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When you cook something, microscopic amounts of the material your cookware is made of may leach into the food and enter your body. Are some types of cookware better than others from a health perspective?

Most of the cookware available is safe to use for daily meal preparation, as long as it is used as intended and maintained well.

Aluminum

Aluminum is a popular choice for cooking because it is lightweight, conducts heat well and is fairly inexpensive. Aluminimum smelting is an energy intensive and dirty process however, which may factor into an EarthMum's decision to use it or otherwise.

Many people claim there is a link between Alzheimers disease and aluminum, but that has not been proven. Only a small proportion of the average daily aluminium absorbed by an adult is due to cookware.

Aluminum dissolves into food most easily from worn or pitted pots and pans. You can minimize the amount of aluminium absorbed by your food by minimizing the time your food spends in contact with the pan. Don't store food in aluminium containers. Acidic foods increase the amount of aluminium absorbed, so if you are cooking foods like tomatoes or citrus, perhaps choose a pot made from some other material.

Anodized Aluminium Cookware

Anodized aluminium has a coating of aluminium oxide on the surface, which forms a hard, scratch resistant, non-stick surface, making it tough and easy to clean. Cookware made from anodized aluminum has comparable heat conduction properties to pieces made from ordinary aluminum.

The anodization process reduces leaching of aluminum from cookware into foods, and is a better choice than plain aluminium from this point of view.

Copper

Copper conducts heat well, making it easy to control cooking temperatures.

Ingesting trace amounts of copper is good for health. However, consuming a large amount in a single dose or over a short period can be poisonous. It is not certain how much can be safely taken each day.

Because of this, copper and brass pans are coated with another metal that prevents the copper from having direct contact with food. Scouring can damage the protective layer, as can contact with acidic foods.

Stainless Steel and Iron Cookware

Stainless steel is made from Iron and other elements including nickel and chromium. Cookware made from stainless steel is popular b/c it is inexpensive, strong, and robust.

The body needs iron is to produce red blood cells. Too much iron can be poisonous, but the average person is more likely to be deficient in iron than have too much. Using iron cookware contributes less than 20% of total daily iron intake, which is well within safe levels.

The amounts of Chromium and Nickel absorbed from cooking with stainless steel are small enough not to be of concern.

This topic will be continued in a second post - keep a look out for it!