The post The 10 Most Toxic Items In Your Pantry appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Research has shown that cooking with Teflon-type cookware could expose you to toxic chemicals that might cause cancer. Specifically, PFOA, a chemical linked to cancer, liver disease, and reproductive disorders, was used for decades by DuPont and other companies to make non-stick pots and pans, reports Environmental Working Group. Scientists at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts have found that PFOA is “hazardous at the tiniest doses,” which is why you should avoid it if you possibly can.

What can you cook with instead? Here’s a list of non-stick cookware alternatives, all of which are available in kitchen stores, some grocery stores, big box and department stores, and in our own Big Green Purse store on Amazon.com.

CAST IRON

√ Indestructible

√ Inexpensive

√ Easy to clean

√ Versatile

√ It works!

Once cast iron is properly seasoned (just follow the directions on the label that comes with most pans), you can cook absolutely anything in it, though I wouldn’t use it to boil water.

It’s great for sauteeing, frying, braising, stewing, and cooking something as simple as scrambled eggs.

It works as well on the stovetop as it does in the oven. In fact, if you’re cooking a dish that needs to be browned on the top, you can easily move your cast iron skillet or casserole from the range to the oven broiler without missing a beat.

Clean it with a gentle scrub brush or slightly rough sponge and hot water, then either dry it with a towel, or just put it back on the range for a minute and let the heat evaporate whatever water remains.

If you’re washing out a greasy pan, you only need a little bit of liquid dish soap – you don’t want to wash away the seasoning on the pan that makes it so effective.

Possible Downside: Cast iron is heavy. But I personally like the exercise I get using it and find that other than a 10-qt Dutch oven, it’s never too much to handle.

STAINLESS STEEL

√ Excellent for boiling potatoes, rice, pasta

√ Great for browning and sauteeing meat

√ Can tolerate high heat

√ Can go from range to oven as long as it doesn’t have plastic handles

Downside:  Food can quickly burn if the heat gets too high or the pan gets too dry. Then, the pan can be difficult to scrub clean.

The denser or heavier stainless steel is, the better it will be at conducting heat and the easier it will be to clean. Use liquid soap for most cleaning, and a little baking soda to scrub away stuck food.

STONEWARE, ENAMELED CAST IRON & CERAMICS

√ Good for stews and casserole dishes, or for making a meal in a dish you can both cook and serve in

Downside: Beware ceramic pots that are glazed inside with materials that could contain lead or other toxic chemicals.

Contra Costa (CA) Health Services warns against using traditional glazed terra cotta (clay) dishware from Mexico and other Latin American countries, as it is likely contaminated with lead.

Similarly, the Department of the Environment in Australia warns against using highly decorated traditional dishes from some Asian countries, and antique pots and pans that are heavily decorated.

Enameled cast iron is particularly attractive and can easily go from stovetop to the oven.

GLASS

 √ Terrific for cookware, though primarily available as baking pans, pie pans, and casserole dishes

√ Non-reactive, so food won’t pick up any taste from the glass

√ Affordable

√ Can easily go from the oven to the table, as long as you set it on a potholder or non-metal trivet until it cools down.

Downside: If you put hot glass on a cool metal surface, like the top of a stove range or a metal trivet, it could shatter into a thousand pieces. So use glass—but use it carefully, and pay attention to extreme temperature shifts.

What About Aluminum?

Aluminum cooks a lot like stainless steel, but it’s usually lighter.

Cooking at high heat won’t emit toxic fumes, like Teflon-type pots and pans.

But there is some concern that aluminum can leach into food and potentially have human health problems.

Aluminum is on the “2007 list of top priority toxins in the U.S., a list put out every year by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry,” reports the Livestrong Foundation. Concerns have also been raised about the link between aluminum and Alzheimer’s. Right now the Alzheimer’s Association does not believe that “everyday sources of aluminum pose any threat” to increased Alzheimer’s risk.

One of my biggest complaints about aluminum is that I can often taste it in the food I cook.  I have aluminum 9×13 baking pans that I used to also bake meals like lasagna in. However, I noticed that the lasagna would sometimes pick up an aluminum taste, because the acidic tomato sauce in the lasagna reacted with the aluminum in a corrosive way. The only thing I use my aluminum pans for now is the occasional cake.

What Should You Do With Any Non-Stick Cookware You Have?

If you currently use non-stick cookware and want to get rid of it, don’t donate it to someone else.

Either send it back to the manufacturer, or just throw it away.

If you must continue cooking with it, use it on very low heat and only for boiling water or other tasks that have little chance of burning.

