Throw out your black spatula
-
And yoir Tupperware, your sippy cups, your gas range, and possibly your parchment paper.
A long read from The Atlantic. I’m never sure what to think after reading articles like this.
-
I have been using wooden spoons and spatulas since forever, and added silicone spatulas 25 years ago. Given some people's reactions to silicone implants, I've wondered if ingesting silicone bits can be harmful.
My plastic spatula and spoons are 30 years old and I'm hoping they were made of virgin and not recycled plastic.
I never reheat food in plastic containers, but I do occasionally sous vide, which means I have a plastic bag with food in it that is in warm water for hours on end. I store leftovers in plastic containers. And I wrap my cheese in plastic wrap.
I had a set of Pyrex storage containers with snap-on lids and gave them away.
My milk is in a carton, not a plastic bottle. It tastes better.
It never occurred to me until a year or two ago that my gas cooktop is a source of carbon monoxide. I now always turn on the exhaust fan.
I've been chasing the non-stick pan thing for years. Thought when I got Granitium pans that I had solved the problem, but now am reading those pans still have bad stuff in them.
I use parchment paper a lot when baking bread.
Not in the article, but for 25 years or more I've been trying to avoid milk products with bovine growth hormone, at least for the things that are labeled, like milk, half-and-half, and butter . Most of my cheese comes from countries currently or formerly (hello, UK!) in the EU. I believe rGBH is banned there.
After all that, as my late great-aunt said, "We all have to die of something."
-
Snopes says the black plastic problem is legit. I think we have one black spatula. And some black takeout containers.
-
This is the original Atlantic article from last month that's referenced in the podcast transcript that @Steve-Miller posted. It has a lot more detail about what's going on.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/throw-out-your-black-plastic-spatula/ar-AA1tcvht
-
We have some black utensils. I've been avoiding them since this story broke, but haven't conferred with Quirt about whether we're throwing them all out.
We have almost no nonstick cookware. I do still have a nonstick electric skillet and electric griddle that I mainly use when we have company. They're good for things like big batches of spaghetti sauce and French toast and such. I may still have a nonstick Bundt cake pan. For daily use, no.
We've shifted most of our refrigerator storage to Pyrex. They have plastic lids, but the lids don't touch the food.
The lactose-free milk we like comes in plastic bottles.
A large percentage of what I eat these days comes from the farmer's market. It's not packed in plastic and I think it's all organically grown. That has to be good, right? I hope?
I guess the short answer is that we've scaled way back on sources of dangerous compounds in our food, but they're hard to avoid..
-
I detest plastic so I have as little of it as possible. My cooking utensils are metal or wood. A few spatulas for scraping bowls might be silicone, and one might actually be plastic but they are not for hot foods. They're for getting every last bit of batter out of a mixing bowl. My stovetop cookware is stainless or cast iron, my bakeware is glass or aluminum. (My dream is to have mostly copper which means induction would be out of the question.) Nothing non-stick because of the birds (and me). My stove is gas but I don't live in a modern air-tight house.
One area that needs improvement is food storage. Most of my refrigerator containers are plastic. I have 3 or 4 glass ones but the rest are plastic. Maybe I'll start to replace those. More vintage Pyrex would be nice.
But it's impossible to come back from the grocery store without some plastic. Grr.
-
Ugh, we have several black plastic cooking utensils that are in heavy use. We’ll have to figure out what to do…
Re plastic, it’s so hard to avoid. Milk, yogurt… what else?
We do use Pyrex or other non-plastic bowls for microwave reheating.
But what about the reusable microwave lid, that’s plastic?
And in our new house, we have the big fancy gas stove/oven. We’ve been trying to remember to have the exhaust fan on whenever we use it, but is that enough?
-
At 69, I'm not going to start worrying about this now. No one gets out alive. Having several black plastic utensils I use a lot, they are very seldom exposed to significant heat (for obvious reasons) and do not contact the food for long.
What are the alternatives? Wood? Harbors germs, not dishwasher safe. Silicone? Is it really any better than plastic? I use some All-Clad nonstick saute pans, but that's all the nonstick I have.
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
― Douglas Adams -
-
At 69, I'm not going to start worrying about this now. No one gets out alive. Having several black plastic utensils I use a lot, they are very seldom exposed to significant heat (for obvious reasons) and do not contact the food for long.
What are the alternatives? Wood? Harbors germs, not dishwasher safe. Silicone? Is it really any better than plastic? I use some All-Clad nonstick saute pans, but that's all the nonstick I have.
@Mik said in Throw out your black spatula:
At 69, I'm not going to start worrying about this now. No one gets out alive.
No, but all of us are experiencing increased longevity.
Personally, I’m not 60 yet. I could easily live for another 25 years or more.
That makes me wonder how much effort I want put into these kinds of things (cancer-reducing activities), and how much “return on investment “ I might see on that effort….
-
One can be compulsively careful about these things and get hit by a bus or a genetic predisposition you've had all your life. I'd personally be more interested in comprehensive genetic testing than I would worrying about kitchen utensils. (Disclaimer: I'm working deeply with that kind of genetic testing this year)
Bear in mind also that our increasing lifespan has occurred as we have massively increased the chemicals in our environment, so we must be doing something right. Worry accomplishes little and steals joy.
-
One can be compulsively careful about these things and get hit by a bus or a genetic predisposition you've had all your life. I'd personally be more interested in comprehensive genetic testing than I would worrying about kitchen utensils. (Disclaimer: I'm working deeply with that kind of genetic testing this year)
Bear in mind also that our increasing lifespan has occurred as we have massively increased the chemicals in our environment, so we must be doing something right. Worry accomplishes little and steals joy.
@Mik said in Throw out your black spatula:
I'd personally be more interested in comprehensive genetic testing than I would worrying about kitchen utensils.
That makes sense. Although I thought a lot the things that are tested for don't yet have clear treatment plans? Maybe that's outdated?
Bear in mind also that our increasing lifespan has occurred as we have massively increased the chemicals in our environment, so we must be doing something right.
Indeed! I never thought of it that way! Although OTOH, life spans are increasing, but what about all those articles I see which mention rising rates of various cancers? As always, it's complicated!
Worry accomplishes little and steals joy.
Of course. But if there are little changes one can make, perhaps over time, to nudge the needle, why not?
-
You can get a set of 15 silicone kitchen utensils for some $20 on Amazon.
Couldn’t hurt.
-
So I made a pile of plastics, a worn cutting board, old scratched trifle bowl we use for mixing, salad tongs, almost new black nylon spatula, two measuring cups.
Not much, we have and mostly use wood or glass alterntives.
Told MrsA. Asked if she'd like a cuppa?
And sighed
https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/nutmeg-home-classic-kettle-black/113488049Does it count?
-
But not all parchment paper, apparently.
