Most of my work as an environmental scientist is dealing with PFAS and it's relatives (PTFE, among others). At this point, fluorinated compounds are SO prevalent in our society that Teflon coated pans are probably the last of our worries. There are many other sources that are of far greater worry, like your water supply. If you are on a well or anything other than municipal city supply, get your water tested! Also, don't eat microwavable popcorn, there's a lot of this crap in the bags (also that butter and other nonsense is bad for you).
@@jackieweaver3884 Like almost everything in life, a bit in moderation is generally "okay". Consuming large qualities of it can be harmful. Look up studies done involving PFAS and microwave popcorn to learn more details about the dangers behind it.
@@aaronvogt8820 Do you mean that it's added to microwaveable popcorn and that's why it's bad or that the microwave itself is what makes it bad (if I get my own popcorn kernels and microwave them, would they be harmful?)
@@raphael_santiago The danger mostly comes from what the bag is made from and coated with. As far as I am aware, microwaves are perfectly safe to use. Popping your own kernels in the microwave is definitely a safer and healthier solution.
I really like how Adam actually seeks out experts on top of doing his own research while still being funny and entertaining. This really is an education channel disguised as a cooking comedy channel.
I don't really consider him to be funny in the sense that making people laugh is a major aim of this channel. He has a great sense of humor, but the education factor is not really disguised to me at all. It's the main reason I'm here actually - the cooking tips are great, but I'm a sucker for listening to intelligent, curious people talk about what interests them, regardless of the topic.
This doesn't seem silly at all to me. I've made the green Enchiladas, that Mexican black bean dish, the roasted chicken as well as the board dressing for steak. Dude is legit, entertaining, informative, fun, scientific and has an amazing voice. Editing is pretty on point. Bonus points for no intro, no outro and no BS. Hard to beat.
Adam is now my favourite "food science" source. Note: Infrared thermal guns do not only read temperature at the laser pointer dot. The laser pointer is only a visual reference point and is not part of the measuring technology. The actual measuring zone is a cone-shape extending out. Mine is a 12:1 ratio (usually shown on side of gun). So in this video, assuming you were about 60cm from the laser point, you were measuring about a 5cm area (likely the much colder food or oven wall). Reflectivity and angle may also play a role in that case (which is why you can't "shoot" stainless steel).
True. I would add that "serious" thermal guns have not only a single laser, but two lasers, slightly angled ; the purpose is to aim at the exact distance where the two dots overlap, so that you know it's the distance for measurement that the thermal gun is conceived for!
This channel makes me happy. Making serious research accessible to the general public is a function in which the media at large is gravely underperforming. The way this channel does just that in a natural and unapologetic way says a lot about its respect for its audience and the value of rational thinking. Thanks Adam.
In my experience, when i see an article in a mainstream news outlet talking about a scientific study, there's an 80% chance that it contradicts the study. Usually by misinterpreting it as something far more sensationalistic than it actually is. Or just misinterpreting because they don't know shit about the topic.
There is no serious research in America because all the doctors, universities, and hospitals are all bought out by corporations, lobbyists and the insurance industry.
i like it when these videos go from "non stick pans are safe!" to "dangerous chemical is in everything you love." a little sad but still important info
i dont get it tho, everything else he mentioned literally has no effect on us because we dont use them and burn them to release the chemicals. Like the makeup coating, carpet coatings he mentioned. But we literally cook with out pans everyday and it is SOOOO much more likely for the chemicals to release into the air. So I really dont know why he mentioned it at the end bc now after all the info he basically said "everything is dangerous so it honestly doesn't matter anyways" but like ??? Everything IS dangerous if we fricking bite and lick on everything we have but we dont, so??
I lost my bird to the use of kitchen appliances in the oven. Was very sad to lose Jordan that day, but now I'm pretty cautious when introducing new items into the kitchen that may be exposed to high heats.
We recently switched to stainless pans and I love them! Instead of struggling to clean them I just learned (from Adam) how to deglaze and make sauces. :) That sucks that PFOAs are everywhere. We gave up microwave popcorn years ago, but I've been unhappy with the slow change from natural materials in clothing to petroleum based clothes. It's getting harder and harder to find all cotton or wool clothes anymore. Might have to go live in a teepee and hunt Bison from here on out. Great video Adam! Love your content!
I relate to what you said about petroleum based clothing. About 10 years ago when it started to become popular, I started purchasing most of my clothing at thrift stores. Unfortunately the last few years, it’s becoming harder and harder to find non-petroleum clothes at thrift stores. So now I am seeking out vintage clothing.
