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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#711

Post by zeroonetwothree »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #401
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem temperature is 260°C which can easily be avoided by not heating an empty pan (oil/liquids will distribute the heat more evenly) and you'd be unlikely to want to cook at that kind of temperature.

Teflon is not very thermally conductive, so the bottom contacting the metal substrate may be at a significantly higher temperature than the top. Chemistry reactions have activation energies, and you can generally always trade temperature for time. If it happens in a minute at 260 C, it will still happen at 200 C, just slower.

Because of the way toxicity works happening slower is quite relevant. Similarly if you drink a bottle of vodka slowly enough you will have no significant health effects but if you drink it in 2 minutes then it’s not going to be great.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#712

Post by azemetre »

soperj wrote: post #701
azemetre wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the bottom has enamel but inside the pan is cast iron. I prefer this TBH, make it easier to clean when spills happen.

It's just black enamel. There is cast iron in the middle.

huh, TIL. There's a Le Creuset outlet store near me and when I bought 2 more it never really clicked how different they were from my Lodge pans (outside of the enamel bottom).

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#713

Post by accrual »

archagon wrote: post #650
theultdev wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

metal spatulas scrape. there's non-stick dishes to worry about. and I thought of the sunny episode when I read your comment. "just in case is as good a reason as any to believe in something", whether it's monkey paws, throwing salt over your shoulder, knocking on wood, etc.

At the very least, there’s about a 100% chance of microplastics getting into your food when using these things under heat. You can argue about the risks all day, but I imagine most people would want to avoid this bioaccumulation if possible.

This is my take as well. Can I avoid microplastics? No. Can I make simple household decisions that minimize my intake? Yes. Stainless pots and pans, stainless or wooden tools, stainless silverware, ceramic plates and bowls.

Yes, it takes slightly longer to clean some stuff up, but at least I'm not eating as much plastic/PTFE.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#714

Post by s1artibartfast »

rconti wrote: post #559
is_true wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's all about the angle, wood utensils are usually softer and rounder so they are safer. I accidentally removed a little of the "seasoning" of a cast iron and in the following uses it started to come out around the scratch. Where I live there's another plus to wood utensils, I can help the people that make them locally

(reply really meant for @arrowleaf) Man, I'm so turned off by the entire cast iron hype cult. I've tried so hard to make it work for me, and it just doesn't, and everyone's advice is totally different so it's impossible to know what to do. Wash it. Don't wash it. Scrub the shit out of it. Just remove the chunks and leave the rest. The reply will inevitably be "it's simple, just...." where the words following "just" a…

Where is the hype cult if it "just" works for tons of people?

People use them for cooking different things, so the advice is bound to be different. Maybe they don't work for your cooking, and thats OK.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#715

Post by r00fus »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #680
r00fus wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently learned how to cook non-stick with my stainless steel pan [1]. Needless to say it's a bit more involved, but I felt more accomplished when I figured out how to cook with it. Pros: SS can go right in the dishwasher, it's safe & you can use metal spatula, no worry about loss of efficacy over the years. Cons: It takes a minute more to prep, harder to clean (sides/edges aren't non-stick) Personally, between th…

Usually “nonstick” in the cooking context means “nonstick without any added fat”. So a stainless steel pan is never “nonstick”.

Fear of fat has completely killed this country's health. Fat is a necessary part of food. Fat doesn't make you fat, refined sugar does.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#716

Post by MisterBastahrd »

I use three types of tools in the kitchen:

For anything that requires cooked goods to be intact, I use metal. Spatula, fish spatula, and a large spoon for serving.

For anything that is going to be stirred, I usually use wood. It's hard enough to scrape fond off the bottom of the pan but it isn't going to damage non-stick, to the little extent that I use it.

For viscous dishes, I use silicone. The ability to get the very corner at the bottom of the pot and actually get the stuff up is great.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#717

Post by timr »

a123b456c wrote: post #666
timr wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true of nearly everything in this space. You'll find lots and lots of comments below about PFAS and Teflon pans, for example, ranging from factual-but-misleading (e.g. "Teflon pans can emit harmful gases when overheated") to bald assertions (multiple variations on "Teflon pans are harmful to your health") with no context or specificity to the claim. Setting aside the fact that the purported harms (if specified…

> Academics who specialize in obscure areas love to get their name in the press, and the easiest way to do that is to go to a reporter and make vague and irresponsible claims about risks to human health, even if those risks are very, very small. I won't deny that many such academics exist. And yet... The numerous successful academics at reputable universities that I know (including me) are uniformly mortified when ou…

> The numerous successful academics at reputable universities that I know (including me) are uniformly mortified when our names are associated with mistaken interpretations in the press. Some of us (including me) simply stop doing press interviews because it happens so often.

Absolutely! You're one of the good ones! I just wish you were in the majority. :-(

Edit: that's unfair. I don't know if you're in the majority or minority. I want to believe that most academics are still just silently plugging away and doing good work. It just really feels like things have shifted to the huckster side of the spectrum, and/or that is what is rewarded.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#718

Post by timr »

genuinelydang wrote: post #699
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t very toxic to humans either.

Overheat your Teflon pan, take a good huff, wait a few hours and post that comment again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever ”When PTFE is heated above 450 °C the pyrolysis products are different and inhalation may cause acute lung injury. Symptoms are flu-like (chills, headaches and fevers) with chest tightness and mild cough. Onset occurs about 4 to 8 hours after exposure to the pyrolysis products of…

> wait a few hours

Indeed. When was the last time you left your nonstick pan sitting on a cooktop with nothing in it, for hours?

If you're the kind of person to leave empty pans burning for that long, I'd be more worried about cognitive decline and/or the risk you'll die in a fire of your own making.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#719

Post by tonymet »

hollerith wrote: post #606
tonymet wrote: post #600

A minor concern that will discourage families from cooking at home and maintaining a healthy diet

If the family is thinking rationally, it will notice that restaurants have less of an incentive to get rid of black plastic cooking utensils than they themselves do -- and will react by tending to eat out less.

It's foolish and backwards to expect families to make rational decisions. Nearly every sociological and behavioral study has proven this.

Toxicity studies like this, which quickly make national headlines, will only result in deterring people from cooking at home. It's like the 1 or 2 stories of poisoned Halloween candy that killed community trick-or-treating

Look at the actual health outcomes in the USA. Black spatulas are not a big problem. People are eating out at tremendous cost to their welfare -- the food is toxic, they eat too much of it, and it's 5x too expensive.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#720

Post by whatshisface »

timr wrote: post #718
genuinelydang wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overheat your Teflon pan, take a good huff, wait a few hours and post that comment again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever ”When PTFE is heated above 450 °C the pyrolysis products are different and inhalation may cause acute lung injury. Symptoms are flu-like (chills, headaches and fevers) with chest tightness and mild cough. Onset occurs about 4 to 8 hours after exposure to the pyrolysis products of…

> wait a few hours Indeed. When was the last time you left your nonstick pan sitting on a cooktop with nothing in it, for hours? If you're the kind of person to leave empty pans burning for that long, I'd be more worried about cognitive decline and/or the risk you'll die in a fire of your own making.

Pretty much any heating element setting will take a pan to 450 degrees. Do people do it? - I doubt the parent commenter is lying about their bird.
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