The Indian community widely relies on using aluminium utensils for cooking purposes. Aluminium utensils are lightweight, cheap, rust-free and easily available, their use has increased a lot in our kitchen. All most every utensil in our kitchen like sausepan, frypan, pressure cooker, karahi, dekchi and various other utensils are made up of aluminium. Around 6 years ago, I saw my mother throw out every single aluminium utensils present in our house and for years I wondered why did she do that until today.
Cooking in an aluminium vessel is not a wise idea, since aluminium readily reacts with oxygen present in the atmosphere and produces aluminium oxide.The aluminium oxide forms layers on the utensil’s surface with which the food reacts while cooking. When we eat the food made in aluminium utensils, the aluminium enters and gets accumulated inside our body. Aluminium oxide can seriously affect the brain, affect neurons and cause dementia. It can also result in kidney and renal failure. Aluminium also neutralises the vitamins and minerals present in the food. The longer food is cooked or stored in aluminium, the greater the amount that gets into food. Food materials like salt, tea, leafy vegetables, soda, lemon, tamarind and tomato should not be cooked or kept in aluminium vessels.If we eat food made in aluminium utensils for many years it is accumulated in our muscles, kidneys, lever and bones. This deposition cause many harmful diseases which the people are not aware. It mainly acts upon brain and stops the growth of human brain cells. In this way the aluminium utensils are harmful to our body. There are number of diseases caused due to consuming food processed in aluminium utensils-
* Memory loss and depression
* Depression and anxiety
* Ulcer in mouth
* Asthma
* Appendix
* Kidney failure
* Alzheimer
* Eye problem
* Diarrhoea
You can perform a simple experiment at home to confirm my words. Take a glass of water and heat it in an aluminium utensil. After heating the water pour it in a transparent glass. You can observe after 3-4 days that there is a Gray loomy substance floating in water, that is nothing but aluminium . These utensils make the food toxic which as a result affect our body. Although there would be debates stating that nothing has happened to some people although they have used aluminium utensils but prevention is always better than cure.
Alternatives for Aluminium Utensils are-
“PORCELAIN-ENAMEL COATING” an alternative is aluminium or steel coated with porcelain-enamel. As long as the coating remains in good condition, the surface of these pots is durable, with no metal leaching into the food.
“IRONWARE” may be a good choice for some cooks, although cast iron is heavy and you need to be careful to prevent rusting.
“STAINLESS STEEL” is relatively inert compared to other metals, the metals present in the alloy can be released into food in extremely low quantities. These metals can include nickel, molybdenum, titanium, aluminium, and carbon steel.
I would like to urge all men and women chefs to stop using aluminium utensils and be smart like my mother.