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artsybashev t1_iv4aere wrote

Reply to comment by dmbfn07 in New member! Been lurking for a while! Just bought my daughter her first small gumbo pot! It’s a vintage Magnalite 5qt! These puppies last forever! by cindy_lou_who_1982

It is an aluminum alloy. Not safe for cooking unfortunately.

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boredlawyer90 t1_iv4ie71 wrote

It depends on how it’s made; this isn’t a universally true statement.

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artsybashev t1_iv4onj1 wrote

Yes there are surface coatings that prevent exposure to the aluminum.

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Trainzguy2472 t1_iv4lyv9 wrote

The whole "aluminum is bad for cooking" thing is completely false.

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artsybashev t1_iv4olq5 wrote

I bet you wont find modern aluminum cookware without some surface coating. It is for a reason that it is not used anymore.

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Faeglantina t1_iv4u2qo wrote

To be fair, it might be the same reason you don’t find themerisol in vaccines anymore. It wasn’t associated with autism, but they took it out in an attempt to reassure people into taking the vaccines again. Not that it worked. There are still people griping about mercury in vaccines.

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artsybashev t1_iv519sa wrote

It does take time for science to fix the incorrect beliefs, that is true. I do not want to be testing aluminun on myself and I just wanted to share my (partially outdated) knowledge of aluminum and its health concerns.

There was a snoops link in this threat that said:

"The available data do not suggest that aluminum is a causative agent of Alzheimer’s disease; however, it is possible that it may play a role in the disease development."

You can read that as you like. I like to try to avoid chemical exposure when it is easy to do and avoiding aluminum in cookware is one case. Apparently the obvious toxic levels are well above what you would ingest from daily cooking.

With all the possible interactions between the thousands of safe chemicals in our daily life, I feel like it is just much safer to avoid exposure when it is convenient.

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Faeglantina t1_iv51k75 wrote

You are really cherry picking from that article. It makes me wonder if you actually read the whole thing.

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artsybashev t1_iv53azw wrote

I did read it. Anyone interested should definitely read it too. I think that that line just put it nicely. Alzheimer’s is not caused by aluminum. There is a possibility that it might have some role in it.

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Faeglantina t1_iv541nz wrote

In science, it is far easier to prove a positive than it is a negative.

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artsybashev t1_iv53qix wrote

Highlights from the 2015 meta study linked to the snoops:

• This meta-analysis included 8 cohort and case control studies, with a total of 10567 individuals.

• Two main types of chronic Al exposure are reported: Al in drinking water and occupational exposure.

• This meta-analysis shows that chronic Al exposure is associated with 71% increased risk of AD.

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artsybashev t1_iv5432u wrote

In otherwords: do not worry about occational exposure to aluminum for example when using aluminum foil. Chronic exposure might slightly (71%) increase you chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease.

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Faeglantina t1_iv54nwz wrote

I don’t have a current Galileo password, so I can’t access to read the full paper you’re referencing. I doubt you can either. Maybe I’m wrong. However, you’re glossing over what constitutes significant chronic exposure. Like I said, zeroing on cookware doesn’t make any sense. Do you still drink tea? Take over the counter medications? Drink unfiltered water from your tap? Those all have higher exposures.

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artsybashev t1_iv54zo7 wrote

"For aluminum welders and workers in the aluminum industry, declining performance in neuropsychological tests (attention, learning, memory) has been found only with aluminum concentrations exceeding 100 µg/g creatinine in the urine"

"Creatinine Levels in Urine According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, the normal range of creatinine in a 24-hour urine sample is 500 to 2,000 mg a day."

So if you have a normal level of 1g of creatinine in your urine, you would need to ingest 0.1mg of aluminum daily. Your pot would dissolve 36.5mg per year or 365mg in 10 years.

Since not all of the aluminum gets absorbed the actual numbers are probably 10x larger.

I'm a med student so I have access through my uni.

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Treat_Choself t1_iv6j4il wrote

As the only person I've ever heard of who is violently allergic to thimerosal itself, those ninnies were a huge blessing to me.

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[deleted] t1_iv5svll wrote

[deleted]

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artsybashev t1_iv5ubh1 wrote

Yes commercial side does not have the incentive to avoid health issue causing practices until there is government regulations for it. Companies choose the cheapest products where it does not matter.

I have said to one restaurant that they should not serve food in aluminum dishes. They changed their practices almost immediately.

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Fruitndveg t1_iv537ze wrote

I wouldn’t go as far as to say completely false. The studies linking it with neuro-degenerative diseases have been inconclusive to the best of my knowledge. Aluminium is still pretty unsafe to ingest in any form though.

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roobot t1_iv5coh9 wrote

Pardon my ignorance, but this doesn’t include aluminum foil right?

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artsybashev t1_iv5d2n4 wrote

Aluminum foil is considered safe when used normally. Excess amounts might be problematic. Leeching happens mostly in high temperatures when in contact with acidic food.

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Fruitndveg t1_iv6gut8 wrote

I’m not sure. I try to limit how much I use it in cooking. I’d assume it’s generally fine for food storage though.

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LovsickPrfectaTerain t1_iv55cgx wrote

For one meal, not harmful. For a whole life? I'd like to disagree. My grandmother had some early dementia from using aluminum and copper cookware.

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uslashuname t1_iv57og5 wrote

You can easily and correctly find things saying “we don’t know if aluminum causes dementia” but this is because there’s a high burden of proof regarding “how?” in order to declare something a causal link.

What is definitely true: there is a strong and obvious link between aluminum and dementia, though how it is caused to exist is uncertain.

If you believe the simple solution is often the correct one here’s the simple answer: cooking and eating with aluminum leads to dementia. Is this proven? No. Is it likely to be at least a part of the truth, whenever that is known for sure? Yes

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