Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

741–750 of 886 posts

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#741

Post by nextlevelwizard »

whoitwas wrote: post #385
nextlevelwizard wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does any of this matter in a normal life? Will I actually see actual difference if I throw away all my cook ware and replace it with non-non-stick ones and wooden utensils? What about pollutants in the air from car and industry exhaust? Is this cookware worse? Should we first consider moving somewhere else than worry about cookware? What about just the ingredients you cook with? Is using teflon worse than buying high…

There are many things to consider and it's up to each individual. It can become exhausting if you choose to continue to learn and grow, but if you don't ... what are you doing?

Just living my life. If I live a year less because of my cookware then so be it.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#742

Post by hilux »

snowwrestler wrote: post #540
dfxm12 wrote: post #484

From gidmkhealthnerd, a scientific fact-checker: Counterpoint: this seems to be the crusade of a single researcher - I don't find the data personally convincing and am still using my black spatula for cooking. https://www.threads.net/@gidmkhealthnerd/post/DBxbQERykRx?hl...

It’s kind of funny to watch the following conversations both recur regularly here on HN: - The replication crisis means most science is bad and we should be extremely skeptical of scientific consensus. - This one single scientific paper changes everything and you are negligent if you don’t immediately change your life based on it.

Gell-Man amnesia effect! (Or very similar ...)

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#743

Post by cogidub »

azinman2 wrote: post #572
aucisson_masque wrote: post #546

Avoid plastic if you want to live long, whatever if it's cooking or drinking. Now I know that yet I drink water exclusively from plastic bottle, because ground water is contaminated with pesticides here. So it's either micro plastic in the water or pesticide, choose your poison. Because I don't use Teflon (plastic) covered pan, I need more oil to avoid food to stick to the pan. The oil comes in plastic bottle, catego…

You’re falling down that slippery slope pretty fast there. You can filter your tap water; there are various ways to do so. I’m sorry your water is contaminated. That’s awful. I wouldn’t always assume the worst with the cows milk and butter. There is a wide range of product and conditions out there. Certain kinds of plastics and applications are known to leach chemicals far worse than others. Frozen peas in plastic? I…

unfortunately microplastics are found in oil from both glass and plastic packaging. possibly contam from manufacture?

Analysis of microplastics in commercial vegetable edible oils from Italy and Spain - 2024

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03088...

• MPs were detected in all samples which were stocked in both PET and glass bottles.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#744

Post by 6510 »

wnevets wrote: post #543
snowwrestler wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s kind of funny to watch the following conversations both recur regularly here on HN: - The replication crisis means most science is bad and we should be extremely skeptical of scientific consensus. - This one single scientific paper changes everything and you are negligent if you don’t immediately change your life based on it.

> This one single scientific paper changes everything and you are negligent if you don’t immediately change your life based on it but it confirms my current bias so it must be true!

That is not how it works. You should ask if being for or against is more socially accepted. If everyone cooks in teflon it must be double plus good for your health.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#745

Post by kube-system »

ethagnawl wrote: post #297
Aachen wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article does speak of black specifically, not just any plastic. Even if there aren't any that don't put the hot liquid in contact with plastic, it might be worth looking at the color (is my understanding from the article)

Yeah, sorry, that was implied. I would assume that's what they all use. Based on my recent personal experience, even the higher end options like Moccamaster and OXO use black plastic.

I've run into a couple of the really cheap white drip machines that are all white plastic.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#746

Post by chefandy »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #736
chefandy wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they've got a couple things going for them— they're sealed so there's very little chance of cross-contamination in transit or storage, and since it's a ready-to-eat food item rather than a raw ingredient, at least the more reputable companies probably need a pretty solid HACCP plan (short for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points— a formal for safety risk analysis and their mitigation procedures), which me…

> It's really bizarre that the FDA is so upright that they won't allow soft raw milk cheeses to be sold I'm in the UK and didn't realise that. We easily buy raw milk cheeses here, but they do carry a warning about people with compromised immune systems and pregnant women. > There are other things that are risky that people don't realize— cooked room temperature rice, raw flour, room temperature brewed tea I was aware…

The danger in the US involves general poor tea handling with iced tea. Sun Tea involves leaving water and tea bags in the sun for a long while to do kind of a cold brew. Many places (shitty donut shops, greasy spoon diners, etc) make iced tea by stuffing the filter basket on their coffee pots with tea bags, often not getting the tea up to a safe temperature to kill pathogens. It's often then let at room temperature until it's served. It doesn't need sugar in it to be a problem— heck, legionnaires disease grows in closed water circulation systems. It's not common, but in the past decade-and-a-half, there have been a few outbreaks in the US. Also, studies have shown that the containers for sliced lemons in restaurant service stations are frequently teeming with fecal coliform bacteria. If they toss lemons in there to cover up the disgusting residual old coffee flavor, even better.

Heathens over here.

So properly made kombucha wouldn't be risky, but as you noted, it isn't always properly made. You can do most culinary things wrong enough to get you sick if you really put your heart into it.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#747

Post by TheRealPomax »

tolciho wrote: post #731
justjash wrote: post #721

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is really heating teflon pans to 850 F on the stovetop?

Old folks, with a fine case of white matter decline. Distracted folks, because the baby just threw up. Sick folks, whose processing power is a bit covided. Young folks doing stupid things, possibly on a video dare.

To quote Chris Rock: if you're old and you die in an accident, you died of old age, not "that specific accident". If your mind's going, and that makes you do something that'll kill you, your mind going is what killed you.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#748

Post by 6510 »

gav wrote: post #668
svachalek wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some things maybe, but usually there's an option where the risk is pretty negligible. I feel pretty confident we're not going to declare wooden spatulas to be a massive health concern.

There's a risk for wooden ones that are glued, specifically bamboo, or finished with something toxic. You should probably stick to ones made from a single piece of hardwood and are unfinished. There's also a risk that any cracks will fill with bacteria.

I think you've unknowingly debunked non-stick layers.

Should make it from RVS.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#749

Post by cogidub »

scohesc wrote: post #15

There's a bottom of the barrel, dollar store brand under the Betty Crocker name brand in Canada - all black plastic cooking utensils, cheapest you can get in all varieties. Every time I go over to mom's place it's so shocking to see these utensils being used for high heat applications they were never meant to be used for. Flipping burgers in a pan, moving fries on a baking sheet - the ends of them are all warped and…

yes unfortunately mps are in the air from tires now.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#750

Post by mtalantikite »

lxgr wrote: post #739
mtalantikite wrote: post #728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh interesting, that's a point I hadn't considered -- do people really cook in non-stick pans without any sort of oil? I've never owned one so genuinely didn't realize people did that. My Mediterranean family brought me up to use olive oil liberally! And also true re: acidic foods -- I've got a couple stainless, but mainly use my enameled cast iron or clay (tagine) for tomato based dishes.

> do people really cook in non-stick pans without any sort of oil? Definitely! As much as I generally love it, e.g. pancakes with olive oil sound like a dubious idea, taste-wise. Regarding frying things in olive oil, I was also under the impression that it's not particularly heat-stable and unhealthy substances can start forming at relatively low temperatures?

Oh lol, yeah, I wouldn't use olive oil on pancakes. That's definitely a butter situation.

As for high heat with olive oil, I'm not sure about it being unhealthy or not. I just found this overview [1], and it seems like there isn't great evidence. I again hadn't considered it, since it's something my ancestors have done for thousands of years. Sample size of one family, but my grandmother lived to her 90s and my great-aunt is still walking around Paris in her mid-90s!

[1] https://www.seriouseats.com/cooking-with-olive-oil-faq-safet...

Post reply on HN