For most of my life, aluminum pans and foil reigned supreme in my kitchen- anything that could be cooked in foil, was cooked in foil. The draw is obvious: Fewer dishes, quick and easy cleanup, and inexpensive as disposables go.
Many families with young children cook regularly- even every single day- in aluminum pans. And why not- it should be pretty much equivalent to cooking in anything else, right?
Actually, it is well- known that aluminum leaches into food when they’re cooked together- or even stored together (think leftovers in the fridge). Leaching occurs at dramatically higher levels in the case of acidic or salty foods, for example tomatoes or fish. This is important as aluminum is actually widely recognized as a neurotoxin (5, 10).
Like I mentioned above, I used to dismiss the backlash against aluminum, and continued using it for cooking, food storage, and anti-perspirant because “everyone else does it, it can’t be that bad.” However, as I researched and learned more and more about everyday exposures that can have dramatic long-term effects on our health, I realized that ditching aluminum was really not a choice.
We’ll get into the scary research, but first, take a moment to consider its relevance– You may want to examine your daily routines against this list carefully, as aluminum sources can sometimes be unexpected.
Common contributors to aluminum load:
- Aluminum foil and cookware (disposable)
- Aluminum cookware and bakeware (reusable)
- Pots of unspecified materials can be made of aluminum.
- Cookies sheets and cake pans are often made of aluminum. (These also often contain “nonstick,” or Teflon coating, which poses its own unique health concerns)
- Especially in developing countries where cookware is recycled and/or corroded, leaching from aluminum cookware is endemic.
- Aluminum leaching estimate when lab-tested was 125 mg aluminum per serving of food- more than six times the WHO’s weekly cap. (9)
- Infant formula is commonly contaminated with aluminum
- Anti-perspirants are nearly always aluminum-based unless specified otherwise
- Over-the-counter drugs such as antacids (even those marketed for infants)
- “The use of antacids alone can increase aluminum intake by 277 to 3,809 mg/day, well above (this) recommended limit, and patients receiving aluminum-rich antacids have been shown to have elevated brain aluminum concentrations.” (10)
- Adjuvant in immunizations
- Soy consumption, especially soy baby formula, (which even the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend).
- Food and medication additives (10)
- Contaminated reservoirs which source drinking water- a worsening issue
The average person’s body is dealing with a heavier aluminum load, historically, than ever before. This is especially attributed to contamination of natural reservoirs which are used for residential drinking water, but personal care products and cooking materials can also play a large role.
Health Risks as indicated by Research Studies
Aluminum has only been in widespread industrial use for about a century. It was originally assumed to be an inert substance, and therefore found its way into widespread use. Even so, it is well-accepted that aluminum is not needed in the human body. Research indicates that it actually poses health risks, most notably to the neurological system.
As always, those at most risk are young children, infants, and expectant mothers. Any woman in childbearing years should also be wary of ingesting substances of questionable safety; many toxins remain in the body for a long time, and can be transferred to an egg or fetus.
Health Detriments Associated with Aluminum Exposure:
Causation studies are possible only in rats, where in lab conditions you can design a controlled experiment with a placebo. However, a noteworthy abundance of disturbing correlational evidence is readily available.
- “Absorbed aluminum is rapidly distributed in the body via circulation. It passes through the blood-brain barrier at all ages and can reach the fetus via maternal circulation.” (9)
- When pregnant female mice were exposed to aluminum, the infant mice suffered from dose-dependent neurobehavioral issues: (8)
- In infancy, the mice suffered from underdeveloped sensory motor reflexes. They also experienced less weight gain, delays in opening the eyes, and delays in body hair growth
- In adolescence, the mice pups- the males, especially- suffered cognitively from learning and memory deficits
- At ALL ages, neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin in the forebrain were suppressed.
- In conclusion, during the critical prenatal (and lactation) period of brain-development, attention must be paid to preventing aluminum toxicity. (8)
- Mice on a 30-day dose of 1mg/g* aluminum per day orally experienced “…impaired learning and memory… and increased (the) total number of proliferating cells.”(1) Neurological function was measured in terms of performance in activity in open-field and water maze. (1)
- An inadvertent human study took place in Camelford, UK in 1988, where twenty tons of Aluminum sulphite were accidentally released into drinking water supply. (3). A famous case study from one woman who had been exposed to this water showed a very rare type of early-onset dementia caused her death at age 59. An examination of her brain showed large amounts of aluminum in the affected brain areas. Similar stories are documented of a 43-year old man and a 60-year old man, with similar dementia symptoms between cases. (4)
- A meaningful link is continually made between populations exposed to aluminum-containing drinking water, and the proportionally elevated incidences of later neurological disease (7):
- In an early study conducted in 1996, a dose-dependent relationship was found between concentration of aluminum in drinking water in geographical locations and risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the contamination, the higher the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. (7)
- A more recent study tracked elderly people over 15 years, with attention to the levels of aluminum in their drinking water. “…our study suggests that a concentration of aluminum in drinking water above 0.1 mg/liter may be a risk factor for dementia and, especially, Alzheimer’s disease” (7)
- Based upon the finding of relatively high aluminum levels in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, as well as high aluminum levels found also in cases of rarer neurological disorders such as ALS complex and Hallervorden-Spatz disease, the issue has been raised whether aluminum may contribute to onset and progression of a variety of neurological disorders.
