How Aluminium is Harmful Over Steel Utensils for Cooking?

We all know that the food choices we make affect our health but did you know that paying heed to the cookware you are using also plays an important role in deciding your health? Using certain utensils for cooking can be dangerous for your health. As per the latest studies, using aluminium utensils for cooking can pollute the human body and increase the risk of various health ailments as aluminium utensils can add about 1 to 2 mg of aluminium to your food. Aluminium utensils are widely used for cooking because of their appealing qualities like easy availability, light in weight, cheap and free of rust but let us tell you that cooking in aluminium cookware might not be a good idea because it can lead to aluminium toxicity.

According to a study, when food is cooked in aluminium utensils, harmful agents can easily react and find their way as aluminium catches heat easily and quickly and then these harmful agents get inside the body. This can harm both physical and mental health. Dashes of cadmium and lead, when goes inside the body through food can damage your organs like kidney, heart, brain and can lead to various health ailments. Chemical reactions can easily nullify the nutrients present inside the food while weakening your immune system.

According to the studies, sometimes, aluminium cookware is traced by scrapping the metal from waste like cans, computer and other electronic parts that is extremely harmful to human health. “Lead and cadmium exposures from regular use of these pots will significantly reduce IQ and school performance among children, and contribute to millions of deaths due to cardiovascular disease,” lead study author Jeffrey Weidenhamer, Ashland University was quoted by ANI.

Here are some diseases that can be caused by the regular usage of aluminium utensils for cooking

• Mental illnesses like stress, depression and anxiety
• Bone diseases like osteoporosis
• Eye diseases
• Organ damage
• Diarrhoea
• Hyperacidity
• Indigestion
• Pain in abdomen
• Intestine infections like colitis
• Inflammation in the mouth
• Skin diseases like eczema
• Damage of brain cells

Steps of prevention

Try to minimize cooking acidic foods in aluminium cookware including tomatoes to decrease the acidic reaction in the body. In addition to this, make sure to avoid keeping the leftovers in aluminium utensils or packing hot foods in aluminium dishes or foils. Make sure to dump all your old aluminium cookwares and change to healthier substitutes.

Footnote

Cooking in aluminium utensils is quite harmful to one’s health and therefore it is advisable to switch to healthier alternatives like steel for cooking. While buying utensils don’t always look out for the glittery and shiny ones as all that glitters are not gold. Make sure to always buy simple and best steel utensils to keep yourself all hale and hearty.