The quality of your cookware is just as important as the quality of your food.
Many people place so much emphasis on the nutrition component to health, and while I stand by that intention and think it’s crucial, there’s not as much talk about the quality of our cookware.
It’s a fundamental of detoxification because, as I’m going to show you below, we’re going to be on a perpetual uphill battle if we fail to remove the environmental toxins that burden our detoxification systems.
I was first introduced to this concept by an unsuspecting source - the movie Dark Waters which covers the gross corruption of companies like 3M to suppress evidence in context to the dangers of teflon and other nasty petrochemicals.
To say the least, it blew my mind.
Why Focus On Cookware?
If you use cookware that has toxic material, that will inevitably leech into your food over time, especially as you throw high heat and repeated use into the mix.
The scary thing about this is the majority of people are clueless about this subject which is why I appreciated the movie Dark Waters. It gave people an inside look at what conglomerates were up to and how they were actively destroying the health of people and the environment.
Nobody wants to willingly expose themselves to nasty chemicals which have been strongly implicated in causing cancer.
I’m writing this article to make sure you have the appropriate information, and most importantly, the awareness you need to navigate these murky waters.
The Nasty Implications of Using Toxic Cookware
There are a number of health problems caused by using the wrong type of cookware over time. Below, we’ll explore some of the research.
Delayed Childhood Growth
Prenatal exposure to perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) has been linked to developmental delays in offspring. Mother’s with higher levels of PFOA in their blood have toddlers and babies who are less likely to reach developmental milestones early.
The importance of this cannot be understated because it’s a direct attack on humanity and future generations. Anything that causes harm to a pregnant woman and her baby must be ruthlessly destroyed.
Oxidized LDL
Researchers have observed that children with the highest levels of these two toxic chemicals were more likely to have abnormally high levels of both total cholesterol and LDL “bad” cholesterol.
I’m not as concerned about total cholesterol as I am about LDL, more specifically oxidized LDL which makes its way onto the endothelium and the glycocalyx, causing damage over time which leads to heart disease and other chronic conditions.
Cancer
In the movie Dark Waters, they showed how these toxic chemicals and others like them directly caused stillborn problems, birth defects, so forth.
Many female operators at the Teflon unit were exposed to high levels of C8, otherwise known as PFOA, causing all sorts of fucked up fertility problems.
Here’s a picture of one baby named Bucky who was the son of Sue Bailey, one of the women who worked at DuPont’s factory.
There are many other anecdotal accounts of women who worked there, but it goes to show what we’re fighting for here and it makes a strong point.
Avoid These Types of Cookware
This is what you want to enforce strong boundaries on avoiding.
Non-Stick Cookware
Perfluorochemicals break down on a conventional stovetop within 2-5 minutes of cooking at high temperatures which causes a breakdown in its coating. In turn, this releases toxic particles and gases linked to the health problems mentioned above.
If you find these or any other form of non-stick pans/pots in your kitchen, throw them away immediately.
Aluminum Cookware
Aluminum is known for being highly reactive and leaching into food.
Stay away from cookware with any type of aluminum as a cooking surface including:
nonstick anodized aluminum
ceramic nonstick aluminum
speckled metal bakeware
enamel cast iron
Silicone
This is synthetic rubber made of bonded silicon and oxygen.
It’s best to avoid this from a first principles perspective, especially since there’s little evidence on it. We can assume that heated silicone isn’t a good idea.
Those are the types of cookware I want you to avoid entirely.
Use These Types of Cookware
Replace the previous types mentioned above with these types.
Cast Iron
Cast iron is a great option for many people, although iron levels should be considered in this discussion.
It’s great for those are anemic, but it’s likely not a idea for older men who are at a higher risk of iron overload. To know for sure if this is right for you, I would get bloodwork done to check on your ferritin levels.
If your ferritin is high, avoid cast iron and donate blood regularly.
If it’s not high, use it intermittently.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is one of my favorites.
Real, high-quality stainless steel cookware is a perfect option because it’s made to resist dangerous leaching, reactivity and corrosion.
There are many grades of stainless steel, so make sure you get a food grade one.
Keep this in mind: If stainless steel cookware is cleaned in a harsh manner with abrasive cleaning materials, then it can damage the lining of it. Once damaged, it’s no longer as healthy of a cooking device because the leaching of metals becomes possible.
Don’t clean stainless steel too harshly and toss any stainless steel cookware with damaged cooking surfaces.
As you can see above, they’re also a beautiful aesthetic touch to your overall kitchen and work great for a variety of meals.
Glass
Non-toxic, environmentally friendly and very durable - glass is great. For storing foods, glass containers are also a much healthier option than plastic ones.
Copper
This can be safer than other options, but the risk of using 100% copper cookware is that it could lead to an overconsumption of copper.
Interestingly enough though, a good amount of people do have a copper deficiency, hence it’s still a great option in moderation.
Ceramic
The materials used to manufacture ceramic coating are derived from natural sand and don’t contain lead, cadmium, or other potentially dangerous chemicals.
It has the green light for consistent use.
Cast iron, glass, stainless steel, copper, ceramic - that’s all you need. I like cycling between cast iron and stainless steel, but you can use any combo you’d like.
Again, the most important thing here is to stay away from any non-stick coating on these cookware materials because companies can have the right type of material, but they often use non-stick coating on them which tricks a lot of people who are health conscious.
Healthy cookware is a perfect example of a finer detail with your health, but don’t confuse it for a “micro-optimization” because it’s far from that.
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Much love,
Zaid
Nice piece.
Is there Nickel in stainless steel pans and if so is that a concern?
Thank you. There’s some nickel, but it’s only a concern if it’s cleaned with harsh chemicals which would damage the pan over time