|
|
The following information found at Health Canada
The Issue
Pots, pans and other cookware are made from a variety of materials. These materials can enter the food that we cook in them. Most of the time, this is harmless. However, care should be taken with some materials.
Background
Most of the cookware in Canada is safe to use for daily meal preparation, as long as you maintain it well and use it as intended. However, there are some potential risks in some cookware materials.
Benefits and Risks of Cookware Materials
Aluminum
Aluminum is lightweight, conducts heat well and is fairly inexpensive, making it a popular choice for cooking.
Canadians normally take in about 10 milligrams of aluminum daily, mostly from food. Aluminum pots and pans provide only one or two milligrams of the total. While aluminum has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease, there is no definite link proven. The World Health Organization estimates that adults can consume more than 50 milligrams of aluminum daily without harm.
During cooking, aluminum dissolves most easily from worn or pitted pots and pans. The longer food is cooked or stored in aluminum, the greater the amount that gets into food. Leafy vegetables and acidic foods, such as tomatoes and citrus products, absorb the most aluminum.
Anodized Aluminum Cookware
When aluminum is placed in an acid solution and exposed to an electric current, a layer of aluminum oxide is deposited on the surface of the aluminum. This process is called anodization.
Anodized aluminum cookware conducts heat as well as ordinary aluminum, but has a hard, non- stick surface which makes it scratch-resistant, durable, and easy to clean. Anodization also reduces leaching of aluminum from cookware into foods, particularly acidic foods like tomatoes and rhubarb.
Copper
Copper conducts heat well, making it easy to control cooking temperatures. Brass, made from copper and zinc, is less commonly used for cookware.
Small amounts of copper are good for everyday health. However, large amounts in a single dose or over a short period can be poisonous. It is not certain how much can be safely taken each day.
Because of this, copper and brass pans sold in Canada are coated with another metal that prevents the copper from coming into contact with food. Small amounts of the coating can be dissolved by food, especially acidic food, when cooked or stored for long periods.
Coated copper cookware can lose its protective layer if scoured.
In the past, tin and nickel were sometimes used in coating copper cookware. Such cookware should be used for decorative purposes only. Anyone allergic to nickel should particularly avoid nickel-coated cookware.
Stainless Steel and Iron Cookware
Stainless steel, made from iron and other metals, is strong and resists wear and tear. It is inexpensive, long-lasting and the most popular cookware in North America. The metals used in stainless steel or iron cookware which may produce health effects are iron, nickel and chromium.
Iron is essential to produce red blood cells. Large amounts can be poisonous, but in North America, we are more likely to lack iron than have too much. Iron cookware provides less than 20% of total daily iron intake – well within safe levels.
Nickel is not poisonous in small quantities but it can provoke a reaction in people allergic to nickel. The average adult consumes between 150 to 250 micrograms of nickel per day. Using corrosion-resistant nickelcontaining stainless steel cookware, even for cooking acidic foods such as rhubarb, apricots or tomatoes, will not add significant amounts of nickel to the diet.
Small doses of chromium, like iron, are good for your health, but they can be harmful in higher amounts. The safe intake range is about 50 to 200 micrograms per day, what most Canadians take in. One meal prepared with stainless steel equipment gives you about 45 micrograms of chromium, not enough to cause concern.
Ceramic, Enamel and Glass
Ceramic (pottery), enamel or glass cookware is easily cleaned and can be heated to fairly high temperatures. Ceramic cookware is glazed; similar glazes are applied to metals to make enamelware. These glazes, a form of glass, resist wear and corrosion.
The only health concern about using glassware or enamelware comes from minor components used in making, glazing, or decorating them, such as pigments, lead, or cadmium. These materials are harmful when taken into the body, so the risk of them entering food is controlled during the manufacturing process.
