From: Steven Eiger (eiger@montana.edu)
Date: Sat Oct 09 1999 - 16:39:49 PDT
Message-Id: <l03102801b4257c7a8b05@[153.90.236.25]> Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 17:39:49 -0600 From: Steven Eiger <eiger@montana.edu> Subject: Re: pinhole Aluminum on my Mind
>Be careful, iron is a toxic element when the tissue levels get too high. Iron
>poisoning is more common than most people think. Cook with aluminum utensils.
While Iron in the body is certainly a bad thing when it gets a bit too
high, luckily the gut is very hesitant to absorb very much of it, and if I
remember, absorption is under physiological control. This is quite lucky
as the recommended daily dose of geritol would kill us if it were
significantly absorbed. I do not know how extra iron in the gut affects
our normal bacterial flora. I wonder if we are a little too concerned
about the metals we cook in; we are not using lead or cobalt. Stainless
steel (and Teflon) is supposed to be quite inert, thus covering conductive
metals like aluminum or copper with it seems like a good design. I have a
habit of just wiping pans off with oil on a paper towel, this is probably
unhealty, as the oil is probably rancid by the time I cook again, but it
prevents sticking. I bring this up as the surfaces of these metals are
probably catalytic or inhibitory to certain chemical reactions, and maybe
in the future we can worry about that. I want a pan with a designer
surface which takes food and converts it into that healthy stuff in
blueberries, whatever it is, and makes me smarter and younger with every
mouthful, and I need it quick.
Happy cooking, and happier eating, Steve Eiger
Steven Eiger, Ph.D.
Departments of Biology and the WWAMI Medical Education Program
Montana State University - Bozeman
Bozeman, MT 59717-3460
Voice: (406) 994-5672
E-mail: eiger@montana.edu
FAX: (406) 994-3190
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Oct 19 2000 - 11:09:36 PDT