Glitch Baum's List: Aluminum

Cooking with aluminum foil can have serious health risks, according to a new UAE study. Scientists from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) and the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Institute warned that wrapping spicy foods in aluminium is particularly dangerous. Researchers from the Chemical Engineering Department of AUS and the institute concluded that it is safe to wrap sandwiches and other cold foods in aluminium foil but said it should not be used for cooking.

When the health risks associated with making Teflon first came to light last year, many cooks trashed their non-stick cookware and went back to using their old stainless steel pots and pans. But what many people didn’t realize was that even stainless steel is not immune to controversy regarding health impacts.

On average, we each take in about 10 - 50 mg of aluminium per day. But even people who take antacids and buffered aspirin, which bumps up their aluminium intake to 1,000 mg of aluminium per day, have no increased incidence of Alzheimer's Disease.

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".