Throw out your black spatula
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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
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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..
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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.
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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?
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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 -
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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….
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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.
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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?
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You can get a set of 15 silicone kitchen utensils for some $20 on Amazon.
Couldn’t hurt.
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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?
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But not all parchment paper, apparently.
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My daughter has a bunch of those old soft plastic drinking glasses in weird colors with embedded glitter in them. The exteriors are sticky, and you can feel roughness on the insides, so you know some of that plastic ends up in your drink. Yet she insists on glass food containers.
I think it’s time for an intervention.
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Kettles, good grief, what a can of worms.
Britain, tea drinkers of something like 40billion cups annually do not manufacture a single electric kettle!Nearest non plastic electric kettle that's also not made in China appears to be (no not french or german...)
Italian.I'm tempted to get a traditional small hob kettle.
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Kettles, good grief, what a can of worms.
Britain, tea drinkers of something like 40billion cups annually do not manufacture a single electric kettle!Nearest non plastic electric kettle that's also not made in China appears to be (no not french or german...)
Italian.I'm tempted to get a traditional small hob kettle.
@AndyD I know. I finally settled for a Chinese made (mostly) glass electric kettle a couple of years ago when I retired my Simplex. The Chefman does have a black plastic lid that water condenses on and drips back down into the kettle, probably not a good thing.
I came close to incinerating the Simplex when I put water on to boil and then popped out to the back yard to take care of some gardening task or another. I'd be out there a little longer than expected and suddenly realize that the kettle was boiling dry. After the third near-miss I decided a kettle with auto-shutoff was probably a good idea. I still have the Simplex in the basement. Maybe I'll put it back to work, at least for the winter months when I'm mostly inside...
