What is Aluminium foil?
Aluminium foil is a paper-thin/shiny sheet of aluminium metal. In North America, aluminium foil is known
as aluminum foil. In the united kingdom, it is widely called a tin foil. In
Australia it is widely called alfoil.
Q .) Is using aluminium
foil unsafe?
Ans: Almost every third
home in India uses aluminium foil to wrap food and many use it for cooking
especially during baking and roasting. According to research some of the foil used
in baking and grilling leaches into your food which can pose health problems over
time. It is found that the migration of aluminium into food during the cooking process
of food wrapped in aluminium foil is above the permissible limit set by the
World Health Organisation(WHO).
Q.) How aluminium is bad
for our health?
The food we eat has traces
of aluminium. These however get expelled from the body as part of the natural
digestion process. By feces and urine, it expelled through our body. The problem
arises when the amount that gets ingested is more than the amount gets
expelled. In simple terms, this causes toxicity that may have long term ill
effects on one’s health. It reduces the growth rate of human brain cells also.
Aluminium competes with
calcium in our body. Thus excess of aluminium makes our bones week.
Q.) Where does all aluminium hide?
Ans: It is present in
different quantities in salt, spices, tea and even in water, medicines like
antacids,s, etc. The popular pressure cooker is usually made of aluminium. It is
found in the air also. Some of the aluminium you eat from processed food
like in the form of preservatives, coloring agents, anti-caking agents,
thickness, etc.
Now again the question arises - How to minimize your
exposure to aluminium?
It is impossible to
completely remove aluminium from your diet but you can work to minimize it.
1) Avoid very high heat while cooking in Aluminium.
2)Reduce your
use of aluminium for cooking especially if cooking with acidic foods like
tomatoes or lemons.
3)Use non aluminium
utensils to cook your food such as glass or porcelain utensils. High chromium stainless steel utensils are best. Copper utensils too are good for cooking. Ceramic coated pans are good for cooking as well but they are slightly costlier if you can afford them,then go for it.
4)Commercially
processed foods can be packaged in aluminium thus they may have higher levels
of aluminium. Thus eating mostly home-cooked foods and reducing your intake of commercially
processed foods may help to reduce your aluminium intake.
5)Use a wooden spoon to cook
or take the food out.
6) Cooking food wrapped in
aluminums should be avoided. If you are baking vegetables, fish or chicken, etc
wrap in aluminum foil,
what you may not realize is
that some of the foil will leach into your meal and this could be very bad for
your health.
7) It is safe to wrap cold
food in foil, though not for a long time.
So if you are concerned
about your intake of aluminium, reserve foil for food storage only instead of
cooking.
8) Try to replace foil
with banana leaves when wrapping foods for baking or use a stainless steel
cookie sheet while baking or grilling.
9) Avoid storing tomatoes,
citrus fruits, pickles in aluminium foil.
10) Do not use utensils of
aluminium which has scratches or cuts in their body.
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Dr. Suman Setia BAMS DNHE PGDHHM
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