching of metallic ions is more noticeable. Better yet, don’t scour stainless cookware. When you’ve burned something onto the pot, cover the damage with baking soda or a strong detergent and let it rest for a day. The soda will “lift” off the scoarched food.
Carbon steel is inexpensive and is ideal for a wok or sauté pan because it rapidly conveys heat. To prevent rusting, carbon steel must be thoroughly dry when not in use.
Cast iron pots are good for quick breads, pancakes and crêpes and for sautéing vegetables. Do not, however, cook soups, liquids or acid foods in cast iron, as these foods leach harsh-tasting iron from the pot. Although a soup cooked in cast iron becomes iron-enriched, it’s not a bioavailable form of iron, and is therefore undesirable.
Reactive Cookware — Not Recommended
Nonstick cookware contains plastic polymers (silicon is the one exception). The surface of the original nonstick cookware, Teflon, was coated with the synthetic resin. In newer nonstick pans (such as ScanPan, Caphalon, Swiss Diamond and Circulon) the polymer commingles with the anodized metal surface. If heated to 500 degrees F., the polymers emit noxious fumes that are lethal to parakeets and certainly not healthy for humans.
Even though I never intend to boil a pot dry, I did so just last week. Had that pot been nonstick, its temperatures would have exceeded the safety limit. Nonstick surfaces first appeared in 1944. Prior to that, cooks minimized sticking by using lower temperatures and/or more fat or liquid. It’s doable today. And should something stick, elbow grease removes it. Please avoid all synthetic non-stick pans and utensils.
Aluminum enriches your food with aluminum to the detriment of your health. Cast aluminum is more stable and preferable to thin aluminum pans. Rather than wrapping a baked potato in aluminum foil, consider baking it directly on the oven rack or placing it in a covered casserole dish.
A new anodized aluminum pot is non-reactive and fairly durable. However, once the surface chips, peels or is scratched, it becomes reactive. I, therefore, do not recommend anodized cookware.
Plastic it’s easy to assess the reactivity of plastic in terms of its structure. The more flexible a plastic, the more it is reactive. Thus plastic wrap more quickly exchanges synthetic ions with food than does a flexible milk jug; and the latter is more reactive than a sturdy plastic container. Do not store foods in plastic containers that once contained chemicals. And, it’s not advisable to microwave food in plastic.
Incidentally, the poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) typically found in plastic wrap leaches a hormone-disrupting toxin, DEAH, into the surface layers of food. Additionally, PVC contains phthalates which accumulate in body tissues and damage the liver and lungs. Phthalates damage the reproductive organs of test animals. Note that phthalate migration from plastic wrap is increased by mechanical stress (bending, pressure, chewing), solvents such as fats, oils, saliva, and temperatures over 85° F.
Foods Vary in their Reactivity
Do keep in mind that temperature affects reactivity. When hot, a food reacts more quickly than when it is cold. Thus, refrigeration deters uptake of metal or plastic ions.
Additionally, some foods are more reactive than others. Fat, acidic ingredients and water are more efficient absorbs than are protein and carbohydrates. Thus chicken fat more quickly sops up plastic polymers than does chicken flesh. While raw rice is a slow absorber, when cooked with water, oil, tomatoes and/or vinegar it more speedily uptakes foreign ions. This explains why quality oils, vinegar and wine are sold exclusively in non-reactive glass.
It’s not necessary or expedient to ban all plastic from your kitchen. However, you might explore creative ways to decrease your use of reactive products. An informed consumer is an empowered consumer. May this information serve you in skillfully upgrading and maintaining a healthy kitchen.
May you be well nourished,
Rebecca Wood
Hi Rebecca,
Just to say how I enjoyed reading your 2 articles:
Healthy Cookware and Best to Soak Grains
English is not my mother tongue, so I regard my vocabulary as too poor to exactly describe what I felt, but I’ll try;
most of the materials I knew, since for years I’m into health eating, but you wrote these known things so clearly, lightly and interesting, that i find that even people who are scared of bothering too much about their habits of eating, can enjoy the knowledge through your articles, and come closer to the theme of health living.
