In your kitchen, are you faced with a cupboard full of worn out, inferior quality pots and pans? Or perhaps you are a novice cook and are looking forward to buying your first set of cookware. Maybe you've become more health conscious and want to upgrade to better quality or safer cookware. Whatever your situation, following are some thoughts to consider when
shopping for your perfect collection of pots and pans for healthy cooking.

First, there is no perfect cooking pot or pan. Each choice has its advantages and disadvantages. However, with your good health in mind, there are some choices that are clearly superior to others.

Generally, cookware can be classified into three categories: non-reactive, moderately reactive, and reactive. From a health standpoint it's best to avoid reactive materials and favour those that are non-reactive or moderately reactive.

Non-reactive cookware
This type of cookware is made with materials that do not react with food ions. Ceramic, crockery, earthenware, glass, and porcelain enamel fit into this category. There is good reason that chemistry labs use glass and ceramic for their experiments; these are inert and non-reactive materials, however, are not necessarily good heat conductors so are best used in your oven.

Modern crockery or earthenware purchased in Canada or the U.S. is safe to use, whereas older pieces (pre 1980's) or thosepurchased in Mexico or Latin America may contain lead or cadmium in their glazes.

With proper care a quality enameled pot can last a lifetime and is a good conductor of heat. With a core of iron or steel, the more expensive, quality brands are fused with a heavy coating of porcelain glass and are resistant to chipping. Lesser quality enamelware has a baked-on, thinner surface and is more prone to chipping. Once chipped, retire your enamelware to a flowerpot, as fragments will find their way into your meal and the underlying metal will react with your food.

Mention should be made of two newer types of cook and bake ware: silicon and titanium. Silicon, for baking only, is non-stick, and is said to be inert – being manmade from sand and oxygen – but will melt at temperatures higher than 428°F, apparently without off-gassing toxic vapors as plastic does. Personally, I'm not jumping on the bandwagon yet and will let time bear out the safety of this recent arrival to the cooking scene.

Titanium cookware is also relatively new to the cookware market and is fairly expensive. This material is extremely durable and physiologically inert – being used medically for hip and knee replacements and for dental work – and when used to coat cookware is highly scratch and corrosion resistant, as well as presenting an easy-to-clean non-stick surface.

Moderately Reactive Cookware
The ability to conduct and disperse heat evenly is an important feature when choosing cookware – energy is used more efficiently and hotspots are reduced resulting in more even and faster cooking. Carbon steel cookware, such as used in woks, is inexpensive and rapidly conveys heat, but will rust if not kept dry when not in use and will lend a metallic taste to food if left to sit in the pot after cooking.

Cast iron has been with us for thousands of years, going back to ancient China. These heavy cooking utensils conduct heat very well and a good cast iron skillet or grill will last a lifetime. They are prone to rusting and pitting and must be "seasoned" with hot oil to seal the fat into the pores of the iron to thwart rusting and reactivity, resulting in an essentially stick-free surface.

The least reactive and one of the most preferred metals used in the manufacture of cookware is stainless steel. Combining steel with chromium and nickel produces a durable and corrosion resistant material that is considered by many to be the best and safest choice in general-use cookware. Most restaurants I called use professional quality stainless steel pots and pans.

Stainless steel by itself is a poor conductor of heat, therefore aluminum or copper is often sandwiched between two layers of stainless steel or clad to the bottom, and sometimes sides,
of the pot to conduct and disperse heat quickly and evenly.

Reactive cookware
Copper cookware is prized for its excellent heat transfer, having twice the conductivity of aluminum. However, it is a reactive metal so is often lined with tin or stainless steel.

More than half of the cookware sold in North America is made from aluminum. It is an excellent conductor of heat, in inexpensive and light weight, but is soft and easily scratched or pitted. Aluminum cookware is especially reactive to leafy vegetables and acid ingredients such as tomatoes and citrus and can taint foods. Although it is claimed that no definitive link is proven, leached aluminum ions are associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Anodized aluminum, manufactured by an electro-chemical process, produces a hard, corrosion resistant surface that is preferred over rolled or cast aluminum, but the anodized coating can still be scratched or gouged, permitting aluminum leaching.

Nonstick skillets are said to have revolutionized the way people cook. However, this highly popular cookware has triggered health and environmental concerns. Pans with a nonstick coating can scratch and peel easily and when heated to 680°F (which can be reached in several minutes) release toxic gases. These fumes are fatal to pet birds and can cause a flulike condition in humans called "polymer fume fever". I asked the head chef of a professional culinary school about these pans and he said that Teflon-coated cookware is not used or recommended at the school. Several fine food restaurant chefs I called said they use Teflon skillets to prepare pancakes, crepes and omelets only. If you must use this type of cookware, keep it in good condition and use it at moderate temperatures.

I don't recommend microwaves for cooking, but if you must use one it is best to utilize microwave-safe glass containers rather than plastic. Plastics contain endocrine disrupting (hormone-altering) chemicals that can cause reproductive abnormalities, and carcinogenic dioxin from plastic (especially plastic wrap) can be released into food when heated in the
microwave.

An assessment of the style of cooking you do will help determine the type of cookware suitable to build or upgrade a healthy kitchen. A matching set may look good on your shelf or stovetop, but carefully choosing fine pieces of various materials and sizes as you can afford them may be the best way to build a quality, functional collection.

Careful food preparation contributes to good health so it makes sense to buy the best quality pots and pans that you can afford; it pays dividends in the long run, both financially and in health benefits.

Cathrine Gabriel has worked in the natural health field for more than 30 years. She has managed her family's health food store, is past administrator of Health Action Network
Society and former co-host of the Healthy Living Show with Croft Woodruff. She now lives in Alberta.

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