In Canada, glazed ceramics and glassware are regulated and cookware made of these materials can not be sold, advertised or imported if it releases more than trace amounts of lead and cadmium. Products having greater than the allowable levels of lead and cadmium must be identified by a label indicating the presence of lead and/or cadmium, or by a design feature such as a hole or a mounting hook, indicating that they should not be used for food.
Some countries do not have the same strict lead and cadmium limits as Canada. If you bring in glazed ceramic cookware from abroad, be aware that it may not meet Canadian permitted levels for lead and cadmium.
Plastics and nonstick coatings
For cooking and storing food, plastic is lightweight and nearly unbreakable. Many containers have been made for use in microwave ovens, where metal cookware is not suitable.
Using plastic containers and wrap for anything other than their original purpose can cause health problems. With wrap, the concern is that food may absorb some of the plasticiser, the material that helps make it flexible. This is most likely to happen at high temperatures, when microwaving, or with fatty or oily foods such as cheese and meat.
Nonstick coatings are applied to metal utensils to prevent food from sticking and to protect cookware surfaces. An independent science review panel in the US has recommended that perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts (PFOA) be considered “likely to be carcinogenic” based on laboratory studies in rats. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also determined that PFOA is ‘likely’ to cause cancer in rats. However, this does not necessarily mean that PFOA causes cancer in humans. PFOA is widely used in the manufacture of non-stick coatings. PFOA does not remain in cookware or other products after manufacture, but it has spread throughout the natural environment worldwide. In 2006, the chemical industry voluntarily agreed to a U.S. EPA plan to reduce and eventually eliminate the release of PFOA into the environment and to reduce and eliminate any PFOA content in products. There is no risk of exposure to PFOA from using cooking utensils and equipment with non-stick coatings.
Nonstick coatings are a risk if they are heated to temperatures greater than 350°C or 650°F. This might happen if an empty pan is left on a burner. In this case, the coatings can give off irritating or poisonous fumes.
Silicone Cookware
Silicone is a synthetic rubber which contains bonded silicon (a natural element which is very abundant in sand and rock) and oxygen.
Cookware made from food grade silicone has become popular in recent years because it is colorful, nonstick, stain-resistant, hard-wearing, cools quickly, and tolerates extremes of temperature. There are no known health hazards associated with use of silicone cookware.
Silicone rubber does not react with food or beverages, or produce any hazardous fumes.
Minimizing Your Risk
- Do not cook or store food for long periods of time in aluminum cookware.
- Do not use badly scratched or un-coated copper cookware to cook or store food. If you do have some older tin or nickelcoated cookware, use it for decorative purposes only. Do not scour coated copper cookware.
- If you know you are allergic to nickel, do not use nickel-plated cookware.
- If you are sensitive to nickel and are having difficulty managing your allergy, discuss options with your doctor. Foods known to contain higher levels of nickel include oats and oat products, peas, beans, lentils and cocoa products, such as chocolate, particularly dark chocolate.
- Do not store foods that are highly acidic, such as stewed rhubarb or stewed tomatoes, in stainless steel containers.
- If you bring in glazed ceramic cookware from abroad, be aware that it may not meet Canadian permitted levels for lead and cadmium. Do not use it to serve or store food. Use it for decoration only.
- Don’t use plastic bowls or wrap in the microwave unless they are labelled as microwave safe.
- If you reuse plastic items for storage, such as dairy product containers, let the food cool before storing, then refrigerate it immediately. Avoid visibly damaged, stained or unpleasant smelling plastics and containers. Never heat or store food in plastic containers that were not intended for food.
- Do not use silicone cookware at temperatures above 220°C (428°F) as it will melt if exposed to high temperatures . You should also be careful when removing hot foods from flexible silicone cookware, as the food may slide out very quickly.
Oriental Nutrition—the second branch of Oriental Medicine—is based on the same theory as Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine, therefore can increase organ function, blood circulation, or energy circulation. Using it properly will also increase response to care. The basic premise is two-fold: first, eat the correct food for your constitution. Second, eat the proper food for the season. This all comes from a wonderful school of thought in Oriental Medicine called the “Five Element Theory.”
