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Open Thread: Week 13

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Welcome back to our open thread. Let’s dive in.
Future article idea/suggestion : Cookware… Teflons vs cast iron’s and others… Health benefits- dangers… Etc.
This is something I’ve researched and am pretty passionate about. I believe the community would gain some knowledge by hearing your take on it.
Msquared,

You’re always dependable for a post idea. Thank you for that. Let me start by saying that I can’t wait to hear your take as well.

Here at KL, we appreciate top quality goods. As such, we love cast iron for cooking.

When my family and I built our current home, we intentionally created a dark kitchen. The woods we selected for the floor and beams are deep and rich, our lighting is subtle and the room has a cabin-like feel. We knew we needed some color to brighten the mood and bring in some light. Rather than splash tile or an bright accent wall, we tracked down some colorful pots and pans. Those orange and blue bad boys are made of cast iron.

Since then, the cookware has housed sizzling steaks, stews bubbling for many hours and just about every type of meat and veggie you can imagine. I may have had optimized for aesthetics, but I knew the potentially negative health implications of some of the other options like teflon and aluminum. From whfoods.org:
Cookware made from materials that carry with them substantial risk of toxicity, even if research shows relatively little leaching of their toxic substances, should automatically not be considered to be among your best options. We would put aluminum cookware into this category. In the past five years, we’ve seen over 100 studies about aluminum and disease. This metal has consistently been placed in the top 200 health-jeopardizing toxins by the ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a non-stick pan that I use for eggs. I’ve been on a mission for years to execute the perfect fried egg and I haven’t accomplished the task yet. I’m fully aware that my best chance for success in that regard is with a slippery surface. Am I rolling the dice trying to reach the perfect level of egg crispiness utilizing teflon? From blog.zocdoc.com:
Importantly, only trace amounts if any PFOA is present in the final Teflon product and the EPA does not think discontinuing use of non-stick cookware is necessary. Independent tests of 26 commercial brands of cookware indicate that the amount of chemicals migrating from cookware into food is negligible.
In fairness, I think more research is in order. We often talk about how critical it is to be aware and educated. We must continually be mining the answers for why, even about our cook wear.

Like the dependability of Msquared’s questions and comments, cast iron is rock solid, and I know why I use it.
Cast iron is also a cookware material we really like. When properly seasoned, the surface itself is great for cooking, and when material does leach from cast iron, it’s an essential mineral (iron) that many of us can easily incorporate into a healthy day of mineral intake. For some individuals, cast iron cookware can actually make a very important contribution to health.
I’m not fully convinced. I want more proof. You can help.

What do you use and, more importantly, why?

Kap
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  • Jeff S

    Kap
    I love the 5×5 weightlifting program. I’ve made good progress for the past two months up until now. For the past week and a half or so I’ve started to develop painful tendonitis in my shoulders and in my knees/quads. Has this ever happened to you over the years? If so, what’s the remedy? I’d hate to take extended time off because I don’t want to go backwards.

    I’ve been lifting for around 15 years or so but for some reason this is my first ever real bout with tendonitis. Any thoughts or advice?

  • Stan Mickus

    Le Creuset baby! Anything cooked with these bad boys comes out terrific! They are pricey but you can find them a bit cheaper on Amazon and they are worth the investment especially if you enjoy good cooking and doing it well. I believe the enameled cast iron surface is relatively harmless.

    • Jeff S

      I recently bought a ScanPan non-stick skillet. Certified PFOA free and one of the best cooking products I’ve purchased in years

      • Stan Mickus

        Got one of those. Like Kap I keep a non stick on hand for eggs and pancakes. The Scan pan worked great for about a year but then the surface began to breakdown and it now has a fairly seasoned coating on it. I now only use it for bacon, sautéing onions and frying. I recently bought a Swiss Diamond and that seems pretty good. A little sturdier than the Scan pan and similar in price.

    • LSuzuki

      Yeah, pricey and pretty.

  • LSuzuki

    I use a Cuisinart Green Gourmet skillet (ceramic-based non-stick) for eggs, a huge cast iron skillet for stir fry and other stovetop cooking (will replace it with Cuisinart GG eventually), a stainless soup pot for steamed veggies and pasta, plus Pyrex sauce pans of various sizes. And I just bought a crock pot for bone broth and other stuff that I’m about to discover.

