A top doctor has revealed four common kitchen products that are banned from his household because of their links to a range of health problems, including cancer.
Dr Tarek Pacha, a urologist and surgeon from Missouri, says the item at the top of his list is aluminum foil.
He warns that small amounts of aluminum can leach into food, especially when it is used for grilling or baking at a high temperature, although most experts say the amount that gets in food is not enough to cause health problems.
Acidic or highly salty foods, such as ham, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, citrus fruits, and vinegar-based sauces, can also cause aluminum particles to leak into the food.
Dr Pacha says that aluminum toxicity, which can happen over time, has been associated with kidney disease, neurotoxicity, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
He says is has also been shown to ‘interfere with calcium absorption and therefore weaken our bones’. Instead of aluminum foil, he recommends using stainless steel baking sheets.
In response to Dr Pacha’s warnings, the European Aluminum Foil Association says if the product is used correctly and merely ‘as a packaging material for food, [it] is entirely safe’.
The World Health Organization and FDA also state that levels of aluminum below 2mg per 2.2lbs of body weight per week are unlikely to cause health problems.
A top doctor has revealed four common kitchen products that are banned from his household because of their links to a range of health problems, including cancer
However it appears that cooking with foil, as noted by Dr Pacha, could cause harm in the long run.
In one study out of Saudi Arabia, the amount of aluminum leaching from meat baked in foil for an hour ranged from 0.97 to 3.08mg. The aluminum leaching was highest in fish and lowest in chicken.
The scientists concluded: ‘Based on the results, using aluminum foil may leach significant amounts of aluminum into the food, which raises the amounts of aluminum to high levels and may be dangerous to children, the elderly and people with kidney problems.’
Dr Pacha says scented garbage bags are another of his no-nos.
Explaining his reasoning, he says: ‘These bags contain [toxic] chemicals such as thallium and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can trigger headaches, stimulate asthma, and worsen respiratory issues.
‘Not to mention they’re also endocrine disruptors.’
VOCs are tiny human-made chemicals expelled into the air as gas that seep into the lungs and bloodstream and irritate our cells.
They are emitted by a wide array of consumer products, especially scented products, numbering in the thousands.
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In the short term, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that they can travel to the brain and cause dizziness, headaches concentration lapses and visual disorders.
In the long term, they have been linked to heart and lung problems, fertility issues, hormonal imbalances and even cancer.
VOCs are added to garbage bags to make them smell nice, so Dr Pacha recommends opting for non-scented liners.
Moving to his third banned product, the doctor outs seed oils.
Revealing his distaste for these kinds of oils – with the most popular varieties being canola, corn, soybean, sunflower, and grapeseed – Dr Pacha says they are ‘better suited for machines rather than cooking’.
He warns: ‘When we utilize these oils, they produce severe inflammatory products such as HNE, which [is a toxic compound and can] lead to many, many chronic diseases.’
A healthier alternative to seed oils, Dr Pacha says, would be butter, ghee (a type of clarified butter), or tallow, a rendered form of beef or mutton suet.
While Dr Pacha is against seed oils, Dr Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, says they ‘should not be feared’.
While the oils do contain omega-6, which is pro-inflammatory, he says the amount of inflammation it’s associated with has not been shown to be harmful.
He told the American Heart Association on the topic: ‘People are cooking with these oils, not drinking them.
‘In a situation where you need some kind of fat for cooking or food preparation, you can use plant oils or you can use butter or lard.
Dr Tarek Pacha, who is based out of Missouri as a surgeon and urologist, says the item at the top of his list is aluminum foil
‘Very consistently, all the data say butter and lard are bad for our hearts.
‘And studies show swapping out saturated fats and replacing them with unsaturated fats lowers the risk for heart disease.’
Lastly, Dr Pacha advises against using Styrofoam utensils.
He reveals that Styrofoam can leach carcinogenic chemicals such as styrene and benzine – which are used in the manufacturing process – especially when heated.
If you are using Styrofoam packaging, Dr Pacha says microwaving them is an absolute no-no.
He says the soft material can be particularly harmful for children, as they tend to bite it and ingest it.
Backing up Dr Pacha’s claims, in 2023 pathologists at the University of Vienna warned that tiny particles of polystyrene can invade our brains only two hours after we have eaten food that has been contaminated by its packaging.
Dr Lukas Kenner, who led the study, warned: ‘In the brain, plastic particles could increase the risk of inflammation, neurological disorders or even neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.’
And in lab studies on mice that ate microscopic polystyrene particles, the creatures became markedly anxious as a result of brain inflammation.
Other research in this area has linked consumption of nano-sized polystyrene particles with gastro-intestinal disease which may cause gut linings to leak into the bloodstream, sparking the chronic body-wide inflammation that is associated with heart disease and cancer.
Other downsides of Styrofoam that Dr Pacha notes include the fact that it is not recyclable and it is highly flammable, releasing toxic fumes when it burns.
In his household, Dr Pacha says his family ‘like to use stainless steel, glass, or even metal’.
After detailing his four banned kitchen products, he concludes: ‘Guys, don’t belittle these recommendations they add up over time and can cause some serious health issues.’
