Question from J. D.

I was searching around online and found your site. While there I was checking out your information on cookware materials. But, there was one thing that I noticed wasn’t covered… cooking with aluminum being linked to alhemizers. Do you know anything about this? If so is anondized aluminum also linked to the disease?

As I understand the aluminum and Alzheimer’s issue is that it’s linked to cooking with aluminum. I have no idea if anodized aluminum is problematic or not. Since it appears to be linked to heat it may be with old unanodized alumium. But these findings are new last year or so, and I’d be surprised if they weren’t using anodized aluminum. Personally I’d think that soda cans would be the worst at leeching, with the acids in soda I can’t see why not. Aluminum foil with the stress it goes under as you manipulate it would seem like an ideal candidate for breaking down. From what I’ve seen you are very resourceful, I’m sure you can find the answer.

You do a good job educating people to what some of these health issues are. You’ve even opened my eyes to things I never thought about. I’m sure my wife and I’ll will be visiting your site often.

Thanks!

Debra’s Answer

That aluminum salts from cookware can leach from the pot into the food being cooked, particularly if the food is acidic, and the corresponding symptoms that result, has been known for a number of years. For this reason, the sale of aluminum-lined cookware is prohibited in Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland, Hungary, and Brazil. It is still permitted in America but most aluminum cookware sold in America today is lined with a non-stick finish another thing to avoid.

Most aluminum cookware manufactured today is anodized. When a cookware label says it is made from anodized aluminum, it means that the aluminum was dipped into a hot acid bath that seals the aluminum by changing it’s molecular structure. Once anodized, the aluminum will not leach into food, and so would not contribute to aluminum exposure.

As to whether or not aluminum foil leaches aluminum, logic tells me yes it would. If a standard aluminum pot will leach aluminum, then a sheet of aluminum would also leach, unless it was coated or anodized. Aluminum foil is produced by passing aluminum between rollers under pressure. It is shiny on one side only because as it passes through the final rollers, two thicknesses of foil are rolled together. The sides facing each other have the dull finish, while the sides in contact with the rollers become shiny from the burnishing effect of the rollers. It looks like nothing is applied to the aluminum that would prevent leaching.

Aluminum soda cans also leach aluminum into soft drinks. I don’t know if they are the worst, but they definately do leach.

As to whether or not cooking with aluminum or any of these other exposures are is linked to Alzheimer’s…that’s a big question.

Aluminum is ubiquitous in our environment. It is the third most abundant element in the earth’s crust oxygen is #1, silicon is #2. Aluminum is in our air, water and soil, and therefore in the plants and animals we eat. Because every time we breathe, eat or drink we take small quantities of aluminium into our bodies, our bodies have highly effective natural functions to remove the amount of aluminum we are exposed to in the natural environment. According to the International Aluminum Institute, “recent studies have shown that the absorption of aluminium from the digestive tracts is often as low as 0.001%”. And in healthy individuals, the kidneys quickly excrete most of the aluminum our bodies absorb.

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