Cooking With Aluminum Foil Should Be Avoided

I am very surprised at how many have never used aluminum foil to cook with. Corn on the cob, baked potatoes, chicken, fish all wrapped and loaded on the grill.. I love making hobo dinners when I go camping wrapped in foil. Talapia grilled with garlic, and lemon wrapped in foil on the grill... Yummmm! A lot of the authentic Mexican places around here serve everything wrapped in foil as well.

I have heard this before and didn't think much about it.. I guess I am done with foil now

I use cast iron for all my indoor cooking. Stopped using teflon years ago.

Originally posted by shantyknight
reply to post by speculativeoptimist

 

Good topic. And one dear to my heart. If you take a magnet with you next time you go to Wally World (or where ever) and check out the stainless steel cookware there, you will be surprised. Steel is magnetic. Yet the magnet will refuse to stick to a lot of the stainless steel cookware. I researched this on line and found out: There is no such thing as Stainless Steel. It is a Trade name. Also, aluminum was never designed for high heat (like cooking on a stove). It leaches poisonous gasses into the food. They shouldn't even be allowed to SELL this stuff as cookware.
As an aside....Organic health bars from the local health food stores. Wrapped in pretty wrapper, nice green healthy looking background. Open the bar....yep, wrapped in aluminum foil.

I'm glad you posted this because it's partially correct, but alludes to common misconceptions...

The more austentic (crystaline & low carbon) the stainless steel, the higher the grade or quality & more non-magnetic the alloy (i.e., 304L, 316L).

Some stainless will rust & is slightly magnetic, esp. low quality; typically, the 301 & 303 grades found in disposable razors. It is not uncommon to actually have 303sst magnetize during machining & have difficulty removing chips while drilling blind holes.

Mainly, the higher nickel & chromium grade stainless steels are virtually corrosion resistant--& non-magnetic. Iron & carbon are magnetic. Nickel & chromium are non-magnetic & make stainless steel stainless steel.

On a side note: most car bodies, except Deloreans were carbon steel (sheet metal) & when buying a used car, one could run a magnet wrapped in cloth across the body to see if it had any plastic or fiberglass filler from previous bodywork or undisclosed collision damage.

Wiki's info is a little thick, but here it is:
Stainless Steel
Austenitic

reply to post by Pagedisciple


(two words guys

GRILL IT!!!)

Just make sure a magnet sticks to that grill.

reply to post by dayve


I hope that was a joke, as I have and do daily witness the sad effects of Alzheimer's. Try telling a family member of an elderly person with Alzheimer's, that it;s a good thing when they ask why grandma doesn't know who they are and behaves in a manner she would never have done before the disease.

That being said, I use foil when I grill, been thinking about stopping. Luckinly I think I only grilled two or three times this summer.

reply to post by OlafMiacov


Thanks for the info. The site I got my information from was an engineering site I stumbled upon about 7 years ago. I'm not an engineer myself and was pretty much lost in most of the technical wording. However, I understood enough of it to change out all my cookware (including utensils). I do remember reading on that site that aluminum was never designed to be used on a high heat source. And non-magnetic alloys were also mentioned in that same context. The site also explained how stainless steel was only a trade name, not a specific alloy. Your input has helped clear up some more of it for me. Thanks again.

reply to post by shantyknight


Thank you--I'm glad it helped. I've been saving it for Jeopardy!

My vocational path is much different now, so it's not often that I get to throw that stuff out there.

Originally posted by cranspace
For Chicken without foil you could try this

But i will take my chances
And roast my chicken in Foil wrapped in bacon with an orange in the cavity served with stuffing you can not beat it

Cran

Ohhhh, myyy gosh!!!!! Talk about major flashbacks!!!!
I haven't seen 'chicken in a can' for probably fifty years!!!!
My mother used to use it to make 'homemade' chicken noodle soup when she was short on time. Where did you find it??? It's got to be a pic from a nostalgia website?!

I was thinking about this a while ago, trying to remember, figured they must be awfully young chickens, because I don't remember the cans being all that huge. Of course, chickens were smaller back then, not pumped up all full of artificial growth stuff! How many ounces were in a can?
What area do you live in? I do recognize the brand though. Cooool!
I figured they stopped making it for safety reasons. Thought maybe it didn't always cook all the way through in the canning process?

I love how the label shows it roasted golden brown & full of stuffing!!!! Yummy!

Thanks for the memory & a warm heart smile!!!
WOQ

makes a change from having to put it round your head,

soon they will be saying cancer is caused by apples.....

Better to know what is killing you.
than to die in paine woundering why?
so you can stop it. and add years to your life.

Much ado about nothing. Most adults consume 1-10 mg aluminium daily from natural sources.

The daily intake of aluminium even if all the foods were prepared and stored in aluminium containers would be approximately 6 mg/day

Some are now calling Alzheimer's disease "type 3" diabetes.
Is Alzheimer's a Form of Diabetes?

Here is some info from the Alzheimer's Society:

There is circumstantial evidence linking this metal with Alzheimer's disease, but no causal relationship has yet been proved. As evidence for other causes continues to grow, a possible link with aluminium seems increasingly unlikely.

