Why Most Cookware Is Secretly Toxic: PFAS in Nonstick, Brain-Damaging Aluminum, Dementia-causing Cast Iron
with David Barrett
Dr. Wendy Myers
Hello, welcome to the Myers Detox Podcast. I’m Dr. Wendy Myers, and on this show, we talk about everything related to heavy metal and chemical toxicity, the health issues caused by toxins, anti-aging, bioenergetics, and many other advanced topics in health. Our guest today, David Barrett, is going to be talking about the toxins lurking in your cookware and what the healthiest cookware choice is. I think this is a topic that confuses a lot of people. There are a lot of misconceptions about what to use and what not to use, so we’re going to dispel all those myths on the show today. Today we’ll be talking about nonstick pans and the PFAS family of forever chemicals that consists of over 4,700 industrial chemicals widely used in many products, including nonstick pans, but it can range from food packaging to toiletries, clothing, and carpets. Studies have shown that exposure to these forever chemicals has been linked to growth, learning, behavioral problems, and even cancer.
We’ll talk about the huge health risk factors of using cast iron pans that a lot of people aren’t thinking about. We’ll also talk about ceramic cookware. We’ll talk about aluminum cookware, and I see lots of problems with aluminum toxicity in people who use aluminum cookware. It’s also used in restaurants typically because it’s really cheap. We’ll talk about what cookware is the safest, non- toxic, and what I recommend and use myself. We’ll also talk about the concept of your diet and why there’s no point in going to all the trouble to buy healthy food, even organic food, if you’re just cooking it in cookware that leaches all these different toxins into it. You are kind of wasting your time.
Our guest today, David Barrett, is a proud owner of Chef’s Foundry, a renowned non-toxic cookware brand. He has a passion for safe kitchenware. David established Chef’s Foundry as a trusted name in the industry. His mission with Chef’s Foundry is to provide home cooks with the tools they need to create delicious meals without compromising their health. Through his leadership, Chef’s Foundry continues to set new standards for excellence in cookware, inspiring chefs of all levels to cook with confidence and peace of mind. You can learn more about David at his website, justfoundry.com. He also has a very special offer for Myers Detox Podcast listeners. If you go to bit.ly/myersdetox, you can get a set of his P600 non-toxic cookware set and you get a free carving knife and fork set. That’s a good black Friday offer for you guys. That’s a free gift worth $99. So go check that out at bit.ly/myersdetox. David, thank you so much for coming on the show.
David Barrett
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the non-toxic cookware business?
David Barrett
It’s been quite a long journey, really. I’ve been working with my brother and business partner for about 12 years now since I was 20. We’ve had several online businesses started. We’ve started selling animal products. He’s actually a world away from cookware. That was the first business we had online, and then we moved into kitchen utensils and green products. We set up for Amazon, and then we decided we wanted to bring in innovative products and products that people could benefit from. So, that’s what got us into cookware. I was shocked to see that there are a lot of toxic brands out there selling toxic, non-stick coatings. So, we decided we wanted to find a product that wasn’t toxic and that people could benefit from health-wise. That’s what got us into this industry really.
Dr. Wendy Myers
The nonstick cookware is such a huge problem. So many people just are not thinking about that. They’re not thinking about the health consequences of the kitchen pans and utensils that they’re using and the dramatic health impacts that these nonstick cookwares that are full of PFAS that we’ll talk about in a second, what those are and what they do. People are using these problematic nonstick pans because they’re easier, but there’s also a lot of greenwashing of nonstick cookware as well. They’re sold as non-toxic, but they’re in fact not. So, let’s kind of dive into all this stuff. What are PFAS? What are these, and what kind of health issues are they causing?
David Barrett
PFAS are a list of industrial chemicals. I think it’s 4,700 in total, which are used for everyday products from food packaging to toiletries and clothing. Studies have shown basically that if we’re exposed to these chemicals, there are links to growth, learning, and behavioral problems. So, it’s essential that we avoid PFAS as much as we can.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, they cause hormone disruption. There are so many health issues linked to these and they’re in all the nonstick cookware, all the nonstick pans you’re using to make your eggs every morning. While it might be easier to clean, it’s really hard to clean yourselves from this stuff because these are termed forever chemicals. They persist forever in our environment. They’re difficult to break down, if not impossible, and very difficult for your body to deal with. You really need to pay attention to this stuff, and unfortunately, there are so many companies producing so many chemicals that just don’t go away in our environment. You need these out of your kitchen. So, let’s talk about the cookware that you created at chefsfoundry.com. What type of material are you using? We’re gonna get into some other types of pots and pans and materials used in them and the problems with those, but I first wanted to illustrate what material you use and what makes that different. What makes it non-toxic?
