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If you haven’t seen the film Dark Water yet, I can only recommend it. The film tells the story of a lawyer who defends chemical companies, and who goes on to investigate a farmer slowly losing his livestock after a dump appears near his property. That dump belongs to one of the country’s largest chemical companies, which manufactures, among other things, Teflon coatings.
You all know Teflon — that non-stick coating they put inside your pans so you can cook scrambled eggs. It makes cleaning easy, but know that it degrades over time and also breaks down with heat. In fact, if you let your pans get too hot, the coating can degrade as well — so not only might you be eating it, you might be breathing it too.
In a world where everyone needs to go fast all the time and everywhere, Teflon coating became a massive hit in people’s kitchens — no more scrubbing to clean up, though you’ll still have to replace your pan once it wears out!
This non-stick coating is carcinogenic — that’s what the studies show . And yet it isn’t banned. Why? Because as usual, one molecule gets banned but manufacturers will introduce another one that isn’t regulated yet because it’s new, and it’ll take decades to prove it’s dangerous too.
What can you do? I don’t have the solution unfortunately 😒. But let me tell you what I do. I started by throwing out all my pans and pots, and switched to stainless steel for simmering dishes and pasta 🍝 — nothing sticks.
For heavy cooking I use cast iron — it’s robust, easy to clean, and you can bake your homemade bread in it. If you could only have one piece of cookware, make it a cast iron casserole dish.
As for pans, while there are plenty of alternatives to non-stick coatings — steel, Aluminium ⚠️, ceramic, cast iron — I’d recommend stainless steel. In my view it’s the healthiest and easiest to use — no seasoning required like with steel.
And if you want to know my favourite brands, here they are — no affiliate links:
Why these brands? First, because they’re made in France, and second, because they’re recognized by professionals who never took the easy route. I love their lifetime warranty policy — something even publicly traded luxury companies don’t dare put on their products.