Originally posted by Gridrebel
Most of the cheaper cooking pans are made from aluminum which also leache aluminum in cooked foods. There are many alternatives, enamel, glass, iron, take your pick. Not to offend the OP, but I heard this same information in the early 80's. Maybe it's making it's way back around because people didn't pay attention the first time.

Great response.

Even boiling water in an aluminum pan will result in AL contamination of the water. The longer that water (or food) is exposed to aluminum pots/pans at hi temps, the worse the contamination becomes.

Also, a lot of (not so cheap) camping/survival utensil/pots/pans are made of aluminum. The best thing you can do for your family's health is to survey all your cooking and eating gear. When you encounter aluminum, dump it.

Originally posted by Phatdamage
makes a change from having to put it round your head,

soon they will be saying cancer is caused by apples.....

Soon, that may be true. Someone was saying that the Death Corporation (aka Monsanto) has just released their GMO apple.

reply to post by daskakik

Much ado about nothing.

I don't know if it is that simple friend, your study is from 08 and this one is this year. I have scoured through numerous scientific studies and it is the effect of aluminum, rather than the aluminum itself that contributes to brain lesions which leads to AD. As I mentioned, I am suggesting minimizing exposure to cooked aluminum. That aspect is recent and the science supports expedient breakdown of aluminum when cooking. With any uncertainty that may be found, I would still not wrap my child's food in foil or cook in it amy longer, but that's just me.
Thanks for the reply.

peace,
spec

It looks like my melt in your mouth corn beef will be safe since it never get any where close to the maximum temp of over 300 deg.

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
reply to post by daskakik

 

your study is from 08 and this one is this year.

Yes but table 1 states the same thing as the italian diet report

Weight loss between 1.7mg and 3.3mg, only slightly higher than the report of aluminum in Italian diets, and still below the 6mg a day a person gets from natural foods.

I have scoured through numerous scientific studies and it is the effect of aluminum, rather than the aluminum itself that contributes to brain lesions which leads to AD.

The factsheet from the Alzheimer's society has a few gems that state otherwise like:

Some have claimed that people with Alzheimer's disease have a higher than average level of aluminium in their brains. However, other studies find no difference between the overall amount of aluminium in the brains of people with Alzheimer's and the amount in normal brains (Trapp et al 1978).

Plus the new focus on the production or underproduction of insulin in the brain as the cause adds a new twist.

As I mentioned, I am suggesting minimizing exposure to cooked aluminum.

Yes but it may not make a difference and it may give people a false sense of security.

reply to post by daskakik

I understand, and the false sense of security is subjective, imo because there are conflicting reports.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

From your report:

However, the majority of scientists do not believe that there is a causal link between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. Other metals, such as copper and zinc, may be important in the way that key proteins are processed in the brain.

Now if part of that majority are skewed by any special interests, which we know occurs, then the remaining, or minority amount of scientists, still give me enough concern. Does not the report I provided about heated aluminum worry you at all? That is the premise of the thread. None of the other reports address heated foil, so I think it is still pertinent info. I will reiterate that I am not saying aluminum causes Alzheimer's, but that the report supports the function of excessive aluminum in the brain contributing to lesions, which can lead to AD.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


And sometimes the minority carve out a niche where they cater to the health conscious crowd. Cuts both ways.

The fact that it exists naturally in foods, and everyone eats but not everyone gets AD, makes for a logical argument that it isn't the cause.

Throw in an aged body which may have had an iffy diet anyway and you have a more probable cause.

Originally posted by daskakik
Much ado about nothing. Most adults consume 1-10 mg aluminium daily from natural sources.

The daily intake of aluminium even if all the foods were prepared and stored in aluminium containers would be approximately 6 mg/day

Some are now calling Alzheimer's disease "type 3" diabetes.
Is Alzheimer's a Form of Diabetes?

Here is some info from the Alzheimer's Society:

There is circumstantial evidence linking this metal with Alzheimer's disease, but no causal relationship has yet been proved. As evidence for other causes continues to grow, a possible link with aluminium seems increasingly unlikely.

So when I read the first link "Dietary and Other Sources of Aluminum Intake," this is the first sentences of the abstract:

"Aluminium in the food supply comes from natural sources including water, food additives, and contamination by aluminium utensils and containers. Most unprocessed foods, except for certain herbs and tea leaves, contain low (< 5 micrograms Al/g) levels of aluminium. Thus most adults consume 1-10 mg aluminium daily from natural sources. Cooking in aluminium containers often results in statistically significant, but not practically important, increases in the aluminium content of foods. "

What!? How much wordplays can be done in one paragraph?!

Natural sources including "food additives," and "contamination by aluminium utensils and containers." ?! How are those 2 items natural?

Followed by this contradictory statement: "Cooking in aluminium containers often results in statistically significant, but not practically important, increases in the aluminium content of foods." -- Didn't they just say "containers" are a natural source of aluminium?

Still trying to find the pdf for the whole study before going into it (some things on pubmed are easier to download than others for some reason.) However, the abstract seems to make no sense, or maybe I'm missing the plot