The material of cookware is related to health
We cannot get through a day without fire, rice, oil, and salt; we cannot cook delicious food without pots, pans, bowls, and utensils. The cookware in the kitchen is with the people day and night, and it is closely related to diet and health. Not long ago, media reported that the manganese content in stainless steel pots produced by a well-known domestic cookware company exceeded the standard. Many people are worried whether the excessive metal elements in cookware will cause harm to the body.
Facing "Exceeding the Standard"
There is no need to be too nervous
In recent years, reports about "exceeding the standard" are not uncommon. After a certain product is exposed as "exceeding the standard," many people will consult doctors about what effects it will have on the human body.
"We should look at the concept of 'exceeding the standard' calmly. We should not take it lightly, nor be too nervous. The view that a certain substance in a product will cause harm to the body once it exceeds the standard is incorrect."
Medicine is divided into preventive medicine and clinical medicine. In the field of preventive medicine, relevant departments will set standards to specify the safe range of a certain substance's content for the body. However, each standard has its own safety factor. The safety factor is like a "buffer zone" between preventive medicine and clinical medicine. Therefore, even if a certain indicator of a product exceeds the standard, it does not mean it will cause poisoning or serious harm to the body. After all, cases like melamine exceeding the standard and harming health are still rare.
The human body has protective capabilities
No need to be afraid of "manganese"
First, the trace elements in cookware should be distinguished between the metal elements needed by the human body and the harmful elements. Manganese is an essential trace element for human survival. The body's sugar and energy metabolism cannot proceed without the auxiliary role of enzymes, and manganese is a component of many enzymes. It can participate in the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids through the action of human enzymes, and it is also an activator of hydrolase. If the human body lacks manganese, the body's normal metabolic function will be affected. In experiments conducted on poultry, if no manganese is added to the feed, the poultry will show motor system defects, with symptoms such as unsteady walking and shaking.
The human body has a relatively perfect self-protection ability. The digestive system can absorb metal elements selectively. The absorption of manganese by the normal human gastrointestinal tract is only 3% to 5%, and the rest will be automatically "blocked" by the body's digestive system. Therefore, for people with a normal diet, the absorption of manganese is not enough to cause harm to the body. When the human body lacks manganese, the digestive system's absorption capacity for manganese will increase, with a maximum absorption capacity of up to 12%. Clinically, there are also cases of manganese poisoning, but chronic manganese poisoning mostly occurs in long-term manganese-exposed welding industry workers, and its clinical symptoms are similar to those of Parkinson's patients.
Using an aluminum pot
Will it lead to Alzheimer's disease?
Aluminum lunch boxes, aluminum steamers, aluminum kettles, and aluminum spoons can still be seen in many households today. Aluminum products were once widely used because of their advantages of being light, durable, and not rusting. The use of aluminum pots has not been found to be detrimental to humans, but a study on Alzheimer's disease has made people suspicious of aluminum products. During animal experiments, it was found that after prolonged contact with aluminum, animals' IQ and behavioral abilities showed impairment. Coupled with the fact that the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease has not been fully understood, excessive intake of aluminum has been considered as one of its causes.
In 1989, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations identified aluminum as a food contaminant and recommended its control, proposing that the allowable daily intake of aluminum for adults is 60 milligrams. From the current situation, a person may ingest 8 to 12 milligrams of aluminum from food each day; while using aluminum cookware and tableware leads to the ingestion of only 4 milligrams of aluminum dissolved in food. A large amount of aluminum comes from the abuse of aluminum-containing food additives, such as fried foods with added alum. A spot check by relevant authorities once found that the aluminum content in each kilogram of fried cakes exceeded 1000 milligrams. If you eat 50 grams of such fried cakes, it is possible to exceed the daily allowable intake of aluminum.
Lead content in the body
The less, the better
Besides iron, metal elements such as manganese, chromium, nickel, and copper are all essential trace elements that constitute the human body. Unlike these beneficial elements, lead has no physiological function in the human body. The ideal level of lead in the human body should be zero. However, due to environmental pollution and other issues, most people have a certain amount of lead in their bodies.
The reason why lead is more harmful to the human body is that the human body has a strong absorption capacity for lead. Children with excessive blood lead levels can still have an absorption rate as high as 50%, which is 10 times that of manganese.
The sources of lead are extensive: preserved eggs, puffed food, lead-painted tableware, plastic toys processed with lead-containing pigments, environmental pollution, etc. After lead enters the body through the respiratory or digestive tract, it will have systemic and multi-system effects on the body.
Due to the characteristics of metabolism and development, children are more sensitive to lead toxicity. High blood lead levels can adversely affect children's intellectual development, physical growth, learning ability, and hearing. "After lead enters the body, 95% eventually ends up in the bones. Once in the bones, lead can be 'sealed' by the bones. This part of lead will lose its toxicity, so people don't have to worry. Only the lead 'roaming' in the blood and organs will cause harm. In addition, the human body can metabolize and excrete some lead through the kidneys." Even so, Hao Fengtong reminds that we should try to reduce the intake of lead.
Is it not suitable to cook acidic food in an iron pot?
Iron pots are common cookware in people's lives. Many science popularization campaigns advocate using iron pots for cooking and recommend using cast iron pots instead of stainless steel pots. This is because iron is an essential trace element for the human body. If iron is deficient, it will affect the synthesis of hemoglobin, and the human body is prone to anemia.
There is also a view that acidic fruits such as bayberries, hawthorns, and crabapples are not suitable for cooking in iron pots because acidic foods contain citric acid, which will react with iron to produce ferrous compounds. However, there have been no clinical cases of poisoning caused by using iron pots. The main cause of iron poisoning in clinical practice is excessive supplementation of iron agents. But when you cook mung beans in an iron pot, the green soup will turn black. Acidic food does cause iron to oxidize to a certain extent, but it does not harm the human body.
Can vinegar reduce lead content?
Some people understand the harm of lead to the human body and know which foods have high lead content, but they are particularly fond of lead-containing food. Some people wonder, if you eat preserved eggs with vinegar, will it reduce the body's absorption of lead? In fact, this practice is the opposite. When vinegar meets lead, it forms lead acetate, which is more easily absorbed by the human body. The surface of ceramic containers with lead-containing colored glaze is also a source of lead intake. Some ceramic products are decorated with lead-containing paintings and are fired into shape without being glazed. If people use such containers to eat dumplings dipped in vinegar, it will also form lead acetate, which is harmful to the body.