How Simple Kitchen Swaps Could Add Years To Your Life

Many people – with the very best of intentions to eat as healthy as possible – don’t realize that toxic chemicals and heavy metals from everyday cookware could be leaching into their foods and contaminating an otherwise healthy meal.

In my new book, Radical Longevity, Chapter 9, “Stock Your Kitchen”, I explain why your kitchen is your laboratory of life. I give you 11 awesome “TRANSITION TIPS” to living longer and stronger including all the best foods and beverages to enhance healthy aging. And, before you’re tempted to try all the delicious recipes in Chapter 10, “Fuel Your System”, you’ll need to know why what you cook IN is just as important as what you cook!

To preserve the essential nutrients your body craves and extend your youth span, you need to become your own kitchen chemist. As I learned from my mentor, Dr. Hazel Parcells, who was an extraordinary “Super-Ager”, living to the age of 106, we must “span the distance between the test tube and the laboratory and pots and pans in the kitchen.” With a few tweaks you can easily transform your kitchen.

Search and Destroy

One of your first tasks as an informed kitchen chemist is to root out all toxic cookware, storage containers and utensils that could be contaminating your food.

First and foremost, axe the aluminum. According to the research of Dr. Christopher Exley of Keele University in the U.K., aluminum is most definitely connected to Alzheimer’s and other neurotoxic conditions. In fact, Dr. Exley published over 150 scientific papers on the very topic. So be smart and aware that aluminum foil has no place in your kitchen.

Second to aluminum, would be copper. This metal has an affinity for vitamin C and can upset the sensitive zinc-copper balance in your system.

Next you need to consider that iron from cast-iron cookware can leach into foods. And contrary to common belief, you cannot get the body’s requirement of “good” iron from cooking your foods in cast-iron cookware.

Last, but by no means least, you need to root out plastic food storage containers and utensils from your kitchen. These endocrine-disrupting substances have the potential to leach estrogen-like chemicals into your foods.

Smart Strategies

Here’s what to do to transform your kitchen:

• Replace all aluminum steamers, measuring cups, spoons, bread pans and cookie sheets with stainless steel, glass or Pyrex, and avoid aluminum foil, opting for parchment paper instead. Use a magnet to test for aluminum content; a magnet will not stick if cookware contains aluminum.
• Replace all copper-lined cookware.
• Enamel-coated cast iron is a good alternative. The enamel forms a barrier to keep iron from leaching into foods, while providing the same wonderful heat induction that made cast iron such a popular choice to begin with.
• Stainless steel pots and pans, such as the Salad Master brand, are an excellent choice for everyday cooking. Food cooks in its own semi-vacuum seal below 180 degrees to preserve the living force of your food while locking in moisture and maintaining flavor – without needing to add butter, oil or any excess fats.
• Glass-glazed clay cookware is excellent for baking. I love my German-made Romertopf casseroles. They enhance the flavor and moisture in foods by increasing infrared heat as they’re cooking. Whichever bakeware you choose, make sure it’s glazed with a nontoxic glaze to keep any impurities from the clay from leaching into your food.
• Use the new generation of George Foreman grills, which can cut AGEs by 50 percent over standard charcoal and gas grills.
• For skillets and saucepans, try ceramic non-stick brands such as Xtrema, which produces a line of pure ceramic cooking utensils that are free of all toxic metals, including lead and cadmium.
• You can never go wrong with good old fashioned wooden spoons to replace plastics and aluminum utensils.