A full Oriental Medical Examination (classical pulse and tongue diagnosis) is necessary to determine your constitution (basic overall state of health) and using that information, you could effectively choose foods which will harmonize the function of your body. The following are some basic guidelines for food to eat in winter:
Kidney and urinary bladder function correspond to winter. To stimulate the function of these organs, consume foods that are salty flavored or black. For example: black sesame seeds, mussels, walnuts or sea vegetables (such as hijiki, kelp or dulse).
Salt cravings can indicate kidney or bladder deficiency!
WHAT IS MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE?
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer traditionally found in Chinese food. For over 50 years in the United States, it has been added to everyday foods from potato chips, soups, breakfast sausage and gravy to seasoning packets, fast food, prepared meals and baby food. It activates a fifth taste (in addition to sweet, salty, bitter and sour) called “umami,” which is the Japanese word for “pleasant savory taste.”
HOW CAN I TELL IF MSG IS IN MY FOOD?
Watch Out! Monosodium Glutamate can have many different names. Here is a brief list:
Names of ingredients that always contain processed free glutamic acid:
Glutamic acid (E 620)2, Glutamate (E 620), Monosodium glutamate (E 621), Monopotassium glutamate (E 622), Calcium glutamate (E 623), Monoammonium glutamate (E 624), Magnesium glutamate (E 625), Natrium glutamate, Yeast extract, Anything “hydrolyzed”, Any “hydrolyzed protein”, Calcium caseinate, Sodium caseinate, Yeast food, Yeast nutrient, Autolyzed yeast, Gelatin, Textured protein, Soy protein, soy protein concentrate, Soy protein isolate, Whey protein, whey protein concentrate, Whey protein isolate, Anything “…protein”, Vetsin, Ajinomoto
Names of ingredients that often contain or produce processed free glutamic acid:Carrageenan (E 407), Bouillon and broth, Stock, Any “flavors” or “flavoring”, Maltodextrin, Citric acid, Citrate (E 330), Anything “ultra-pasteurized”, Barley malt, Pectin (E 440), Protease, Anything “enzyme modified”, Anything containing “enzymes”, Malt extract, Soy sauce, Soy sauce extract, Anything “protein fortified”, Anything “fermented”, Seasonings
Glutamic acid found in unadulterated protein does not cause adverse reactions. To cause adverse reactions, the glutamic acid must have beenprocessed/manufactured or come from protein that has been fermented.
WHY IS MSG SO BAD FOR YOU?
Monosodium Glutamate is a compound of sodium salt can glutamic acid (which is a naturally occurring non-essential amino acid found in your body). Your body uses glutamate as a neurotransmitter. Abnormal function of glutamate receptors has been linked with certain neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s chorea. Injections of glutamate in laboratory animals have resulted in damage to nerve cells in the brain
MSG is also considered an excitotoxin, which means that it overexcites your body’s cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain damage to varying degrees — and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and more.
MSG can affect these body systems: blood pressure, brain, digestive system, endocrine system, hearing, lungs, allergies, pancreas, thyroid function, vision, hypothalamus, nervous system, heart rate, hypoglycemia
MSG can affect these diseases: ADD/ADHD, Allergies, Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Atrial Fibrillation (cardiac arrhythmia), Autism, Diabetes, Depression, Dizziness, Epilepsy, Fibromyalgia, High Blood Pressure, Hypothyroidism, Hypoglycemia, IBS, Migraines, Multiple Sclerosis, Obesity, Pituitary tumors, Rosacea, Sleep Disorders and Tinnitus
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/msg-is-this-silent-killer-lurking-in-your-kitchen-cabinets.aspx
http://www.msgtruth.org/
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
It is very common for people suffering with depression, anxiety, Attention Deficit Disorder and other mental/emotional conditions to be prescribed a class of drugs know as Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors (SRI’S), which can cause problems. First, these medications, as with all medications, have numerous side effects, including, but not limited to, nausea, vomiting, increased feelings of depression and anxiety (which may sometimes provoke panic atacks). Second, these medications are concentrated chemicals that accumulate as toxins in the liver and fatty tissue. Third, discontinuing this class of medications often has very controversial and severe side effects including documented suicide attempts. Fourth, these medications address only the symptoms that a person experiences, and can produce a feeling of numbness caused by the medication decreasing central nervous system function. Once medication ceases, the symptoms return as they were or worse before the medication.
