Walmart/Kmart grease pots

[turtle fast]

He is talking about cookware and how it leeches metals into foodstuffs. All cookware does that, its just to what extent and what the metals are. Some theories abound about alsheimers and the aluminum in cookware....or the non-stick surfaces that some say cause cancer, etc. I guess titanium may be for something else. I guess we will be destined to revert to the old cast iron cookware.

[Luddite]

I guess we will be destined to revert to the old cast iron cookware.

Cast-iron is the best!


i read the following on Postholer.com

Many hikers out there have used the Walmart/KMart grease pot for cooking on the trail. Consider the following.

Unhardened or untreated aluminum cookware is banned in all but 6 countries in the world.

Extended periods of aluminum leaching into your food can cause a slew of problems in the human body.

If you were a manufacturer of a "grease pot", what would be cheaper, putting a sticky label saying "Grease Pot" or stamping "Grease Pot" into the metal? Using a cheap sticky label would probably be more cost effective.

The fact that it's stamped "Grease Pot" should speak volumes.

Though it's light and cheap, you may get a bit more than you bargained for from extended use.

-postholer

[shakey_snake]

Unhardened or untreated aluminum cookware is banned in all but 6 countries in the world.

What poppycock! Aluminum is used everywhere in cooking all the time.

Walk into any professional kitchen in the world and I'll show you a pile of aluminum storage containers or a roll of aluminum foil.

Ever eat a pie out of a *gasp* aluminum pie pan? Ever eat a lasagna that was covered with *gasp* aluminum foil?

So they make it a bit thicker and put it in a mold and call it a grease pot. Big deal.

PS. all aluminum naturally undergoes "hardening", anodized aluminum is just given a head start so that it cooks the same, every time, right off the shelf. I hardly consider what my cat stove does as cooking, so who really cares about the "performance"?

[Franco]

"Unhardened or untreated aluminum cookware is banned in all but 6 countries in the world. "
And those 6 countries are....?

[Franco]

here is an article about aluminium and Alzeimer's :http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/07/29/1163941.htm
It starts with this quote from Karl S. Kruszelnicki*:
Both Aluminium and Alzheimer's Disease begin with the letters "Al". That's about the only link between them




And concludes with this :


Dr. Charles DeCarli, the director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center says, "In my opinion, the supposed relation between aluminum and Alzheimer's Disease is a simple case of neuromythology".



*he has degrees in mathematics, biomedical engineering, medicine and surgery. He has also studied astrophysics, computer science, and philosophy. He has worked as a physicist, labourer, roadie for bands, car mechanic, film-maker, hospital scientific officer, biomedical engineer, TV weatherman, taxi driver, and medical doctor. Kruszelnicki is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney.^[4]
(but basically he is a skeptic and a myth buster...)

[Franco]

and...Medical grade Titanium is biocompatible, that is non toxic and not rejected by the human body and that is why it is used for artificial body parts.
Titanium pots are 94 to 97% Ti , the rest is Aluminium and Vanadium.

[Rocket Jones]

i read the following on Postholer.com

If you were a manufacturer of a "grease pot", what would be cheaper, putting a sticky label saying "Grease Pot" or stamping "Grease Pot" into the metal? Using a cheap sticky label would probably be more cost effective.

The fact that it's stamped "Grease Pot" should speak volumes.

This makes no sense. What point are you trying to make?

[perdidochas]

Antacids (Mylanta, Maalox) and underarm deodorant are much more worrisome sources of aluminum than untreated aluminum pots. My IMUSA grease dispenser is not stamped "Grease Pot." I will admit, I probably won't do much cooking in the pot. I will mainly use it to heat water. From what I've read, cooking acidic foods is what causes most of the leaching.

[MDSection12]

Antacids (Mylanta, Maalox) and underarm deodorant are much more worrisome sources of aluminum than untreated aluminum pots.

Yup. I've been told by a doctor that we probably should all be wiping off our deodorant at the end of the day before bed... How many of you do that?