"My possessions should serve me, I should not serve them." I can think of a lot of people in my life who would be much happier if they thought this way.
Just so everyone knows, put water in a pan and heat it till the water boils, then use a spatula to scrub the bottom of the pan gently. Everything stuck to the bottom will desolve rather easily. (this is called deglazing and is used to make sauces out of that stuff that sticks) Cleaning a pan with stuff stuck on the bottom is really easy most of the time.
Just an FYI about those infrared thermometers, they come with a laser to aim them, but their "beam" comes out in a cone, so the further away from something you are, the less precise the measurement. Same if you're too close (think like how camera images are blurry and unable to focus when you get too close). Cheap kitchen ones are most precise at about a foot away and it looks like you're like 5 feet away when measuring the things in the stove.
And the danger temp is in the 400's, he should delete this video, most people will accidentally leave an empty pan on high for more than 3 minutes dozens of times in their life.
Great video! Thank you so much for all the data and the interview with a expert who doesn't have a hidden agenda. I looked into this topic in great detail and came to the same conclusions.
Hey, great video. Something that you overlooked is that the PFOA-like chemicals (Gen X, also called C6 or PFOS) aren’t just used in the manufacture of water-resistant fabrics/wrappers/floss/etc - they are actually coated with Gen X. A Patagonia waterproof jacket, for example, is sprayed with pure Gen X. Similar story for “grease proof” fast food wrappers. This is a huge potential health problem, and likely where most of the human exposure is coming from - not the pans. Think this point needs to be made more clearly.
Concerns about PFOA aren’t just PFOA, but the entire class of PFAS, including PTFE. Also, what DuPont is using to replace PFOA in the process is still just as harmful.
No no no we are supposed to just listen to DuPont's Studies about DuPont's Product's being safe, and believe it! What do you mean? it's inert! It can't mechanically get stuck, it's inert so it'll just pass through./s
@@safir2241 the channel banner you see when you click on his profile is the channel art and the vinegar leg is on the right is a reference to his buttermilk fried chicken video where he tried replacing buttermilk with vinegar and normal milk. He kept saying vinegar leg is on the right to remember which one was which.
If you want an actual explanation, Chlorine and Carbon form very strong bonds due to the difference of electron affinity. Chlorine is much more hungry for those electrons than Carbon so when they share those electrons in a covalent bond, Carbon becomes positively charged and Chlorine becomes negatively charged. This allows it to essentially double dip on the strength of an ionic bond and a covalent bond at the same time. Hope this helped!
Yh could’ve just said the Carbon-Fluorine bond is so strong that they don’t react to other chemicals. There’s also other factors (such as that PTFE’s non-polar despite the C-F bond being polar) but that’s generally the reason why it’s non-stick
Polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE (Teflon) coatings are widely used in a variety of industries and a myriad of applications. In the medical field, PTFE is commonly used to coat surgical instruments as well as medical components such as catheters, guidewires, and implantables. PTFE is a polymer of fluorine and carbon which has an extremely strong bond and because of this it is an extremely inert material, which is why things don't stick to it. The process to stick PTFE to stainless steel or aluminium fry pans is chemically difficult to explain here. In a nut shell the PTFE surface which will be stuck to the pan is chemically modified by a reducing agent so its "sticky" by breaking the strong bonds of between the fluorine and carbon atoms and combines with the fluorine so there is no a carbon radical that combine together as a unsaturated hydrocarbon. Because these lack a full complement of electrons in the outer electron shell of the atom they are eager to bond with anything that could "donate" electrons...in other words they stick "like shit to a blanket" to the metal and you have a teflon coated pan! The "crap" in microwave bags are Fluorotelomers which are used in many applications which need to be grease and oil resistant such food packaging, microwave popcorn bags and so on. The real problem is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which has proven to be nasty to your health. In the production of fluorotelomers PFOA is an an unintended byproduct. As well if fluorotelomers coating the microwave bag contain PFOA precursors (a substance that will be formed into another substance) these can be metabolized by heat into PFOA or just degrade over time...and that is the problem. Not teflon which is entirely a different substance. Simple yes?
I have always been skeptical about non-stick pans. To me Plastic (PTFE or PFOA) + heat + food is a big no no. I watched the whole video and I think Adam made some very good points. I still stand by what I said. Thank you.
It’s a matter of risk assessment. It’s why mothers of young children are the most adamant about these things (as well as why people making fun of “chemical free” folks are likely misogynistic). Also it’s possible another expert is going to say something different.
