We know the importance of buying good quality, nutrient dense food, but it’s also very important to consider what we are using to prepare that food with. Teflon has been a very popular product over the years, but unfortunately, it’s now known to have harmful effects on our health.
Teflon is a nonstick coating that can be found on cookware, food liners, many cosmetics, carpets, microwave popcorn bags, dental floss, and hundreds of other products. Teflon or tetrafluoride produces a toxic gas when heated to over 500 degrees. The pans don’t last forever and small particles can start falling off into your food. I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t sound like something I want to be eating.
According to the Weston Price website, “A recent spot on ABC’s 20/20 highlighted how inhaling fumes produced when a high-heat pan, such as one used to cook bacon, can cause an illness dubbed the Teflon-flu. The manufacturer, Dupont has known about the “flu” for years and warns about it on its website but not the product container.
When I learned about the harmful effects of Teflon several years ago, I replaced our Teflon pans with stainless steel (nickel free) and cast-iron pans. One of the promoted benefits of Teflon is the easy clean-up and not having to use so much fat. Since we believe that butter and animal fats are vital to our health, we don’t worry about using a lot of fat to cook with, and the clean-up really isn’t that bad (especially if we soak it right when we are done with some hot water). My waffle iron has a Teflon coating, and while we don’t use it that often, I would love to find a replacement. Any suggestions?
Have you ditched Teflon in your home and body care? We love to hear from you!
Our family has learned to slow down, make careful observations of what heals/damages, get rid of the distractions, take a little more time preparing our food, and most importantly to seek the Lord’s wisdom. It’s a daily struggle and it never goes perfectly, but we just keep trying to do the best we can. If you are working toward a more traditional, clean, whole foods diet, and would like to take small steps to get there, then you are at the right place. Week one was get your salt right, week 2 was get your sleep right, weeks 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were get your fats right, we had several weeks about seasonings and herbs, some important discussion about natural sweeteners, talked about Forgiveness, hopefully we got our eggs right, learned about the benefits of pastured, clean meats, considered getting mercury removed, we got the toxins out of our mouth, skin, and hair, made some changes in our cleaning routines, we talked about raw milk, learned about vegetables and fruits, fermentation, clean water and the benefits of water, the benefits of getting outside, the importance of properly preparing nuts, how to make beans more digestible, about essential oils, and now we are talking about getting the toxins out of our food prep. Join us next Tuesday for Get Your . . . Right.