I would like people's opinion on aluminium cookware and if you think it is safe to use. Would you consider/use it yourself?

I was surprised to hear recently that aluminium is said to be dangerous. We've been using a big aluminium pot for years.

We're told that so many things are dangerous; I've become a bit sceptical about all these scares.

A vegetarian friend once told me that stir-frying with hot oil 'releases free radicals' and is bad for you. If that's true, how come the Chinese are so populous?

French friends tell us that butter heated until it smokes is carcinogenic. We're going to carry on using it for browing beef and duck.

Phil

A bit gloomy but... there is nothing more sure in life than its end... unfortunately there are too many people employed in the industry of statistics (one way or another) and they produce statistics for us (how sweet of them).

They then "help" us by producing documents and newspaper articals etc to steer us through life.

However the big problem is not everything is as it seems (don't get me wrong, lots of medical advice is correct and should be followed).....

Suppose you do a study of 100 people, 50 who use aluminium pans, and fifty who don't. Suppose that out of those people, 30% of them contract a certain disease/problem and of those 30 people 25 of them are users of aluminium pans. Statistically speaking it makes it look like aluminium pans are responsible...its not taking in to account the bigger picture.. they might all be smokers, might only eat junk food etc etc... Other more in depth studies might show cell damage due to traces of aluminum but then is it coming from the pans? from tins? from traces of it in other foods like fish?... I'd say take it with a pinch of salt (but not too much as thats 'bad' for you as well)

I've been brought up with aluminum pans (don't forget foil, tins etc) and I'm still using them, my family have all lived to good ages with active brains (my grandmother was still doing a part time job at nearly seventy!) so does it bother me?.. no not really....

.. and to be honest, the stress caused by worrying about things like this probably does you more harm than the thing itself !

Don't forget over the years we've been told eggs are bad for you, salmon is bad for you, chargrilling is bad for you etc etc... you pays your money, you takes your choice.....

Steve

Aluminium isn't particularly toxic, and certainly not at the low levels that using aluminium pans could potentially cause. As Steve, I was brought up with aluminium cookware (along with an entire generation or two, I would guess!) and there's no real statistical evidence to suggest it's hazardous.

As it happens, most of our cookware now is stainless steel, but that's more to do with the quality of pans than concerns about the material - and our non stick frying pans are (I think) aluminium cored.

We were also told 'An apple a day keeps the dentist away'. And then we were told not to eat too many apples, because the acid in them breaks down the enamel on your teeth.

We were told that butter was bad for us, and then we were told that it wasn't, after all.

I've been told not to eat red meat. I continue to do so.

They say that fat is bad for you, but here's an interesting thing:

the longest-lived people here in France are the Gascons: on average, they live 8 years longer than the rest of the French. Their diet is rich in goose and duck fat. Maybe there are different kinds of fat, who knows?

I was given a health leaflethere saying that we should eat only white meat such as (they said) duck. But duck meat isn't white!

Phil

To agree with AskCy there is not much reliable in life except death, rain and taxes!

Aluminum pans were supposedly connected to Alzheimer's disease, however we are now told that if you develop the disease you are 70% less likely to develop any form of cancer!

The mind boggles!

I have an aluminium pressure cooker and I have read about the so-called dangers of aluminium cookware but I still use the pressure cooker. I don't use it on a daily basis but I do use it often -- mostly for steaming potatoes and cooking beans and lentils.

What I find amusing is that people worry about aluminium cookware, yet they still continue to drink soda and beer, use tinned tomatoes, eat pies, take antacid tablets et cetera. Soda and beer sits on a shelf in an aluminium can until someone decides to buy it and drink it, tinned tomatoes sit in an aluminium can (and they're acidic), pies are cooked in aluminium cases and so forth....

Apparently the amount of aluminium one will consume by using aluminium cookware is minute, and there is a safe daily intake that an adult human can consume before it becomes a problem, and what we get from cooking in aluminium pans is nothing compared to what our bodies can deal with on a daily basis. Look it up on Google.

Time to make some coriander pesto to purge the excess aluminium from my body.

There was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember, what day is it? :-o