Question from L.M.
Debra,
After hearing about how bad aluminum is, I switched from using aluminum foil to parchment paper. However, from your site I am now learning that the reynolds white/bleached parchment paper is no better, although I am not clear as to why. Is it for environmental reasons or health reasons? I also use the national brand paper towels and toilette that are white, and therefore, I will assume are bleached as well. I tried to search on your website and found information about chlorine and fluoridation in relation to these products. But I am still confused as to why these things are bad, I actually thought fluoride was good for your teeth. I am just learning to cook and trying to be as healthy as possible in the process, but it’s confusing/overwhelming!
Is there something I should look for other than unbleached. That is, I don’t want to find out I bought unbleached, but the unbleached product contains a worse chemical in it too(I can’t afford to spend money on the name brand health brands right now, so I will probably go with the store brand name ie Trader Joe’s brand). Thanks so much, I have learned a lot through your website and now understand the saying “ignorance is bliss” 🙂
Debra’s Answer
The problem with bleached products is that the chlorine bleaching process interacts with the paper to form dioxin, which is one of the most toxic substances in the world. This has been known for many years, which is why we now have unbleached paper products, and paper products bleached with substances other than chlorine (you might see the notation on a product that it was bleached with a chlorine-free process).
So the answer is that you want to stay away from bleached paper products primarily for health reasons, as it does leach into food, although it isn’t good to put dioxin in the environment either.
Any brand of unbleached parchment paper is fine.
