Aluminum (Al) is the third most abundant element on earth but of no known use in living organisms.
Higher-than-normal concentrations of aluminum have been associated with weakening of the bones of children on dialysis. The presence of aluminum in the brains of people who have died with Alzheimer's disease has led some to believe that it caused the disease, but there is strong evidence that this is not true. Nonetheless, for this and other reasons, health-conscious cooks have worried that using aluminum saucepans might release enough aluminum into food to produce, over time, toxic accumulations in the body.
There is no question that tiny amounts of aluminum do leach from aluminum cooking vessels, especially when acid foods (like rhubarb) are cooked in them. One study showed that boiling tomatoes (acid, at pH 4.4) in an aluminum saucepan added some 3 ppm of aluminum to the mix (the tomatoes contained three times that before they were cooked).
But before throwing away your aluminum cookware, consider:| Concentration of aluminum (ppm) | |
|---|---|
| Stewed tomatoes cooked in glass | 9 |
| Increase when cooked in aluminum saucepan | 3 |
| Cup of tea | 2.7-4.9 |
| Two teaspoons of antacid | 83,000 |
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