So, many thanks! Yigal Fisher
Hi Rebecca
I have a cookshop in cheltenham and am often asked about the health consequences of the various choices available, Most people are aware of the issues around aluminium pans and concerns are now being raised regarding teflon non stick pans. I found your article very interesting and wanted to know what you thought of the new ceramic coated non stick pans that have come onto the market recently, we have started selling a brand called Greenpan and they claim a heat resistance of 425 degrees and use a coating which is said to be natural minerals and is often called thermalon or rocks coating but there is very little information available about these coatings as they are protecting their copyrights
Hi Richard,
I don’t trust manufacturers of inexpensive cookware who claim their product is natural but refuse to reveal their ingredients. That’s a big red flag.
Reports are that these pans have a very thin coating that doesn’t last. My cast enamel pots and enamel on steel pots are still serving me well after decades of use and they withstand temperatures up to 500 degrees.
Good for you and all the retailers who care about the products you offer. Keep it up!
Rebecca
What about baking on/in aluminum pans? Same thing?
Yes, same thing. Foods react with aluminum to “enrich” your food with aluminum–and you don’t want this. Acid foods or wet ingredients react more quickly than do non-acid foods or dry foods like a baked squash. I like the ceramic bakeware available from Ceramcor. Or use glass or stainless steel pans. For some purposes, use your aluminum pan but line it with parchment paper.
Hi Rebecca!
I appreciated your informative article.
My wife and I are shopping for new cookware (as we’re trying to get rid of all the sources of toxin in our lives to optimize health).
You referenced cast enamel pots and enamel on steel pots that you’ve used for years in an earlier reply. Do you have a brand you can recommend? What’s the difference between cast enamel and enamel on steel cookware?
Thanks for your help!
Imagine a heavy cast iron pot and a lighter steel pot; now imagine coating each in a layer of enamel (glass) and you’ll have one cast enamel and one enamel on steel. I favor my enamel on steel pots for quicker heating and/or warm weather cooking whereas I favor my heavier cast enamel pots in colder weather and for long-simmered dishes where I want the finished dish to energetically be more warming.
My now ancient sets of Le Creuset (cast enamel) and Chantal (cast steel) are simply the brands that were available at the time. Today there’s now an excellent line of domestic cast enamel. Shop around.
Great post. Thanks for the information. I am using primarily avocado and macadamia oils in my cooking since they are healthy oils with high smoke points. I need to order more macadamia oil as I am almost out. The oil in glass is not available at this time. I have my choice between buying the macadamia oil in plastic (#1) and cans–I think they’re aluminum. Which is the lesser evil?
Forget the marketing term “high smoke point”. Please don’t heat any oil containing omega 6s above 240 degrees; and if it contains omega 9s not above 325 F.
Re. avocado oil, if unrefined then its high content of chlorophyl makes it unsuitable for any cooking purposes. If refined it is simply not healthful.
Pls. check the oil information in my Encyclopedia for the facts.
What do you think of Saladmaster cookware ? Over priced ? What are lower cost equivalents ? Any Differences in titanium cookware from different manufacturers ?
Thank you in advance
SL
Hi. Thank you for your blog post. I discovered it while I was reasearching a particular product. I am taking a month-long road trip with my 2 children, and all 3 of us have food allergies and must really avoid restaurants. I’m trying to figure out exactly how to do this, and I think an electric skillet would be great! I found one and it says “features a titanium nonstick ceramic coating for easy cleaning.” Do you recommend it?
Titanium is indeed non-reactive and I’ve no direct experience using such cookware. Perhaps someone else will share their experience.
Thank you so much for such an informative site!!!
