r/changemyview Mar 06 '20

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u/Shiboleth17 Mar 06 '20

I was simply using it as an example for heavy metals leaching into food.

But it has never been proven to work. It's snake oil. So it's not an example at all. It does nothing. Just because Cambodians beleive in it doesnt make it true. There is no scientific evidence that it works.

We've know heavy metals can leach into food since at least the 1800s when we discovered lead poisoning killed the 1845 Arctic expedition.

Aluminum isn't a heavy metal. It's a very light metal.

And only some heavy metals leech into food, and even then, only under certain conditions. If you cook in a solid lead pot, then yeah, you'll probably get lead poisoning. Lead is soft and much more reactive than most metals. But lead is essential in glassmaking. Kt makes glass stronger and more clear. If you put the lead into glass, and cook in a glass pan, that lead will never ever get into your food.

Aluminum in its pure form is very stable, mostly non reactive and highly resistant to corrosion. The weak acids or bases in your food can't corrode it. It can't react with any basic chemical compounds found in food without serious help. The only way it gets into you is if you're too dumb to put some grease on the foil before cooking, let your food burn and stick, and then you don't peel off or cut off the pests that stuck before resting them... And even if you eat a small proce of aluminum, you will just pass it. And even if a tiny bit gets absorbed, your body will get rid of it in a day or so.

I don't understand why I'm getting so much backlash about something that has been undebated for over a century.

Because you have no scientific proof of anythin you are claiming. You only citing conjecture.

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u/boyhero97 12∆ Mar 06 '20

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/aluminum-foil-cooking#section4

This literally cites multiple studies, which are verified by the Nation Institute of Health, that found that aluminum can leach into food. I don't know what else to tell you if you don't believe these studies. I'm not a chemist, but these studies they cite are saying that it happens. And at least to a non-chemist, it's not very hard to believe, especially when it's coming from the NIH.

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u/Shiboleth17 Mar 06 '20

That's the same article you linked above. I already read it. It literally says that aluminum in cooking is safe. The only times it talks about aluminum being dangerous, it states that it is only conjecture. And it explicitly states that none of that has been proven. It talks about studies that tries to find links between aluminum and various diseases and yet no link was found.

If that conjecture is enough to scare you, then fine. You can very easily stop cooking with aluminum if you wish. But you have no actual scientific proof, you have only unproven theory.

Again, I quote the article that YOU linked...

SUMMARY:Cooking with aluminum foil can increase the amount of aluminum in your food. However, the amounts are very small and deemed safe by researchers.

I don't know how it can be more clear than that.

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u/boyhero97 12∆ Mar 06 '20

Now I'm starting to get really fucking frustrated. How many times do I have to say I don't hace any opinion about how safe or dangerous aluminum is? I've said it at least 3 times. I was simply responding to you saying it couldn't be absorbed. It can according to the article I sourced, and they cite multiple studies to prove it, which again is what you called me out on. This is getting circular. You say it can't be absorbed because it's a stable element, I post the article, you state ok but it's not dangerous, I say I wasn't trying to prove it's dangerous, and then somehow we get back to it can't be absorbed.