Ecobreves – BRAZIL: : Watch Out with Aluminum Cookware

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 19 2005 (IPS) - Cooking with aluminum or stainless steel pots and pans can be harmful to one's health, reveals a study by Elaine Bocalon, a researcher at the Sao Carlos school of engineering at the University of Sao Paulo. Four liters of water boiled for three hours with 10 grams of salt can transfer 20 milligrams of aluminum for each liter of water, Bocalon said.

Excess aluminum in the body is said to be related to Alzheimer's disease (though it is not known whether it is a cause or effect of the disease), inflammation and lung problems, she added.

According to Kesia Quintaes, a food engineer who tested different types of cookware and published her conclusions in “Inside the Pots”, frying food in aluminum pans transfers less of the metal.