I was just wondering what you thought of tupperware? they claim no leaching and now I’m a little nervous… also do you recommend to place milk into a glass/ceramic jug instead of keeping in the milk bag? I’m planning to buy new pots and pans! I”ve been clueless about non-stick. I wish you could recommend MORE name brands since i get confused when i read …”stainless steel with lining of aluminum ,heavy gauge, 18/10″ blah blah blah. I just want what is best for my children.
sorry to rant… but am excited about your site and improving how i nourish my kiddies
Sincerely
Giulia
You’re welcome.
As possible favor glass storage items, especially for acidic ingredients as they hasten leaching. The safest plastics for repeated use are made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE, or plastic #2), low-density polyethylene (LDPE, or plastic #4) and polypropylene (PP, or plastic #5).
Avoid plastic #7 which does leach Bisphenol A. Tupperware’s line made from plastic #7 includes: Rock ‘N Serve microwave line, the Meals-in-Minutes Microsteamer, the “Elegant” Serving Line, the TupperCare baby bottle, the Pizza Keep’ N Heat container, and the Table Collection
When using plastic, favor Most
Thank you for the helpful cookware information. Do you have a recommendation about ovens by chance? I’m going to buy a new freestanding range oven and am unsure if there is something I should be looking at from a health standpoint. For instance, chrome racks on the inside- steal or something else? I can’t find anything online about it.
Great post however I am still not clear where the PFOA ban starting in 2015 fits in. I know its still in teflon but is it found in circulon and other products. You got to love a ban for known carcinogens that applies years from now. Really insulting. All to help companies implement change.
I love all of your concise and lightly put knowledge of cookware. I myself have a few(love them) cast enamel pots/pans. I have trouble with cooking eggs in my small pan without them sticking intensely and requiring heavy cleaning(which I do not want to do as I am interested in preserving my cookware). Are eggs a reactive food? Do you have any advice? You seem as though you would know due to working with your own cookware.
Also, I have a very old Le Creuset that has a “hole” in the enamel. It doesn’t seem to break off more than what it’s worn. I still use it as it is only cast iron beneath the enamel. Do you feel this is unwise? I saw that you made a mention of chipped, etc cookware, but this is like a “worn hole”. I can’t bare to get rid of the pot as it is unique and no longer made. Suggestions?
Thanks…
Could you please tell me if Staub Cookware leaches iron. It is a cast iron cookware. Also, they say that there is quartz fired into the finish. Is that safe? Thanks much.
Thank you very much for the information on pots and pans. I purchased a Paderno Terra Pan just last week. It is rather heavy, and features “Exdura non-stick ceramic coating, completely PFOA free, and allows high-heating cooking up to 450F (230C). I followed all the care instructions and used it to cook a vegetables dish right away. When it was washing time, I noticed a mark on the ceramic cooking surface. Although there is a 25 years warranty on the product, burning, boiling dry, scratches, sticking, stains and discoloration are not covered. I am not sure what the condition on my pan is and whether warranty covers this. I could return the product to P.E.I. but it would be a hassle to send the heavy pan in the mail. I asked the customer service to tell me what the metal underneath the ceramic coating is, so as to check if it is still save to use it. I have not yet heard from them.
I just wondered if you have any knowledge about this? Shall I throw out a pan as soon as its coating is chipped or damaged?
Thank you very much.
Gosh, Christine, I don’t know that cookware and so am not sure. I’ve some 100% ceramic cookware which collects minor cooking stains. I’d call Customer Service and demand to speak to a manager.
Hi Rebecca!
Thank you so much for such an amazing and helpful website. Unfortunately, I bought 3 Tefal pans (2frying+1 deep frying with led) from the Specifics line, made in France, lifetime guarantee before I read your recommendations. I wonder if I should return them as they have stamps saying they are safe hard non-stick coating, have No PFOA, No LEAD/PLOMB, No Cadmium and are Health & Enviroment. They’re a bit heavy, one of them has a little scratch outside which I saw after I bough only. Do scratches outside the pans matter too? I am in England and I am new in this. Can you suggest other brands that are safe cooking and not over expensive? Thank you so much. Best,
Speak to the company and demand to know the temperature at which their product degrades. If it’s under 500 degrees, or if the interior scratches, I’d return them.