- Preliminary research shows in a study that 10 individuals who died with an Autism Spectrum Disorder were found to have “extremely high” aluminum content in their brain tissue (6).
- A 2009 study exposed rats to fluoride and aluminum together, and found that the cocktail significantly enhanced each other’s neurotoxic effects (3).
- The authors concluded: “It is possible that long-term use of drinking water with a high aluminum concentration and with low fluoride concentration is associated with the increased relative risk of Alzheimer’s disease” (3).
- This is strikingly important, being that as of 2012, about 70% of the United States population was receiving fluoridated water.
As you can see, aluminum is far from an unnecessary yet harmless substance. It actually has been shown to have many worrisome effects.
Aside from quantitative factors related to degree of exposure, equally important qualitative details include:
- There are numerous routes of exposure, and they have different effects on your body’s systems. Oral exposure (ex: leached from aluminum cookware) is different than topical exposure (on the skin, ex: aluminum deodorant), which is different from injection into the bloodstream. When digested orally, Al goes through your digestive tract with your food and your body has a chance to shunt it out of your system via urine. Other forms of aluminum exposure are more readily absorbed into the bloodstream and therefore enter the blood-brain barrier.
- The age-old saying goes: “the dose makes the poison.” A child’s body is dramatically less able to handle any toxin. All the more so an unborn fetus or an infant, who is exposed to everything its mother eats, inhales, or applies to her skin. (Some toxic substances even transfer through the placenta preferentially, making baby’s levels higher than mom’s).
- When cooking in foil, the nature of the food cooked will have an affect on the amount of leaching that occurs. For example, anything acidic, such as tomato sauce, will draw much more contamination from the pots/pans.
What can you do?
- Rethink cooking in aluminum disposable pans.
- Check your pots, pans, cookie sheets to see what materials they’re made of. Replace those which are of questionable sourcing. (These are a good choice)
- Find out what’s in your tap water.
- Reports are supposed to be mailed to you regularly.
- You can check what’s in your tap water by searching your zip code at ewg.com.
- Invest in a high-quality water filter. (For countertop, I’d recommend Berkey or reverse-osmosis)
- Check your deodorant and replace with aluminum-free (my recommendation for both women and men is Native)
- Be aware that over-the-counter medications, especially antacids, often contain high levels of aluminum.
- Be conscious about soy consumption; soy infant formula is not recommended
Unfortunately, this is not the most pleasant topic to delve into- but it is important. Reach out with questions or if there’s something I forgot to mention. Some of these lifestyle changes can seem overwhelming, which is completely understandable. Keep in mind that every small step is helpful and worthwhile.
References:
1.Ribes, D., Colomina, M.T., Vicens, P., Domingo, J.L. Effects of oral aluminum exposure on behavior and neurogenesis in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (2008). Experimental Neurology, Vol.214 (2), 293-300
2.Bondy, S.C. Prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminum leads to changes associated with brain aging and neurodegeneration (2014). Toxicology, Vol.315 (7), 1.
3. Kaur, T., Bijarnia, R.K., Nehru, B. Effect of concurrent chronic exposure of fluoride and aluminum on rat brain (2009). Drug and Chemical Toxicology, Vol.32(3), 215-221
4. Mirza, A., King, A., Troakes, C., Exley, C.* The Identification of Aluminum in Human Brain Tissue Using Lumogallion and Fluorescence Microscopy (2016). Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, vol. 54 (4), 1333-1338
5. King, A., Troakes, C., Aizpurua, M., Mirza, A., Hodges, A., Al-Sarraj, S., Exley, C. Unusual neuropathological features and increased brain aluminium in a resident of Camelford, UK (2017). Nauropathology and Applied Neurobiology
6. Matthew, M., Dorcas, U., King, A., Exley, C. Aluminum in Brain Tissue in Autism (2018). Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 46, 76-82.
7.Rondeau, V., Jacqmin-Gadda, H., Commenges, D., Helmer, C., Dartigues, J.F. Aluminum and Silica in Drinking Water and the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease or Cognitive Decline: Findings From 15-Year Follow-up of the PAQUID Cohort (2009). American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 169 (4), 489-496.
8. Gasem, A.T., Ajarem, J.S., Ahmad, M. Neurobehavioral toxic effects of perinatal oral exposure to aluminum on the developmental motor reflexes, learning, memory and brain neurotransmitters of mice offspring (2012). Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, March 2012, Vol.101(1), 49-56.
9. Weidenhamer, J.D., Fitzpatrick, M.P., Biro, A.M., Kobunski, P.A., Hudson, M.R., Corbin, R.W., Gottesfeld, P. Metal exposures from aluminum cookware: An unrecognized public health risk in developing countries (2017). Science of the Total Environment, Vol.579, 805-813
10. Virk, S.A., Eslick, G.D. Brief Report: Meta-analysis of Antacid Use and Alzheimer’s Disease: Implications for the Aluminum Hypothesis (2015). Epidemiology, Vol.26(5), 769-773.