@@kathyl9222 I'm a dad, I cook. I'm slowly replacing my teflon pans. Chemical free folks are mostly just being dumb (whether they're men or women). I just don't want plastic in my kid's balls. Might be safe, but then again, they might find some shit 20 or 30 years in the future. I'd rather play it safe.
To be honest, I love the informative part that the chemical is everywhere; and that we just don't know it. But I slightly disagree with the conclusion. If we don't support it, don't buy it even if the amount it pans seems minuscule and/or not seem as health hazardous. Why? Because when you produce thousands or millions of them, they still add up. Not to mention, it became annoying the last time I tried buying a pan, there wasn't non-stick coated options around where I lived. They became so cheap and common, they became the only option around. (this was around 4 years ago when I bought that non-stick coated pan)
@@JohnSmith-kw6be thats a really lame excuse. I have a non stick wok because I was gifted it but I don't need extra chemicals in my food so I'm just gonna order a real one online.
@JohnSmith-kw6be your comment was stupid and I explained why. No need to feign pride with a needlessly condescending response. Get over yourself, I'm begging you.
I thought entertainment killed journalism long ago. In a bit of irony, you have brought these 2 ingredients together to make consistently wonderful content.
@@eltiolavara9 got mine for 5$ on sale... Seriously though Cast Iron pan are literally just cast molded Iron which is why it is generally cheap. If you're lucky you can just get a rusty one in a surplus store and just scrape off the rust. Someone already inherited my Grandma cast iron set which is why I tried to buy one.
@@eltiolavara9 Yes, but contrary to myth, they will stick to things more than something like a teflon pan would. They also require specific types of care.
Funny how they have a news story about micro plastics that says cracks in non stick pans release thousands of micro particles for each break in the surface... Yet they ignore that things as light as wind erode rocks. So what erosion cause of food sliding across the surface doesn't happen at all. Or is that just acceptable contamination? As hot things also erode faster. Like hot water in a plastic cup leaches plastic from the container but ignore that the same thing happens with non stick pans and food... Odd to how some people can have literally a dozen health issues. But can switch to nothing but fruit for 1008 days and somehow all those issues go away... Maybe our food is why we have all the health issues there are in America. I mean they did test on rays and animals that can eat dead things and survive things that kill us like the black plague and other illnesses. And those animals still had some that got sick with health issues and had reproductive harm in tests far shorter than our lifetime of basically 24/7 exposure as they say it's safe.... Yet aren't most of our health issues the same as those found testing foods and products.... Hmmm. Just ignore that to right. And ignore that the statistics were useless as side effects said screw your animal testing as one guy tested processed foods for a month (less time than animal testing, should have low chance of effects) yet less than a month in that doctor developed weight that was hard to lose, became irritable, developed insomnia and high blood pressure... But oh ore that to as they taught in school decades ago that processed foods were the future and would save humanity. I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of so called natural deaths from normal ailments are actually caused by food side effects and they just claim it's a natural death or hereditary sickness.
Believe it or not, Chinese cuisine best practices require you to burn the wok on stovetop without anything inside, this makes it very easy to surpass 350 c. That's with the home stove. Commercial stoves are even more powerful than that. Some dishes require the chef to finish in 10s with maximun heat possible. That's why no Professional Chinese chefs use non-stick woks. That's also why I'm switching back to iron wok and use non-stick pans only for acidic stuff like tomatos.
@@Uyiosa3000 nah we traditionally use metal utensils in the kitchen especially for dining, our ancestors would use silver chopsticks or needles to test if the food is poisoned😂 I'm from Taiwan and my grandparents mostly cook with steel kitchenwares on woks, it's also very common in east asian kitchen to cook with chopsticks
@Daniel all traditional Chinese resteraunt cooking are done with one long-handle scoop and one wok, both completely metal. so metal-on-metal cooking is actually very Asian.
I'm with Adam on this one. I think PTFE pans are the least of our worries unless you live in a hermetically sealed bubble. Different tools for different jobs - I have PTFE, Stainless, Cast Iron -- each are better at different things. Try not to create unnecessary waste and take care of your tools and make them last a long time. That will lessen your environmental impact if that's your worry.
In my opinion, cast iron sears meat and vegetables much better than Teflon. It is also cheaper, bigger, and is oven safe. In a previous comment you said Teflon was oven safe too, but calphalon.com says that it is only oven safe up to 400F, and cannot be used in the broiler. Cast iron can.
