Cooking With Aluminum Foil Could Be Dangerous To Your Health

When it comes to cooking a quick meal or a large feast in the kitchen, it isn’t uncommon for aluminum foil to play a key role. Whether you’re reheating leftovers or putting a lasagna in the oven, it’s always a good idea to have some aluminum foil on hand.

The versatility that comes with aluminum foil is its main selling point. It also doesn’t hurt that aluminum foil makes the clean up process a breeze.

If you’re someone who uses this cooking tool on a regular basis, you may want to think about the possible negative health effects that come along with it. Most people have not heard this before, but the fact of the matter is aluminum foil could be harming your health.

Bad to the Bone

Aluminum has been found to build up in bones as well. In short, the issue here is that the aluminum will be competing with calcium for space in your bones. This is an extremely negative situation to be in because, as many know, calcium is needed for bones to stay strong and prevent an injury from a simple fall.

Chemical Leaching

Even if you check to make sure that there are no flakes of aluminum in your food after cooking, you still have the issue of chemical leaching. Chemical engineering researcher Dr. Essam Zubaidy found that 400mg of aluminum can find its way into your food by way of chemical leaching. The issue is much worse when you’re dealing with certain spices or acidic foods such as lemons.

A Link to Alzheimer’s Disease

Due to the fact that aluminum is a neurotoxic heavy metal, cooking with aluminum foil can be bad for the health of your brain. Drops in coordination, balance, and even memory have been linked to this toxin, and this sort of gradual drop in mental capacity over time can be a devastating process to witness when it happens to your loved ones.

Leading to Respiratory Problems

Inhaling aluminum is just as bad as ingesting it in any other manner. When inhaling aluminum, you expose yourself to pulmonary fibrosis and other complicated respiratory problems. For this reason, putting anything in aluminum and then throwing it on the grill is not advised, no matter how much it simplifies the cooking process.

If you’re using aluminum foil to cook some food on the grill, you may be unwittingly inhaling flakes of aluminum that are breaking off from the foil. The smoke can carry aluminum from the grill directly into your lungs.

Consuming Aluminum Foil by Accident

While no one is going to open their pantry and break off a piece of aluminum foil for a quick snack, the reality is that cooking with aluminum foil opens up the possibility of accidentally eating it. Many people have pointed to soda in aluminum cans as a method of unwittingly getting aluminum into the body, but accidentally consuming a piece of meat or vegetables with aluminum foil stuck to them could be even worse.

Kevin MD says it’s not uncommon for aluminum foil to create numerous tiny cracks and flakes during the cooking process and find its way into whatever it being prepared for dinner. The pieces can be so tiny that you may not even be able to find them in your food (not that anyone actually checks for this sort of thing anyway).

How to Protect Yourself from Aluminum Foil

Now that you’ve heard about the dangers of cooking with aluminum foil, it’s time to take a look at some of the ways you can protect yourself and your family.

• Do not cook with aluminum foil at all. This is the only fool-proof way to protect yourself.
• Don’t store acidic foods, such as tomatoes or citrus fruits, in aluminum foil. The aluminum will make its way into the food because of the acids.
• Use stainless steel pots and pans instead of ones made out of aluminum.
• When possible, try to use parchment paper instead of aluminum foil.

While aluminum foil may offer simplicity and convenience to you while you’re cooking a meal, it’s important to remember the dangerous tradeoff you’re making for you and anyone else who is going to eat the food. Remember that convenience is never worth the cost of endangering your health or the health of others.

Is Aluminum Foil Safe?

For more information on why you should avoid aluminum foil at all costs, take a look at the video below.

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