Working with thousands of people suffering with mental/emotional problems over the years we have seen the following to be true (of course there are many variations):
1) A person may be predisposed to emotional imbalances, perhaps due to genetics or an underlying sensitivity to prolonged mental, physical or chemical stressors .
2) That person may then experience a loss, trauma or a stress (the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”) which causes a decrease in brain chemicals, mainly Serotonin. Serotonin is a key component in helping someone to feel calm, at ease, relaxed, and connected to people in the environment .
3) The reduction in Serotonin levels may cause depression, sadness, anxiety and disconnectedness.
Obviously many factors exist in life that may trigger bodily malfunction which, in turn, could trigger the change in the brain chemistry leading to emotional imbalance. We use Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs and Nutrition to correct the bodily malfunction, namely the organ system, which regulates brain chemistry. Read our August, 2007 “Oriental Medicine and Your Emotions” newsletter to understand the exact organ relationships to emotion.
If you have any questions or would like to know if you or someone you know can be helped with problems of this nature, please do not hesitate to call.
Nothing in this document is intended as a substitute for your doctor’s diagnosis and/or treatment. This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.
Whether or not to cook one’s veggies is a very controversial topic. Raw vegetables, it turns out, may not give you all the nutrient benefits as perfectly cooked vegetables.
Remember: to be used by the body, anything you eat or drink has to get to 98.6° (normal body temperature). For example, if you put ice into your water, your body has to convert the water’s temperature to 98.6° to make it usable.
From the point of view of western science, importance is placed upon what nutrients are in food, not what nutrients are available in food. For example, the emphasis is placed on how many units of Vitamin A your broccoli has, or how many units of Beta Carotene there are in your carrot.
The viewpoint of Oriental Medicine is different: the basic concept is to get the greatest amount of a useable nutrient available from food into the body.
Example: You want Beta Carotene. You eat a carrot. You could eat it raw, or you could eat it cooked. When you eat a raw carrot, it has a lot of Beta Carotene, however, it isn’t necessarily available to your body because it is surrounded by an indigestible cellulose structure (the cell wall).
When you cook a carrot (without overcooking it) to the degree that it becomes perfectly orange (the bright, amazing orange it shows when ideally done), the Beta Carotene is released because the cellulose structure is broken down by the cooking process. The vibrant orange indicates the Beta Carotene is useable to the body.
Let’s say you had a raw carrot (shown above left) and a perfectly cooked carrot– steamed, for example (shown above right), with 100 units of Beta Carotene in each. Much of the Beta Carotene is going to be unavailable in the raw carrot. With the carrot cooked to perfection, the cellulose structure is broken down and much more of the Beta Carotene is available. Only a small amount of the Beta Carotene will be destroyed. So, in the raw carrot example, you might get 20% of the Beta Carotene, whereas the perfectly cooked carrot would give you 80% of the available Beta Carotene. As you can see, cooking foods, especially vegetables, to perfection is much healthier than eating them raw. Obviously, an occasional salad or serving of raw vegetable is fine (moreso in warmer months than cooler months, as the metabolism runs “hotter” in warm weather)!
For further reading, ask us for an office brochure called “Raw Meal, Raw Deal” in the office that discusses this concept.
Nothing in this document is intended as a substitute for your doctor’s diagnosis and/or treatment. This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