I once had an issue with burning a non-stick pan and I felt bad for the rest of the day. I didn't die. Luckily I usually use timers and don't leave the kitchen with the heat turned up on a burner enough where it could burn the pan, so this was a rare case. And yes, when you do this there will be some noticeable damage to the pan. You might not see the cooking surface damaged, you might see on the bottom of the pan that you burned it. It will let off those fumes even though it's not much. I usually stick to the directions of not going over med. heat, unless it's liquid in the pan in which case the liquid makes sure the pan never gets over a certain temp anyway which is why my non-stick pasta cooker looks almost perfect after 15 years of use other than some stains on the outside of the pot.
While ingesting/breathing in PTFE may not be as carcinogenic as was feared, I wish you didn't gloss over "my plan is to use these pans and take care of it and replace it every few years". There are 122 million USA households. If each of them "used and replaced PTFE pans every few years" in an average cooking lifespan of say 50 years (an adult starts cooking at 20 and lives until 70), that's 15 pans per household=1.83 billion PTFE pans that need replacing in those 50 years. If the argument is "well it's everywhere"...1.83 billion pans in 50 years can't be ignored or rationalized as "well it's everywhere else." Ceasing support of over a billion pans that ends up in landfills will make a difference.
It was cats and dogs dying, that made people realise they were making fire proof pillows and children toys again. Those fire retardant stuff are carcinogenic.
My friends had to watch over my parrot when I was abroad. First night they accidentally killed him when cooking dinner by teflon. Still not funny story. They have kids now, hope they will survive.
I've switched to silver- and tin- and stainless-lined copper. The cooking results are perfect once I have built up a cooking surface like on cast iron. Yeah, the up-front price is high, but since I don't bang my equipment around, it's a one-time expenditure, except for re-tinning every several years on the tin-lined pans.
Very comprehensive, I appreciate this. I had always sort of assumed that any health risk associated with nonstick pans would be pretty minor, although oddly enough I really do pick up a strange smell whenever I use them. Honestly I'm just not the biggest fan of them in general, I haven't owned one in years. The list of things that they do better I feel is fairly small, and none of those things (at least that I do) are impossible in a stainless pan. I keep a pretty svelte kitchen so unless I really need something I don't bother.
i fucking love Pozole but apparently a lot of people make it different like my mom's is 2 different dried peppers for the juice. shredded chicken and cubed pork and hominy corn + chicken stock . while i see a lot more added in others recipes
I'm not a very tidy person but after I moved out 7 years ago I got a non stick pan from my mum which I still use today and it's barely even scratched. I'm very proud of that, definitely one of my greatest accomplishments
Thank you to Adam for always bringing science and facts into these discussions. Food and cooking are topics that are often polluted with misinformation, either through ignorance or deliberate purposes. Keep up the fight!
If you heat oil to smoking hot, that can kill a bird. My position on this is twofold: 1: Don’t heat your pans (of any kind) to smoking hot. 2. Birds should be flying free, not kept as pets.
I've never been fond of Teflon myself. But the environment I grew up in also didn't know how to cook with it right. Honestly, I can live with traditional surfaces, because, what's super hot on one stove, may just be hot on another. There's never been a consistency for me to work with, and to add to it, it takes a bit of work for me to figure out a good setting to work with for cooking things. I don't do much cooking myself, mostly cause I don't know much behind a handful of things, but, also because I've really only ever had enough money to make 2 weeks worth of cereal and microwavable meals before getting paid again. I'll live with the standard pans, because, the idea of the non-stick coating coming off, and generally getting burned through and sticking to my food constantly when trying to figure out appropriate heat settings, isn't appealing to me. I want a product that last, not one I have to replace every 2-3 years. I've got enough of those elsewhere that are way more worth the trouble and price of doing so, that I'm not interested with cooking utensils. Plus, if you mess up and burn the food, it's permanent. Which, more often than not, because I'm constantly trying to test proper temperatures for cooking, happens constantly for me. Then the whole thing starts getting dark and/or black, and is just aggravating. I'd rather see shiny silver and know I have to scrub it really good, than to see blackened/burnt non-stick material that I'm still ingesting anyway. Plus I've had problems historically that make me want to avoid black flakes of any kind whatsoever in my food if I didn't directly put it in, such as pepper.
I have used a triple ply and cast iron pans for 30 years, as long as you use a spritz of non-stick spray and a little fat, along with a more gentle approach to heat you don't need to use these chemicals.