  • Joe Diaz

    Kap,

    Our family employs cast iron all the way. We have small and large cast iron skillets that we use daily. My mother raised me on cast iron mostly in part because we couldn’t afford expensive cookware so my parents picked up cast iron because it was cheap and lasts forever (if you take care of it). My wife grew up in a camping family and cast iron is a staple in the camping world so it was an easy choice for us. I use cast iron every day when making breakfast for the family and it works great. Now that we have a little bit more coin in our pocket, we picked up a Le Creuset Dutch Oven that we use for soups and sauces. I love this piece of cookware and try to find a reason to use on a daily basis. It’s a bit steep in cost ($250.00) but this item will outlive you so I consider it an investment.

    I’d love to pick non-stick cookware (sans petroleum) to hone my omelette making skills but I don’t know of a product. I’m open to suggestions if you have any. Keep on doing what you do Kap..

    Peace out brother

  • Stan steinkruger

    Kap.you need to look in to Saladmaster cookware.it’s the best in the market. http://Www.saladmaster. com

  • Stan steinkruger

    What is your opinion on baseball travel clubs? I have heard a lot of pro’s and cons

  • Msquared

    Good afternoon Kap-
    Thank you for taking my questions and post-ideas into consideration. By dependence, I think
    you mean my ignorance..;) .. which, no matter, I will go with, as long as you (& others here) continue to share the knowledge.
    The subject on cookware and Teflon is one that I am extremely passionate about. I often attempt to share (brow-beat) colleagues and friends on the matter when we sit in discussion. I will start out by saying that up until about 3 years ago, I used Teflon every day and loved the ease at which my eggs slid in and out of it. Somewhere around that time, my family and pets became under attack to a barrage of life threatening illnesses. This series of events, caused me to scrutinize and question everything, in search of answers. In all, I came to several conclusions, all centering on a number of conspicuous practices that caused further questioning into the methods in which we grow, process, package, prepare and store our foods. Upon my studies, the first change I made in my families households was to begin removing their Teflon cookware…….
    Today, I almost exclusively use Cast Iron. Kap was spot on in pointing out the healthy
    dose of iron that it allows into your meals while cooking.
    Beyond this, there are cast iron pans that are still in use from as far back as the late 1800’s.

    There is something to be said about this as it is a material that *does not break
    down* easily and can sustain over the course of 100 years.
    Recently, some have suggested I look into ceramic-coated cast iron. Based upon the term “coated”, it
    makes me want to avoid this pan right there, however I have heard some positives about ceramic and plan to take a closer view. From what I have researched thus far, I am confident that stainless steel is also safe as well.

    Some thoughts on the aforementioned Teflon…..

    From Psychologytoday.com:

    (Robert Wolke,
    professor emeritus of chemistry at the University
    of Pittsburgh and author of “What Einstein Told His Cook”, if
    Teflon-lined pans are heated to 600 degrees, “all kinds of toxic chemicals
    are released.” If you leave an empty, or a nearly empty, nonstick pan on a hot burner for a
    few minutes, he says, by the time you smell it in the next room, toxic fumes
    are in the air. The fumes can cause headaches and chills and even kill pet birds, which
    have sensitive lungs. If you do accidentally leave an empty pan over a flame,
    you should quickly air out the room.)

    From Livestrong.com:

    (The DuPont trademark
    non-stick coating Teflon, generically known as polytetrafluorethylene, or PTFE,
    can release a gas at high heat called PFOA, which has been labeled as a human
    carcinogen by the EPA Science Advisory Board. Care2.com states that DuPont is
    taking part in a voluntary program to eliminate sources of PFOA in the
    manufacture of Teflon by 2015, but avoiding the coating in cookware could
    supply peace of mind that no possible toxic substance would make it into your
    food.)

    So my question goes out to the Kaplifestyle Community: “have you ever
    opened a brand new Telfon pan and had it haze your entire kitchen upon first
    cooking?” I have. From my research, this tells me that you and I
    inhaled a strong dose of carcinogens during this time. Likewise, we have also ingested such fumes
    whenever we have accidentally burned an oil or butter in that pan as well. Beyond this, now consider those of us (me, guilty) who have used a Teflon pan that has been scratched over time thus bearing
    flakes of this substance into our meals.