David Barrett
Of course. So, our pans are ceramic and the non-stick part of it is a special coating made by a company called ILAG, and the coating is basically free from PFAs or PFOAs.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I love the pans. You sent me a set of them. I absolutely love them. They’re really easy to cook with. They’re very easy to clean. They’re scratch-resistant. They’re just really, really well made. I highly recommend them. You can check them out at chefsfoundry.com. Let’s talk about the greenwashing of some nonstick pans. There are some pans that I bought that said it’s non-stick, non-toxic, et cetera. And then later I found out that it wasn’t. It’s very distressing for a lot of consumers and consumers who don’t realize they’re using fraudulent, non-stick, non-toxic pans. Can you talk about that issue a little bit?
David Barrett
I think you really have to do your own research on this. It’s quite shocking. There are loads of ways that big brands can get around certain things like marketing by saying it’s free from this or free from that, and it actually does contain traces of these elements. So, you do have to do your own research based on that. But, like I said about our cookware, we get this tested when we know the coating is free from PFA. So, you really do have to do a little dive into the company and see exactly what it is they’re claiming is the nonstick element.
Ads 00:08:48
For anyone listening who really wants to detox their body, go to heavymetalsquiz.com. I created a quiz for you. It only takes a couple of seconds and is based on some lifestyle questions. You can get your toxicity score and get a free video series that answers all of your frequently asked questions about how to detox your body. Check it out at heavymetalsquiz.com.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Let’s talk about cast iron. I hate cast iron. I would never, ever personally use that because it contains a form of iron that’s not nutritive. Our bodies cannot turn that iron magically into the iron that we need. So, it just builds up to toxic levels like a lot of the iron in our diet and things like that are enriched in flowers really just cause a lot of oxidative stress, free radicals and different problems in our body. They are not feeding our body with iron that produces energy but having the exact opposite effect. So, don’t do what grandma did. What is your take on the whole cast iron pots and pans?
David Barrett
From a cook’s perspective, I guess it’s people’s convenience. They want to be able to put these products, everyone be able to cook their food as easily as they can, but you still got to be careful about what these plans are made of. That’s why our pans have the non-stick element as well as the non-toxic element. I think everyone’s different. Everyone has got a certain type of cookware they like cooking with but from a standpoint of our cookware, we’re looking to keep it healthy with the convenience for the consumer.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I think people that are using iron, a lot of them are using it because they think they’re getting nutritional iron from it. It’s not that simple. There is ferric iron and ferrous iron. Cows will take iron from grass and plants and turn it into a form that’s really highly absorbable by their bodies. We’re not doing that when we’re using cast iron pans. The use of cast iron pans and the amount of iron that we absorb from that contributes to dementia. I’ve done lots and lots of research on this and iron is incredibly problematic. It’s very difficult for the body to get rid of or to detox it. You detox it by giving blood essentially. So, you do not want to add iron on purpose to your body through your cookware. You need to research that if you don’t want to take my word for it. It’s not healthy for you.
Let’s talk about aluminum cookware. I think there’s some people that buy this because it’s very inexpensive and it’s used in restaurants because it’s cheap and disposable. What I’ve seen from people on hair mineral analyses that I do on them, their aluminum is sky high. I asked them and they’re using aluminum cookware. Aluminum is very problematic. Talk about anything else you want to contribute about aluminum cookware.
David Barrett
Anything seeping into your food on top of what you actually eat isn’t good. For instance, a lot of the processed foods and having additives in it and stuff like that. That’s why you need to be careful what you’re cooking. With aluminum pans, if that’s seeping into your food, you don’t know how much of that you’re getting and obviously you don’t want to be putting excess of that or any of that in your food at all into your body. So yeah, I would avoid that at all costs.
Dr. Wendy Myers
That’s a problem with eating at restaurants too. That’s why it’s so important to eat at home because a lot of restaurants use aluminum cookware, especially the cheaper restaurants. They are not really thinking about this at all. But if you’re eating fruit food from aluminum cookware or aluminum flatware or eating from utensils at the restaurant, you’re getting aluminum in your body and that aluminum kills brain cells. It dramatically impacts neurotransmission. It gets into your nervous system. It causes so many different issues and contributes also to different forms of dementia. So, it is very problematic. Let’s go into ceramic cookware because there are different grades of ceramic cookware. There are some that don’t really have a very good coating on them. I think it’s just like anything, there are different grades of quality. Can you talk a little bit about ceramic?