Oh my god I've never been this early! Just wanna say, Adam you're really the best chef on yt imo, I love how your videos aren't very long and are very scientific 😍💞
I don't like the idea of supporting the industry that exposes their workers to these chemicals and also which pushes them out into the environment. There are many industries that do this, but if more people avoid them the supply and manufacture will decrease.
Oh, I've actually had mild teflon flu. Only had a lot of coughing and a small headache for a day or two. My parents cooked something with an electric pan with teflon coating and whoever turned it off didn't check. Several hours passed and I woke up to the melted and vaporized material, I immediately took the lid off and didn't think of opening a window first. I inhaled a lot of it, and the rest spread out to the whole house (minus my parent's bedroom!) and the kitchen smelled of burnt teflon for two weeks.
Hey, I can officially say that I've gotten sick from one of these pans after overheating it. Totally my fault, BTW. I was young and stupid. I was trying to make a stir fry. I didn't have a wok. So I put some oil in my nonstick frying pan. And got distracted watering my garden and picking veg for dinner. Came in "later" to kill the smoke detector that had alerted me to my stupidity ... and while checking out the smoking pan accidentally dripped water from wet hands (no, not dumb enough to put out the smoke with water, just not smart enough to dry my hands before running to the emergency either) and WHOOOOOOSH!!!! Just that tiny bit of water caused the oil to EXPLODE! Into a raging fireball that might have burned the house down, had the kitchen ceiling not been a crappy ugly fiberglass drop ceiling from ancient times. Well, let me tell you ... that turned off the smoke detector! ROFL The pan did not fare well either. It ... err ... looked worse than the one pictured. LOL Whoopsie! Fortunately I jumped back in time to only lose some hair and get some minor burns. No one was seriously injured. BUT I did get a "flu" the next couple of days. A little online research later told me I was dumber than even I had thought. (And lucky!) Besides nearly burning face off, I'd also poisoned myself. Now I only use nonstick pans on medium or low temperatures. And I don't neglect heating oil even if I only "plan" to be gone a minute. These days I have a variety of pans. Some traditional nonstick. Some ceramic nonstick. Some steel. Some cast iron. Unfortunately, I still do dumb things on occasion, but at least I do NEW dumb things. I learn from my life-threatening mistakes. LOL But so yes, you can breathe in a LOT of this crap and ... after a couple of days ... be just fine. I wouldn't recommend it, but if it happens, unless you react really badly from it, there's no need to panic. You might not even realize that the flu you had was related. I didn't. The internet had to tell me. LOL
Fantastic explanation and research; this is top notch food journalism, way better than most content on the Food Network. Reminds me of Good Eats with Alton Brown. Thank you for this!
I kinda low-key hate this, the whole idea behind "It's not that bad" "Eh, it's everywhere anyway so!", "Yeah but there's probably more of it in the rain anyway". Yeah it's in a ton of stuff, so we should be avoiding those AS WELL instead of just saying "Oh well, what's a little more", and making the problem worse. I could understand if it was vital, but honestly a lot of it can be easily substituted. Spend a bit to learn how to use a fry pan properly and all of a sudden sticking isn't so bad, honestly how many people are making delicate french omlettes? everything else you can do in like a cast-iron or carbon steel fry-pan without it sticking. I mean how do you think we got in this mess in the first place! BUT THE CONVENIENCE!! Considering how long it took for the world to realise how bad PFOAs are, as well as how long DuPont literally sat and hid that information I'm not so sure that GenX is any better. Sure it might not kill you straight away, but is it probably slowly killing the planet and us in slow and insidious ways? Who knows, I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime it's not that difficult to avoid them. Oh no! No teflon, no waterproof spray for clothes or shoes? However will we live without them. Meanwhile, what do you think happens to all that shit once you throw it away? Yeah! But it's GenX not PFOA, it's just almost identical, surely the effects wouldn't be almost identical... like it's performance... Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. And with all those smarts you could have taught a ton of people how to cook without sticking, or maybe think of a smart way to cook a french omlette without it sticking, maybe bain marie/sous vide style or something, but no, instead. "Eh, it's not that bad, those other companies are much worse".
I love how people think there’s “science” going on in this video. This is why we have an educational disconnect about what constitutes “science” and actual research. The risk of PFAS and micro-plastics entering your body is simply far too great to merit the “reward” of a non stick pan. When done right I can easily cook eggs in a stainless pan without them sticking.
what about carbon steel pans? I find them sitting in between non-stick and cast iron pans. They're not too heavy and if seasoned correctly provides a good non-stick surfaces (especially with butter)
Knew about this in the 80s when I had a part time job while at university selling pots and pans at Marshall Fields. It was known back then. Even the stuff about birds. Personally I just don't like nonstick pans. I'm on the side that they are mostly useless in a kitchen. I have two for the rare occasion I prefer to cook a particular dish. I would point out that being nonchalant about who gets sick from polymer related illnesses is poor medical science. Lead poisoning was thought to kill more workers in gasoline lead processing plants that only killed about four people a year.
