Colleagues, I’m sorry for opening this topic, but I didn’t see anything like this on the forum and I believe that these are important aspects in the search for longevity.
I live in Brazil and unfortunately I have access to almost non extremely high-quality options in terms of kitchen utensils. However, I will be in the USA in next months and I would like to buy the healthiest things possible for daily use.
Does anyone have any recommendations for healthy pans (pure stainless stell), blenders (BPA, PFOA, plastic free…)?
Tramontina brand products are made in Brazil and it’s high quality recommended by NYT Wirecutter. Either way, it will have a marginal benefit compared to other interventions.
I don’t think this is a big issue if you are mostly blending cooler foods… e.g. mostly making smoothies, etc. I use a VitaMix, which I love, mostly for mixing smoothies. I’m thinking there likely is more risk of micro plastics from a hot mixture (i.e. if you’re mixing soups that are hot) as it might partially melt the plastic.
But I did notice that there is now a stainless steel option for the Vitamix, but given these are already pretty expensive blenders ($400 to $700 now), its getting pretty crazy high in pricing. Though they do last forever… I’ve had mine for about 20 years now with minimal issues.
I think there are other blenders with glass blending containers.
Nickel/Stainless steel is interesting. Years back, I would avoid stainless steel. If you find an old bowl, pot or pan made of stainless steel that’s more than 15 years old, you’ll likely find small to medium sized “pits” that form in it.
I believe that the reason these occurred in the past and do not seem to occur in today’s bowls/pots/pans is the source of the nickel.
Fifteen years ago, most nickel came from sulfide-rich ores. Yet, about 80% of the world’s nickel supply is in laterites, this is low-sulfide, and low-nickel but billions of tons exist. Fairly recently new methods pushed laterite ores to be the predominant ore, and there is so much of this stuff that it’s pushed the price of nickel down. (Note: at a cost since laterite ore processing is disgustingly filthy, this is not the case with sulfide ore—the largest mine in Indonesia simply dumps its voluminous waste into the ocean).
The short of it was such that today all pans/pots and such come from laterite ore—from cheap ore, but it is pure. But, prior to this, nickel was so costly that much of the pots/pans were made from recycled metal—and that recycled metal often contained impurities such that, over time, these “pits” occurred. And if “pits” were occurring that meant that both the nickel and whatever else was there—was leaching into your spaghetti sauce.
So, today, I’m happy with stainless steel, whereas 20 years ago, I did not trust it as much.
There is an interesting discussion as to whether Nickel has a proper functional role in human metabolism (and is hence in exceedingly small amounts “essential”). However, that’s not an argument to consume it unnecessarily.
I certainly don’t want to use Teflon-coated pans etc. Of course, I just use all stainless steel copper bottom pans and Granitestone frying pans.
Just be careful that you get genuine Granitestone. There are fakes using the name.
In this semi-scientific test, Granitestone was the best in evenly distributed heat.
As with many things, there is not a direct relationship between price and quality.
I I am with @desertshores with type of material, no teflon for sure.
I use cast iron a good deal, also stainless, ceramic, and pyrex. I will not touch teflon… I know the newe stuff is suppose to be better. Still even though I am not a bird it bothers me that overheating even the new stuff off gasses toxin fumes that has and will kill birds as large as large parrots quick. I checked my pan temps with an IR thermometer. On medium low my cast iron pan can get to 600F. Thats med low! Now mist likely other pa alloys will not but its just way to easy tomoverheat a pan at some point. I do not want to breath whatever it is not do I like the idead of it chiping or wearing off into food.
Some of my cast iron is handed down now numerous generations. My oldest stuff is my greatx2 grand mothers from early 1800s . Then a bunch of old lodge and newer stuff is mostly Le Creuset which has gotten silly $$$. My old cast iron is exteemely smooth and easy to clean. If you have electric range top I can not imagine cooking with any other pan as it gives much more even heat.
Personally on blenders if you have a generous budget I with spring for the vitamix vita-prep 3 commercial blender. Or if its drinks/smoithies only not more dooking related the Vitamix “The Quiet One” model ķsame as Starbucks and many smoothie and coffee shops use. They have 3 hp motors extra large cooking fans upgraded gears etc. But they are not cheap. The other mac-daddy is the vitamix XL 4 hp 1.5 gal and 2lL bowls but now your closer to $2k then 1.
Whats nice with the vitamix units is you can get parts and most everything is plug and screw-n-bolt. If something fails even outside the country I think you could order the parts. Vitamix will warranty service any of there blenders from out of the country but you pay tge shipping back to the country of purchase service center. If you or someone you know is handy you can replace parts yourself. Personally I stick with mech switches and knobs models as circuit boards with built in cpus etc and electronic buttons worry me for longevity. Then again their higher end home units have 10 yr warranties so it sounds way better than the crap they use in refrigerators dishwaters etc these days.
I think I’ll continue use Teflon but I change all the time from “healthy/unhealthy”, last I did it for around two weeks. If it’s ever substantiated it is very unhealthy for real I wonder if it would be banned then.
We have vitamix and I had to replace the rheostat, actually no big deal. If you hired somebody to do it these days it would be probably $75/hr.
But the jug is plastic and it’s nice to be able to see it work, like if something isn’t getting mixed. SS might be safer, but not as nice. Glass is best and I don’t know if I can find one to replace it with.
I’ve been using plastic all my life, so doubt replacing the vitamix jug is going to turn me around at this point, lol.
When you consider all the micro plastics in sea food commercial food crops etc any minute amount if any from the type of plastic used in tge vitamix container is inconsequential. Its far less of an issue then all the various foods liquids packaged and sold in actively biodegradabling plastic. Water bottles kept in hot vehicles …trunks etc. Heck even the RO water systems a meant to remover toxins are plastic.
When we built our current home they wanted to use whatever the newest PEX hose for water piping. I disagreed and ended up plumbing it all in myself with copper. I know for a fact it will last 100+ yrs and will not suddenly start leaking in 30yrs, not polute my water, or make noxious gases if there is a fire. Feel the same way about OSB.
Modern granite cookware features an aluminum core coated with a mineral-based surface. That’s right – they’re not stones, they’re minerals , Marie. That outer mineral-based surface is non-porous and inert, which means that whatever is in the coating will stay there and not leach into the food.
They’re minerals, uh…but nobody seems to know just what minerals they are and the cute name “granitestone” is sort of weird. Granite is feldspar/quartz, granite is a stone because it’s made of of several minerals.
But nobody really knows just what these “minerals” are… I’m suspicious.