David Barrett
With the ceramic cookware, you just want to go for high grade ceramic. You don’t want any of that seeping into you. So I guess again, that’s why we chose to put this non-toxic coating on our product so that you’re using that coating and you’re not actually heating up the pan and that is not seeping into your foods. So, with the ceramic, I guess you just want to go like high quality ceramic. And again, it’s research, right? You need to research the company. It doesn’t necessarily mean like the top brands are the ones bringing you the top-quality products. You actually need to go and find out what grade the ceramic is.
Ads 00:14:29
I wanted to give a word to one of our sponsors and thank them. I love Solaris by Activation Products. This is a product I’ve been using for almost seven years now. This is my go-to product to prevent colds, to deal with Candida, parasites, rashes, and skin rashes. It’s amazing oil, but this is my go-to product called Solaris by Activation Products. They also have a whole line of the best top-of-the-line products that I highly recommend to all of my patients. Go check them out at activationproducts.com
Dr. Wendy Myers
Let’s talk about stainless steel. Any problem with stainless steel pans at all? I definitely have used stainless steel before and you know again, there are varying qualities of stainless steel. You don’t want to use stainless steel pots that are20 years old, that have all kinds of puck marks in them, scratches and things that can reduce the integrity of the metal and have that leach into your food. There are a lot of different things to consider when it comes to stainless. I think they’re relatively safe.
David Barrett
Yeah, I think stainless steel is relatively safe, but again, it’s what you like cooking with. We wanted to create something which was healthy and convenient and that’s what we’ve done in a sense that it’s got the non-toxic coating and it’s healthy. It’s not seeping into your food. With the stainless steel ones, I think you’ll struggle to cook without having natural oil in the pan, which you can do with our pans. We’ve proven that and you can see on our website. We’ve proved that that’s possible. So yeah, I think it’s whatever you’re used to cooking with, but again convenience comes into play for some people.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I know that when cooking with stainless steel, I have very heavy-duty stainless steel pans and they’re so heavy and I almost hurt my wrist using them. I did one time and they’re just super heavy-duty ones, but they are also challenging to cook with. I don’t want to make eggs in stainless steel. They stick. They turn into a mess. If you burn something a little, cook it over, cook it a little too much, you have this huge mess that you have to clean up in the stainless steel pan and use that metal mesh thing attached to the little metal sponge. What do you call that? I forget what you call that.
David Barrett
I’m not sure, but I know exactly what you’re talking about because I’m sure I’ve scratched several pans if it was them.
Dr. Wendy Myers
If you’ve got a mess, it’s going to be really difficult to clean. It’s like a wire mesh thing. I forget what it’s called, but it can be very difficult to clean a burned stainless steel pan and you have to soak it and things like that. But with your pans, it just takes all that away. It factors that out and like I said, they’re very easy to cook with. It’s much more enjoyable to cook with nonstick and to clean as well. So, what are some of the biggest hazards in the kitchen that people are unaware of?
David Barrett
So, obviously we’ve been speaking about the cookware and it was quite clear that there are a lot of toxic brands out there, which their non-stick elements are seeping into our food. It’s essential that you do your research and find out what cookware you want to work with and what is the safest. But then the biggest issue is what we’ve put into our bodies. I don’t know if this is going off topic slightly, but I came across this really cool app in the UK, which allows you to scan the food that you’re eating. So, for a lot of the supermarket food, you can scan it and it tells you what additives are in there, and it’s shocking to actually have a look and see what’s being added into brands. You think there’s no way there’s additives, but there are hazardous chemicals they’re putting in there so that we can have our package of processed foods in it. So, yeah, I’d say the number one thing is to choose what you put into your body. Choose what foods you want to eat. Second to that is obviously to choose how you cook it, and that’s with the cookware or the cooking utensils that you use.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I also love your P600 knives now that we’re talking about utensils because a lot of people are cooking with dull knives. That’s obviously really annoying. I have really expensive Japanese knives that I’ve had for years and they’re a hundred to $300 per knife. I can tell you half of them have broken, like the tips have broken off of them because tempered stainless steel is very sharp, but also extremely fragile. I just found another one. I just moved and found another one of my knives that the tip broke off of. If someone throws a dishwasher or whatever, it’s just really frustrating. Your knives are amazing. These are P600 knives. Tell us about those and what makes them different from your typical knife.