Got rid of my nonstick a while ago for cast iron. The more I use it the more I love it. Becomes more nonstick over time. I am kinda attached to them now!
I do a lot of cooking in an electric frying pan. I dropped a heap of money on a good quality stainless steel one about 20 years ago and used it for well over 15 years. A few years ago I started thinking that it would be good to get one that had a non-stick surface for easier cleaning, and it was great for a while, until a year or so later the non-stick surface was starting to wear off and chip and then it became harder to clean than my trusty old stainless steel one. Fortunately I had kept my stainless steel one and so I got rid of the no longer non-stick one and still use my stainless steel one to this day. I also tried out some non-stick pots and pans for the stove to the same result. I now stick with stainless steel, except that I do keep a couple of non-stick stove top pans exclusively for cooking eggs.
What about the huge number of microplastic particles that come from scratched Teflon that has been recently reported? Would be nice to get an updated version of this video. EDIT: Apparently there is one he put out semi-recently. It is called "Nonstick is prob safe - the factories aren't (PFAS contamination)"
I recently just took a materials class where I learned a little about this. I appreciate the scientific approach rather than all the TH-cam "Doctors" telling everyone they'll die ten seconds after they heat up a nonstick. 🤦🏻♀️ While there is possible danger(as with anything), there's an insane amount of scare tactics when It comes to nonstick.
5:17 Luckily for this man he lives in Japan and not the United States so his hospital trip probably only cost him about 1000円(approx $10) and not $8000.
you've gotta wonder the extent to which the U.S. health system undercounts the incidents of all kinds of illnesses because people are too scared to go to the doctor.
@@aragusea It's really bad. I've spoken to friends who live overseas (yes the internet is a wonderful thing)and there are people who will go to the hospital for a stomach ache because it won't cost them an arm and a leg. I've also heard stories about Americans freaking out after someone called an ambulance for them while in Japan and resisting the EMTs screaming "I can't afford it" just to find out afterwards the ambulance is free.
@@Matando i'm going full-time with this stuff in December, and that's really cool and exciting and awesome and all, except for one thing: buying health insurance for my entire family on the individual market. It's gonna be like $2k a month for a plan with a $9k deductible. THAT is what the sponsors pay for, friends. :-)
Congrats man, you've earned it! The hard work definitely pays off. Yeah, that is something I worry about myself too and I know it is way worse with a family. While my channel isn't monetized yet(65% of watch time needed) and I only have myself to worry about I was laid off back in Feb and have yet to find work. I'm hoping my channel works out as if it does I plan on sponsoring a visa to live abroad as I have plenty of contacts. It would be a fun adventure and I wouldn't have to worry about the health insurance issue outside of the USA. Good luck to you!
In college I actually got the “teflon flu” I worked in a warehouse and we had to heat up the ends of the PTFE and flare them out so a flange could but up against it to be used in PTFE lined steel pipe.
Hello Fresh - This is what my brother said: I liked the food but the prep time took way too long. Maybe an accomplished chef could get it done in the allotted time. And the clean up..oh my. I canceled. I find the same thing and as an old man with a bad back the thought of cancellation has crossed my mind. I do like the meals. Thanks for the opportunity to comment
@@petervansan1054 it’s super easy to care for. I just rinse w hot water and use it a lot. I live in the high desert so I don’t oil it like I used to in the high humidity. But even that just took a second. It’s completely nonstick, and was really cheap.
Trying to buy cookware that doesn't have ptfe is quite a challenge. My biggest beef with it is that no matter what they say, it does not last. Most non stick pans are made of aluminium which does not like dishwashers.