[Lefty Red]

I've used the Stanco grease pot for awhile. I like it and plan to take it with me next month when my wife and I join the class of 2013. Here are a few observations
1) The lid fits tightly. It's hard to take it off when your pot is on the stove to check to see if the water is boiling or to grab the pot to remove it
2) The walls of the part are very thin but if they bend while in my pack it's easy to reshape them
3) I can fit a Sea to Summit cup, a whitebox alcohol stove, a pot grabber, a windscreen, a measuring cup for alcohol and a lighter in the pot and still put on the lid
4) I've boiled water over a fire, an alcohol stove, an esbit stove and an alcohol stove with it

[jeffmeh]

Before using aluminum cookware, one should cure it, meaning build up a passive oxidation layer in the case of aluminum. This is a simple matter of boiling water in it for 20-30 minutes. You should then see a dull, gray layer over the formerly shiny aluminum. Never use harsh abrasives or steel wool that will take off the oxidation layer, or repeat the boiling process if you do. The oxidation layer separates the contents of the pot from the aluminum.

If you want to run an experiment, take a small taste of the first boiled water after it cools. Then boil again and taste that.

[perdidochas]

Yup. I've been told by a doctor that we probably should all be wiping off our deodorant at the end of the day before bed... How many of you do that?

My brother did a research paper on aluminum and Alzheimer's as part of a Master's degree in toxicology. His conclusion was to stop using spray deodorant. Other sources of AL are not too significant.

[Another Kevin]

A bit of history: there was an experiment done in the 1960's where injecting aluminium directly into the brains of rabbits caused neural degeneration reminiscent of Alzheimer's, leading to a speculation that there might be a causal link between environmental or dietary aluminium and the development of the disease. There were further experiments that showed elevated Al content in the brain lesions of autopsied Alzheimer's patients, but the Al was subsequently shown to have come from tissue fixatives used to prepare the specimens.

The speculation, though, has led to a great many epidemiologic studies trying to confirm or refute a causal link. The studies have been so numerous that, alas, they have fallen victim to the "green jelly bean" phenomenon:


(http://xkcd.com/882/)

Given the heavy bias toward reporting positive results, the press winds up left with the impression that the association is much greater than it is, and even the heavily-biased results are at most inconclusive. Given that Al is ubiquitous in the environment, and that excess Al in the body is normally excreted extremely rapidly by the kidneys, I'm not terribly worried about Al exposure.

Of course, the fact that I'm writing this probably proves that I'm a member of the great conspiracy to keep us all ill, to ensure the profits of the aluminium companies, or the drug companies, or something.

[Mags]

\
Of course, the fact that I'm writing this probably proves that I'm a member of the great conspiracy to keep us all ill, to ensure the profits of the aluminium companies, or the drug companies, or something.

I won't embed the other xkcd comic I was thinking of, but it does seem appropriate.

Science: We finally figured out that you could separate fact from superstition by a completely radical method: observation. You can try things, measure them, and see how they work! B******.

http://store.xkcd.com/products/science-works

[Wise Old Owl]

Weight-wise its not a bad pot
But lack of a handle makes it suck. You need a pot lifter which makes it a PITA. Kills the nice weight.
It also has no pour spout , and doesnt pour water accurately at all for freezer bag cooking with its wide diameter
If you try to go slow, water will run down the side and drip everywhere
I found it wasnt worth the hassle to save a couple $.
I have a 1.3L evernew that I love.

Pot lifter is the UL Leatherman.

[Wise Old Owl]

A bit of history: there was an experiment done in the 1960's where injecting aluminium directly into the brains of rabbits caused neural degeneration reminiscent of Alzheimer's, leading to a speculation that there might be a causal link between environmental or dietary aluminium and the development of the disease. There were further experiments that showed elevated Al content in the brain lesions of autopsied Alzheimer's patients, but the Al was subsequently shown to have come from tissue fixatives used to prepare the specimens.