    From SteadyHealth.com:

    (TEFLON has shown to reach high
    temperatures of about 721 degrees in just 5 minutes. At which time not less
    than six gases are emitted which includes two carcinogens, two global
    pollutants and MFA which is lethal to humans at low doses.
    Also Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a form of ammonium salt which is used as
    surfactant in the emulsion polymerization of PTFE, has been termed as a likely
    carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) scientific advisory
    board.
    What one has to understand is that Teflon toxicosis ( as in cases of birds) and
    polymer fume fever ( as in case of humans) may end up being lethal by causing
    hemorrhage to the lungs and subjecting it to filling with fluid thus leading to
    suffocation.
    Though Teflon is shown to be extremely dangerous to workers who are the victims
    of direct exposure to the toxic chemicals during the manufacturing process, it
    also tends to effect the population indirectly too.
    Communities who depend on water supplies that may be contaminated by Teflon
    manufacturing chemicals are also at high risk of toxicity.
    So imagine all these toxic products being released into the atmosphere every
    time you fry an egg or decide to cook some fries! ) (Kap- Eggs?)

    At the end of the day, there will always be folks who claim that “everyone will die someday” and “the small amounts toxicity you receive from a pan aren’t enough to hurt you”.
    My response to this is surmised in two simple statements:

    1) Everything adds up. Cooking with and consumingnon-natural substances (carcinogens, nitrates, hormones, antibiotics,chemicals, GMO’s, metals, etc..) on a daily basis is creating an organization
    of substances that was NOT MEANT to be in the human body. The congregation of these materials does in fact have something to do with the rise of inexplicable disease amongst our population over the past 40 years. By ignoring these dangers, you are essentially playing a game of Russian roulette with a gun that slowly is adding more bullets each time
    you play.
    2) The people will who live by such an avoid-ant mantra will think differently if (and I hope they never do) see their loved ones suffer with cancer.

    As I write this, emotions boil… why would our government allow such products to sit on the shelves for the unknowing to purchase? Where is the governing body that looks out for our best interest and scrutinizes the toxic items that we are poisoning ourselves and loved-ones with?

    1-man march. See you in Washington…. I’m out.

    • http://kaplifestyle.com/ Stephanie St Amour

      Msquared,

      Thanks for this reply. You’ve clearly done a lot of research, and your passion for the subject shines through. Exceptional job. I can’t say I agree with all of the points you made here, but I love that you shared it so that we could all benefit. Well done.

      • Msquared

        Thanks Steph. Come to NorCal…..Hollar at me… We will do coffee and I will continue to convince you. ;)

        • http://kaplifestyle.com/ Stephanie St Amour

          Sounds like a plan!

  • Msquared

    PS- Your kitchen sounds bitchin’. Love to see some pics.

  • ProfessorTwain

    Kap, thanks for the open forum. I’m 60 years old, have been lifting
    weights for 20 years. I’ve had a knee surgery, doc wants me to avoid too
    much strain on the knees. For the last 10 years my goal has been
    maintenance. I do circuit training, mainly dumbbells for upper body,
    pyramiding between 12 and 6-8 reps, and going with leg press,
    extensions, and hamstring curls light enough I can do 20 reps. Usually 3
    sets for everything. I push myself hard but I’m careful about safety and have avoided going heavy with fewer reps. I’ve been intrigued by your writing about 5 X 5
    training. Any experience with guys my age going heavier for lower reps,
    and whether it would put me at risk for injury? Thanks.

  • http://www.Kelebekfusion.com Kelebek Beyaz

    I know I have mentioned many times how old school my mother was here to the KLF (no packaged foods, dinner cooked every night etc). I Inherited most of my cookware after she passed away a few years ago. She was a big fan of cast iron because that’s all she knew. I have an aunt who gave her a piece or two of teflon every year for Christmas and my mother just kept them in the box. I inherited those too.
    Like you Kap, my non-sticks are for certain things but I’m all for a delicious piece of meat cooked on a cast iron skillet or in my smoker.
    -Kelebek
    P.S. Your kitchen sounds off the chains! Very Hot!