Excellent...no surprises. A little pushback about which "possessions serve you vs. you serving them" (as illustrated by the ubiquitous presence of PFOA's in the environment) and perhaps a more specific characterization/differentiation between the terms use and abuse. Familiar with your channel, always intriguing investigations with virtually no virtue signaling, real curiosity in real time and quantifiable results. Thank you. Was referred here by a more recent evaluation of HexClad cookware by Chris Young only to discover I'd (probably) already viewed it.😜
Good unbiased information. I have been trying to use buy kitchen equipment that was not nonstick and it’s really hard to do. Nonstick is everywhere however I continue to buy pots pans cast iron stainless steel etc. why if you look after them you pass them on to next generation. Love Miele Immer Besser
Most of my work as an environmental scientist is dealing with PFAS and it's relatives (PTFE, among others). At this point, fluorinated compounds are SO prevalent in our society that Teflon coated pans are probably the last of our worries. There are many other sources that are of far greater worry, like your water supply. If you are on a well or anything other than municipal city supply, get your water tested! Also, don't eat microwavable popcorn, there's a lot of this crap in the bags (also that butter and other nonsense is bad for you).
thanks! I didn't know microwave popcorn could be harmful
@@jackieweaver3884 Like almost everything in life, a bit in moderation is generally "okay". Consuming large qualities of it can be harmful. Look up studies done involving PFAS and microwave popcorn to learn more details about the dangers behind it.
@@aaronvogt8820 will surely check it out, thanks!
@@aaronvogt8820 Do you mean that it's added to microwaveable popcorn and that's why it's bad or that the microwave itself is what makes it bad (if I get my own popcorn kernels and microwave them, would they be harmful?)
@@raphael_santiago The danger mostly comes from what the bag is made from and coated with. As far as I am aware, microwaves are perfectly safe to use. Popping your own kernels in the microwave is definitely a safer and healthier solution.
I really like how Adam actually seeks out experts on top of doing his own research while still being funny and entertaining. This really is an education channel disguised as a cooking comedy channel.
Plus he's not like crazy biased
@@applepie1434 biased? Never. LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!
I don't really consider him to be funny in the sense that making people laugh is a major aim of this channel. He has a great sense of humor, but the education factor is not really disguised to me at all. It's the main reason I'm here actually - the cooking tips are great, but I'm a sucker for listening to intelligent, curious people talk about what interests them, regardless of the topic.
I could sit for 10 minutes while listening to him rant about brown sugar
I actually found this channel just recently because of the educational stuff, the cooking is just a really nice bonus I think lol.
Sounds silly but I think you're the best youtuber of 2019.
Original, informative, funny, relatable, clean, smart, to the point.
This doesn't seem silly at all to me. I've made the green Enchiladas, that Mexican black bean dish, the roasted chicken as well as the board dressing for steak. Dude is legit, entertaining, informative, fun, scientific and has an amazing voice. Editing is pretty on point. Bonus points for no intro, no outro and no BS. Hard to beat.
Koana not clean but yeah
His definitely one of the best cooking channel's on TH-cam at the moment
I would say the best *cooking* channel right now just so I don't trigger people lol
M. Livingston Less than 100 cases of people getting sick from the pans, there is nothing to worry about. You are more at risk by walking outside
Adam is now my favourite "food science" source.
Note: Infrared thermal guns do not only read temperature at the laser pointer dot. The laser pointer is only a visual reference point and is not part of the measuring technology. The actual measuring zone is a cone-shape extending out. Mine is a 12:1 ratio (usually shown on side of gun). So in this video, assuming you were about 60cm from the laser point, you were measuring about a 5cm area (likely the much colder food or oven wall). Reflectivity and angle may also play a role in that case (which is why you can't "shoot" stainless steel).
I was wondering about that! Thanks so much.
True. I would add that "serious" thermal guns have not only a single laser, but two lasers, slightly angled ; the purpose is to aim at the exact distance where the two dots overlap, so that you know it's the distance for measurement that the thermal gun is conceived for!
"Non stick pans can kill birds" well anything can kill a bird if you hit them with it hard enough
I'm kidding.
This is like the only comment hes liked so far😂
What about a feather? ^^
@@ImBarryScottCSS if its one kilogram of feathers
It's true though
@@lanceloveridge8790 makes me question adams motives. The next video how to prepare dead parrot "safely".
This channel makes me happy. Making serious research accessible to the general public is a function in which the media at large is gravely underperforming. The way this channel does just that in a natural and unapologetic way says a lot about its respect for its audience and the value of rational thinking. Thanks Adam.
Really good point
In my experience, when i see an article in a mainstream news outlet talking about a scientific study, there's an 80% chance that it contradicts the study. Usually by misinterpreting it as something far more sensationalistic than it actually is. Or just misinterpreting because they don't know shit about the topic.
There is no serious research in America because all the doctors, universities, and hospitals are all bought out by corporations, lobbyists and the insurance industry.
