61–70 of 344 posts
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https://blog.mambaby.co.uk/feeding/how-to-self-sterilise-the... Popular milk bottle brand instructing users how to sterilize their product with the microwave. Boiling milk bottles is a very common way of sterilization as well.
That's fucked up, for real.
> Rather than introduce just the number of particles released by one container, the researchers instead exposed the cells to particle concentrations that infants and toddlers might accumulate over days or from multiple sources. > After two days, just 23% of kidney cells exposed to the highest concentrations had managed to survive So they used concentrations that they believe toddlers might accumulate over two days an…
1. nano/microplastics kill kidney cells in a lab environment
2. nano/microplastics come from microwaving containers
Regardless of whether you agree with the conclusion _you_ are drawing from reading the article, the article is saying those things.
In order to make a real-world-ish experiment, we'd have to start experimenting on children. I feel that while you're expressing outrage at a potentially real thing, you're also being unreasonable in that.
Sorry in advance if this comes off as harsh.
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What exactly were those studies on? Those bags are almost certainly polyethyelene without any additives, which is safe and has been in widespread use for almost a century. Petroleum jelly is far more reactive than PE, although it's substantially the same chemical structure, yet most of us regularly use it on our skin. If the biggest concern about sous vide is the plastic, then I think that's a very strong argument fo…
While the end of your comment could be seen as 'whatabout-ism', you are right that in simply over cooking something or just adding to much salts/sugars to some foods would probably be a bigger issue.
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Plastic is not an oil, not to mention you can make plastic from air and nothing else (other than energy). (You can make plastic from CO2 and Water.) Plastics are polymers, oils are not. Oils have specific chain lengths, polymers have no specific length. Both are hydrocarbons, but almost everything we interact with is, so that's not saying much. Saying something degrades with heat means very little - everything degrad…
Umm actually, iron-56 doesn't degrade with any amount of heat ;)
As someone who avoids cooking with plastic, I've always wondered... what makes people think it's safe? Does it not occur to most people that plastics can break down through the heat they're subjected to, or do they assume the plastics in question have been specifically designed to adequately withstand that?
I feel the same way about those Teflon pans as well. I don’t have any evidence, I just… don’t trust ‘em.
> Rather than introduce just the number of particles released by one container, the researchers instead exposed the cells to particle concentrations that infants and toddlers might accumulate over days or from multiple sources. > After two days, just 23% of kidney cells exposed to the highest concentrations had managed to survive So they used concentrations that they believe toddlers might accumulate over two days an…
The article is only presenting that: 1. nano/microplastics kill kidney cells in a lab environment 2. nano/microplastics come from microwaving containers Regardless of whether you agree with the conclusion _you_ are drawing from reading the article, the article is saying those things. In order to make a real-world-ish experiment, we'd have to start experimenting on children. I feel that while you're expressing outrage…
/s kinda
It's surprising to me how much we don't understand about plastic still. Years ago I was in a kitchen shop with an out of town friend and we saw some Sous Vide equipment. I told her that we had one and that you could either plastic bags or vacuum sealed bags to cook in the water. Her reaction was an immediate "absolutely not." That's when I realized that she worked in a lab that focused on plastics. Her big call out w…
The more chemists I have spoken to over the years, the more I hear warnings about polymers in general. Seems as though, that in general structure simply cannot be manufactured in a way that is innocuous to our health. It is plausible that plastic will be the next tobacco/leaded gasoline. Time will tell however.
More like lead, since it's impossible to remove the microplastics from our environment.
Tobacco you can just stop, I know it's addictive and all, but at least the issue is psychological, not physical.
1. I feel that as with many products, microwaves are also maximized for perceived customer happiness - this means food hot ASAP. So, they're probably pushing out the legal maximum of energy in microwave form. "Better" microwaves are probably worse for this.
2. I notice a distinct flavor to microwaved _meats_ specifically - maybe this is true about all proteins, but I'm not entirely sure. It's very pronounced in more flavorless chicken dishes when I notice it. I've read (on some stackexchange site) that chicken can change when re-heated. I don't need to know what it is. I trust the tongue evolution gave me.
3. I have always noticed - no matter what type of plastic, all plastics impart a taste to water once the water has been sitting for some time. I imagine heat speeds up this process. Maybe, microwaves do too. Again, the tongue.
Based on these points, I:
- avoid microwaves like the plague to start with. Air fryers and mini-ovens FTW! Sometimes it's far and above the best choice; e.g. microwaving nachos vs. burning them with the broiler and wasting a LOT of energy in the process.
- never microwave with/in plastics. So, no TV dinners EVER, and pyrex/glass/ceramic containers.
- generally microwave at 70% or less power rather than the default 100% - usually on a program of progressive power reduction (see below)
- constantly stir/move food around - prevent hot-spots (see next bullet)
- immediately stop the microwave when I hear any popping sounds - it's a good heuristic that some part of the food is boiling hot, and the heat needs to be evened out
One piece of advice is to familiarize with the power settings and "programmed cooking" methods of a microwave. I often will heat food on a program of 70% power for 1 min, followed by 50% power for 1 min, followed by 40% power for 1 min.
I hope some of this helps someone. I feel like I'm the anti-microwave evangelist of the house - my wife heckles me about it constantly. I can't wait to send out this link in the AM!
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The control group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese
Don't think so. This is nanoplastics we're talking about. Even microplastics are found everywhere ( https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/microplas... ). stuff spreads well through water air precipitation foodchain etc. Remember how they they could not find a control group for PFAS anywhere on the planet, I'm sure this is true for all common pollutants. Edit: OK, I replaced the link to the article about…
Funny that you mention Everest. My first thought on Everest is rainbow valley, not untouched by humanity.