by the way - thanks to this thread and some previous postings, I got a couple cast-iron pans a week or two ago and just love em! The food tastes better too.
]]>Ethics aside, ya gotta recoup yer losses as best ya can, ey? To do anything else would be
um, Un American!
After all, when DDT was banned in the USA, where did Dupont dump all their leftover stock?
To Mexico and South America! No problema!
Just gotta love those STS guys, ey?
visavis--thank you for this news!
This is how networking our knowledge and observations can benefit us all.
That website is an excellent source of health news, but I don't check in with it
very often, so I'm glad you posted the information.
TP
]]>]]>Teflon in trouble!
More than 20 attorneys, representing a total of 73 people, recently met to discuss the first steps in a $5-billion federal lawsuit, spanning at least 15 U.S. states, over injuries caused by the chemicals released from Teflon-coated pans.
The attorneys hope to combine all of the individual complaints into one class-action lawsuit against Teflon maker DuPont. If they receive class-action certification, hearings could come as early as January.
This could eventually lead to refunds for millions of Teflon cookware purchasers throughout the United States.
Teflon is the trade name for the polymer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) used in electrical insulating tape; combustion engines; chemical apparatus and tubing designed to resist attack from most chemicals, and in non-stick frying pans and other cookware.
Several disturbing facts about Teflon chemicals:
“¢ They tended to be very persistent in the environment
“¢ They are fat soluble and resistant to normal detoxification processes in the liver
“¢ They accumulate and concentrate in animal and human body fat,
“¢ They get passed on by the mother to the fetus through the placental membrane and then to the infant via breast milk,“¢ A number of them are endocrine disrupting chemicals (i.e. they interfere with the production or performance of hormones, which are the messengers produced in special glands to regulate body chemistry) To top it all, when these substances are burned in any facility ranging from a back yard burner to a trash incinerator, they produce highly toxic byproducts including dioxins and furans ( PCDDs and PCDFs).
It is time to get rid of your toxic cooking utensils. It is counter-productive to invest time, money and love into making healthy, organic meals for your family while cooking them in toxic pans.
Please do not let convenience determine the status your health.
Restricting the use of antibiotics in animals raised for human consumption is Australia’s attempt to decrease drug resistant bacteria in humans.
Australia has prohibited the used of certain antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones, in all food animals. Use of these antibiotics is standard in many other industrialized nations. Researchers examined the effects of the antibiotic ban on Campylobacter jejuni, which is a bacteria with drug resistant strains.
Campylobacter isolates were collected from almost 600 patients in five Australian states. Only 2 percent were resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. In countries that allow antibiotic use in animals, the prevalence of drug resistance can be as high as 29 percent.
This means that when we consume animals or animal products that have been treated with antibiotics, it produces bacteria that do not respond to antibiotics. When we are sick and really need the antibiotics, they are useless to us. Scary stuff! In addition, the antibiotics consumed regularly through our food supply weaken our immune system and kill our healthy bowel bacteria, which puts us at risk for candida over-growth and a host of other health problems.
Other countries, such as Sweden and Norway that prohibit the use of fluoroquinolones for food animals have also reported low incidences of fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter. The U.S. FDA first proposed a ban on fluoroquinolones in poultry in 2000, but resistance from drugmakers resulted in the ban not being enacted until September 2005.
Thats the "Culinary Instsitute of America "
Hahaha. I'm such a dork. I forgot about them. When you mentioned poisoning the population... I thought you meant the other, more nefarious CIA. Thanks for clarifying that.
]]>Thanks for the info on aluminum, limukala.
]]>Here is something else I found as long as we're talking about aluminum:
"Here are my suggestions for minimizing your exposure to aluminum.
* Drinking water should be low in aluminum. Some bottled-water companies provide an analysis of the aluminum content of their water. You might also find out from your public water company what the aluminum level is in the local drinking water.
* Aluminum-containing antiperspirants can easily be avoided, as can aluminum utensils and even, to play it safe, aluminum-containing antacids.
* Commercially processed foods such as cake and pancake mixes, frozen doughs and self-rising flour are sources of dietary aluminum, so their ingestion should be minimized. Watch for and avoid sodium aluminum phosphate, an ingredient in baking powder. Pickles and cheese should also be avoided.
* There is a close relationship between silicon and aluminum in Alzheimer brain lesions, as the two substances bind together to form aluminosilicates.9 High levels of silica in drinking water in the form of silicic acid do seem to protect against the adverse effects of aluminum ingestion, and silicic acid ingestion increases urinary aluminum excretion.10,11 Whether silica supplements protect against the development of dementia has yet to be determined.
* Besides minimizing aluminum exposure, taking the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of calcium, magnesium and zinc should help to protect against aluminum accumulation.12-14 Deficiencies of these important minerals are common among the elderly.15 Yet, unless there is laboratory evidence of a zinc deficiency, I would not recommend zinc supplementation to help prevent Alzheimer's disease, for two reasons. First, beta-amyloid protein, the major substance found in the brain lesions (usually in a liquid form), binds with zinc. At concentrations only slightly higher than those normally found in the brain, excess zinc may convert the protein to the solid form that is found in Alzheimer lesions.16 This suggests that, at least in theory, excess zinc could actually promote the development of the disease. Second, there is a lack of adequate research demonstrating the efficacy of zinc supplementation in preventing Alzheimer's, although in one study all six relatively young dementia victims had some memory improvement following supplementation with zinc aspartate.17"
or
"In any case, aluminum isn't easy to avoid. You can probably dump your aluminum cookware without too much trouble, but you'll find aluminum is also contained in many common antacids and antiperspirants. I note, for example, that my friendly bottle of Ban Basic here contains aluminum chloride and aluminum chlorhydrate. (Granted, you can now get aluminum-free deodorants.) Even more insidious, aluminum is added to many municipal water supplies to help remove floating debris. Aluminum is also found in household baking powder, self-rising flour, cake mix, pancake batter, and frozen dough (as sodium aluminum phosphate, a leavening agent); in nondairy creamers, table salt, and other powdered foods (as an anticaking ingredient); in processed cheese (as an emulsifier); and in hemorrhoid preparations (up to 50 percent aluminum hydroxide). The known human requirement for aluminum, you may be interested to know, is absolutely zero. Have a nice day, kids"
]]>Thanks for the seasoning tip, montalk!
]]>Cast iron is great, though. The trick is to use the pan only for browning, frying, or roasting so that the coating gets better with each use. But the coating will wear away slightly if you simmer sauces, soups, oat meal, gravies, then they have to be re-seasoned. To season a cast iron pan, just lightly coat it with oil and stick it in the oven at 350 for an hour or two. So best to use one cast iron pan for nonstick frying or roasting, and another for simmering purposes (or just get enamel-ware). Only a little of the iron goes into the food and actually makes it taste better. Cast iron skillets are not expensive...you can pick one up for 10-15 dollars. If seasoned well, you can cook an egg and have it sliding around the pan - something you cannot do with stainless steel or anodized aluminum. You will find it the cheapest alternative to Teflon if you want something nonstick. They're damn heavy though... doubles as weapons and forearm training weights, haha.
]]>Wonder if they dropped the teflon when they realized it wasn't too healthy.
http://www.ciacook.com/main.taf?erube_f … ia.catId=2