The speculation, though, has led to a great many epidemiologic studies trying to confirm or refute a causal link. The studies have been so numerous that, alas, they have fallen victim to the "green jelly bean" phenomenon:


(http://xkcd.com/882/)

Given the heavy bias toward reporting positive results, the press winds up left with the impression that the association is much greater than it is, and even the heavily-biased results are at most inconclusive. Given that Al is ubiquitous in the environment, and that excess Al in the body is normally excreted extremely rapidly by the kidneys, I'm not terribly worried about Al exposure.

Of course, the fact that I'm writing this probably proves that I'm a member of the great conspiracy to keep us all ill, to ensure the profits of the aluminium companies, or the drug companies, or something.

Well then - try to avoid eating TUMS!

[Another Kevin]

Well then - try to avoid eating TUMS!

Hmmm? Tums are calcium-based. It's Maalox that's loaded with aluminium. (The name is a contraction of MAgnesium and ALuminium OXides.)

It's a good idea to avoid Tums anyway, unless you're taking them as a calcium supplement. They've got a nasty rebound effect in a lot of people; they can leave you an hour or two later with worse heartburn than you started with.

[jeffmeh]

A bit of history: there was an experiment done in the 1960's where injecting aluminium directly into the brains of rabbits caused neural degeneration reminiscent of Alzheimer's, leading to a speculation that there might be a causal link between environmental or dietary aluminium and the development of the disease. There were further experiments that showed elevated Al content in the brain lesions of autopsied Alzheimer's patients, but the Al was subsequently shown to have come from tissue fixatives used to prepare the specimens.

The speculation, though, has led to a great many epidemiologic studies trying to confirm or refute a causal link. The studies have been so numerous that, alas, they have fallen victim to the "green jelly bean" phenomenon:


(http://xkcd.com/882/)

Given the heavy bias toward reporting positive results, the press winds up left with the impression that the association is much greater than it is, and even the heavily-biased results are at most inconclusive. Given that Al is ubiquitous in the environment, and that excess Al in the body is normally excreted extremely rapidly by the kidneys, I'm not terribly worried about Al exposure.

Of course, the fact that I'm writing this probably proves that I'm a member of the great conspiracy to keep us all ill, to ensure the profits of the aluminium companies, or the drug companies, or something.

Outstanding. I once again highly recommend Science For Smart People for one of the best, and funniest, treatments of correlation vs. causation, observational vs. clinical studies, hypotheses vs. theories, and consistent mischaracterization in the media. A bit long, but entertaining and informative enough to make it well worth the time.

[MuddyWaters]

The non-coated or non-hard anodized Al cookware has virtually dissapeared.
The old soft, dirt cheap, easily dented, lightweight pots, pans, that filled my parents and grandparents cabinets are no longer obtainable apparently.

The cheapest stuff that walmart sells today is nicer than most of what I have in my kitchen now, a conglomeration of stuff from when both my wife and I were in college, still using 20 yrs later, mixed in with a couple of new $$$ pots given to us as presents.

Our favorites, of course, are the old, lightweight , cheap ones. Go figure. The ones with no teflon left, etc.

Aluminum is everywhere, its a very common mineral. The alzheimer fear of being linked to cookware was just overblown stupidity, but it did seem to clear the market of cheap soft al pots.

Aluminum is highly reactive. It immediately reacts with air to form an oxide layer a couple molecules thick. The fear, was that acidic foods could dissolve high amounts I believe. It was nonsense.

[Tinker]

LOL. Like it grows leeches or something?

Explain to me exactly what happens.

LeAching is what the poster was talking about, meaning that the water dissolves aluminum from the pot into food or water which you then eat or drink.

Salt in water or foods can cause aluminum to corrode (aluminum oxide) which then gets into the water or food that you are cooking.

Previously, as other posters have noted, it was alleged that Alzheimer's disease might (as in "You might be a winner" - Remember the commercials?) be linked to using aluminum cookware and the leaching that occurrs as mentioned above.

This was proven to be false and based on the assumption that aluminum deposits were found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, and that it might possibly have come from the use of aluminum cookware.

It is leaching, however, not "leeching" (no such word of that I know, unless it refers to a practice similar to "frog gigging", which might also be called "frogging".