Do not use metal utensils, like spatulas or stirring spoons, as those could scratch the nonstick coating off and into the food you’re cooking.

Sources:

TwoKitchenJunkies.com in The Ultimate Guide to Healthy Cookware

Update on PFOA, Environmental Working Group

The post Non-Stick Cookware Alternatives That Won’t Give You Cancer appeared first on Big Green Purse.

What I Like:

• No Nasty Chemicals – You get “non stick” without the nonsense of PFOA, the nasty chemical that makes Teflon easy to clean but also health threatening.
• Great Cooking – Once cast iron is seasoned (a simple process), it cooks beautifully. I make lots of sticky stuff in my pans, like omelets, sautes, and stir fry. I use just a little bit of oil to lubricate the surface, then gradually heat the pan. It cooks like a dream.
• Easy to Clean – The pan can be cleaned with hot water and the gentle scrub of a kitchen brush. It doesn’t need soap, but if you use it, go light. You don’t want to scrub away the surface seasoning.
• Holds the Heat – If I’m cooking a soup or stew, I can turn the heat completely off ten minutes early and the heat in the pot will keep the ingredients bubbling along. That also makes it a great serving dish. You won’t have to worry about food cooling down immediately once it’s put on the table if you serve it in a cast iron pot. NOTE: If you don’t like the black hue of cast iron, you can pay a little more for enamel covered iron ware that will look very pretty on your table.
• It’s Cheap – Given all its benefits, cast iron pots and pans are very affordable.

What’s Not to Like?

• Cast iron is heavy. You’ll need two hands and a little bit of muscle to lift a full cast iron pot. I’m no body builder and I can manage it, so you probably can, too.
• Don’t Air Dry – To avoid rust you should dry cast iron with a towel, rather than let it air dry. You can also set it on your stovetop, turn on the heat, and let it dry that way.

Product and price comparison:

Lodge is probably the best-known cast iron manufacturer, as well as the cheapest. Several other brands sell enameled cast iron, including Le Creuset. Staub, and Mario Battali Cookware.

Here’s what several consumers had to say about the various enameled cast iron lines available. If you don’t care about the color of the pans, the most economical choice is the plain cast iron from Lodge. Otherwise, shop sales (or ask for the fancier enameled cast iron for a birthday or holiday gift).

NOTE: Scanpan now produces Green Tek, a PFOA-free cookware line it claims is environmentally friendly. This looks promising, but the manufacturer’s claims have no third-party validation, and I haven’t tried it myself yet. Stay tuned.

The post Environmental In-Box: Cast Iron Cookware appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Chances are great that our daughters will pass on to our grandchildren some of the same chemical molecules they inherited from us. The estimated age by which a daughter will purge 99 percent of the inherited chemical varies depending on the chemical. It will take a day to excrete the phthalate plasticizers that soften up cosmetics, paint and plastics, but a year to dump mercury. Our daughters will be at least teenagers but perhaps senior citizens before they’re rid of the common flame retardants and stain-proofing chemicals we pass along. They would be 166 years old before they’re free of their inherited lead.

Meanwhile, their own body burden continues to increase. According to EWG’s test results, chemicals that persist in the body were found at higher levels in mothers than daughters, showing how chemicals can build up in the body over a lifetime. Mothers had an average of 1.5 to 5.2 times more pollution than their daughters for lead, methyl mercury, brominated flame retardants, and the Teflon- and Scotchgard-related perfluorochemicals PFOA and PFOS.

The EWG study, which was done on four mothers and their daughters, found that each of the eight women’s blood or urine was contaminated with an average of 35 consumer product ingredients, including flame retardants, plasticizers, and stain-proof coatings. These mixtures of compounds found in furniture, cosmetics, fabrics, and other consumer goods, have never been tested for safety. The mothers and daughters in this study join 64 other people tested in six EWG biomonitoring programs conducted between 2000 and 2006. In total, EWG biomonitoring has found 455 different pollutants, pesticides, and industrial chemicals in the bodies or cord blood of 72 different people — including 10 newborn babies with an average of 200 chemicals in each child.

“EPA studies show that children from birth to age two are 10 times more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals than adults,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG’s vice president for research. “Scientists have found that chemicals’ toxic effects can be passed down for four generations, by causing permanent genetic changes that can be inherited. A stew of toxic chemicals is not the legacy mothers want to hand down to their children.”

We monitor the pollution in our air, our water, and even our fish. Isn’t it time we started paying attention to the pollution in our bodies?

Related Post: What’s in YOUR body, Mom?

The post A Mother’s Day Question: What Do You Have in Common with Your Daughter…or Your Own Mother? appeared first on Big Green Purse.