David Barrett
The P600 knife is probably the first product we did under Chef’s Foundry. They have a ceramic, Zirconia blade, which is 10 times harder than stainless steel. They make food prep, any sort of slicing through vegetables so easy. It literally just glides through them. We actually did a cool, tomato test. What you do is slice a tomato in half, put it on a chopping board, and then you try to slice it without moving the tomato. We actually did this with our knife, which goes through fine. But when you try to do it with a stainless-steel knife, I think we actually did it with a Damascus knife, which is Japanese steel, and it couldn’t do it. A lot of people actually say that’s not real. But trust me it is. We actually did that and I was astounded. It’s honestly like going for butter. It’s really cool. Awesome knives.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, with the regular knives, a lot of people just buy cheap knives and just buy whatever, just something to cut with. I know for me, I love cooking. I hate cooking with dull knives. I hate it. With my stainless steel knives, I find that I have to sharpen them. You’re supposed to sharpen them out for every use actually because eventually the knife gets damaged. But with the zirconia knives, do you have to do that? Do you have to sharpen them very often?
David Barrett
Well, they stay sharp for a long time, but yeah, we sell a sharpener with them as well. Over time, they will dull down, but they stay sharper for a lot longer than your standard stainless steel knives do.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, and they seem like they’re just a lot easier to take care of. They’re dishwasher safe and you probably have to watch your fingers when you’re using them because they’re very sharp so you have to pay attention. No distractions while you’re cooking with them.
David Barrett
Yeah. Gotta be careful. That’s why they come with the sheaths and that still doesn’t do damage to themselves.
Dr. Wendy Myers
So, you guys have other products too as well.
David Barrett
Yeah. So, at the moment, we’ve just got the P600 cookware range and the P600 knives. But we’re bringing out a few other cool products. We’ve got our steak knives coming out. We’re going to have a few cool products coming out later on.
Ads 00:22:05
I want to give thanks to one of our sponsors. It’s a Glutaryl Transdermal Glutathione Spray. Glutathione is essential for detoxification and to promote energy, cleansing, and overall well-being. Auro’s Glutaryl is the groundbreaking topical glutathione spray that’s about to become your new wellness essential. Glutaryl delivers glutathione on demand through a multi-patented sub nano technology challenging the IV and the liposomal delivery systems currently on the market. Glutathione is key to balancing oxidative stress and free radicals and promoting longevity. Add Glutaryl to your longevity routine this year by visiting aurowellness.com and use code WENDY5 to get 5 percent off your first order.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I’d love to see that. I’d love to see your whole range. I absolutely love your pans. I think they’re exceptionally well-priced when you look at the prices of other sets of pans on the market that aren’t nearly as good quality, that aren’t non-toxic and non-stick. I think they’re just a really good deal and really encourage everyone listening to go check them out at chefsfoundry.com. So, David, thanks so much for coming on the show. Anything else that we’ve left out of the conversation you want to add?
David Barrett
No, I think we covered everything, but thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Okay. Fantastic. Well, everyone, I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Thanks so much for tuning in to the Myers Detox Podcast. I love doing this show. I love bringing experts from around the world to help you really up-level your game. One of the areas that you really need to be paying attention to is your kitchen and the utensils you’re using or the cookware that you’re using. It can make such a huge difference in your health just by changing out your old, 10 or 15-year-old, 20-year-old cookware and upgrading to something that is much healthier for you and definitely getting rid of any nonstick pan you’re using. Get rid of that. It’s just not doing your health any favor. So, thanks for tuning in and I’ll talk to you guys next week.
Again, thank you so much for listening to the Myers Detox Podcast. If you want to take advantage of the very special offer that David is offering to the Myers Detox listeners, just go to bit.ly/myersdetox. You’ll get a special price on his P600 non-toxic cookware set and a free carving knife set worth $99. That’s a very special black Friday offer for my audience. So, just go check that out. I love David’s Cookware. I use it myself and really like it. I love its non-stick features, and I do not have to worry about the toxic chemicals on almost all non-stick cookware pans. Even ones that claim to be non-toxic typically are not. So, you gotta be very careful about that. Thanks for tuning into the Myers Detox Podcast. I’ll see you guys next week.
Disclaimer
The Myers Detox Podcast is created and hosted by Wendy Myers. This podcast is for information purposes only. Statements and views expressed on this podcast are not medical advice. This podcast, including Wendy Myers and the producers, disclaims responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of the information contained herein. The opinions of guests are their own, and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guest qualifications or credibility. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. If you think you have a medical problem, consult a licensed physician.