@@leandrog2785 or misinterpreting it to please their funders
"Nah dude I'm a sucker for a kit of any kind" lmao the delivery of that was spot on
A kid of any kind 🤔🤔🤔
"I'm a sucker for a kit of any kind"
Dad Level +1
"Men will do anything, just give them something that plugs in the wall and makes a whirring noise."
- George Carlin, 1999
I am a plumber and heating engineer. All bow before the glory of mighty Polytetrafluoroethylene.
Thread tape or sealing cord?
Read it one one go
First try
Bachaddict flex tape
Use copper plumbing.
@@asadyezdan3858 well high school chemistry means it's not exactly first time for most people
i like it when these videos go from "non stick pans are safe!" to "dangerous chemical is in everything you love."
a little sad but still important info
We're still alive.
@@gooeyboy706 Well of course, dead people can't post comments
@@soupwizard I little optimism in your life wouldn't hurt you.
i dont get it tho, everything else he mentioned literally has no effect on us because we dont use them and burn them to release the chemicals. Like the makeup coating, carpet coatings he mentioned. But we literally cook with out pans everyday and it is SOOOO much more likely for the chemicals to release into the air. So I really dont know why he mentioned it at the end bc now after all the info he basically said "everything is dangerous so it honestly doesn't matter anyways" but like ??? Everything IS dangerous if we fricking bite and lick on everything we have but we dont, so??
@@IshratJahan-dh3ev ikr!
I lost my bird to the use of kitchen appliances in the oven. Was very sad to lose Jordan that day, but now I'm pretty cautious when introducing new items into the kitchen that may be exposed to high heats.
We recently switched to stainless pans and I love them! Instead of struggling to clean them I just learned (from Adam) how to deglaze and make sauces. :)
That sucks that PFOAs are everywhere. We gave up microwave popcorn years ago, but I've been unhappy with the slow change from natural materials in clothing to petroleum based clothes. It's getting harder and harder to find all cotton or wool clothes anymore. Might have to go live in a teepee and hunt Bison from here on out.
Great video Adam! Love your content!
They are mainly in fish, don't eat fish.
Return to monke
I relate to what you said about petroleum based clothing. About 10 years ago when it started to become popular, I started purchasing most of my clothing at thrift stores. Unfortunately the last few years, it’s becoming harder and harder to find non-petroleum clothes at thrift stores. So now I am seeking out vintage clothing.
Sew your own clothes! Then you don’t contribute to the evils of fast fashion
"My possessions should serve me, I should not serve them." I can think of a lot of people in my life who would be much happier if they thought this way.
Like... Mike from autovlog?
I can think of entire *societies* that would be happier if they actually followed this.
Everyone’s thinking “this should serve me” That captured how tons of toxic chemicals were released into our environment.
Why i PTFE my cooking pan NOT my steak
I'd say r/unexpectedragusea but this is pretty expected
Djshshdbsha kahkaha attım
Just so everyone knows, put water in a pan and heat it till the water boils, then use a spatula to scrub the bottom of the pan gently. Everything stuck to the bottom will desolve rather easily. (this is called deglazing and is used to make sauces out of that stuff that sticks)
Cleaning a pan with stuff stuck on the bottom is really easy most of the time.
Yeah I only have a couple of All Clad Stainless pans and they work extremely well. I just don't see myself buying a non-stick anytime soon.
Just an FYI about those infrared thermometers, they come with a laser to aim them, but their "beam" comes out in a cone, so the further away from something you are, the less precise the measurement. Same if you're too close (think like how camera images are blurry and unable to focus when you get too close). Cheap kitchen ones are most precise at about a foot away and it looks like you're like 5 feet away when measuring the things in the stove.
And the danger temp is in the 400's, he should delete this video, most people will accidentally leave an empty pan on high for more than 3 minutes dozens of times in their life.
Great video! Thank you so much for all the data and the interview with a expert who doesn't have a hidden agenda. I looked into this topic in great detail and came to the same conclusions.
Hey, great video. Something that you overlooked is that the PFOA-like chemicals (Gen X, also called C6 or PFOS) aren’t just used in the manufacture of water-resistant fabrics/wrappers/floss/etc - they are actually coated with Gen X. A Patagonia waterproof jacket, for example, is sprayed with pure Gen X. Similar story for “grease proof” fast food wrappers. This is a huge potential health problem, and likely where most of the human exposure is coming from - not the pans. Think this point needs to be made more clearly.
+
Yup, non-stick frying pans aren't on the list of main C8/PFOA and C6/GenX contamination sources, sadly it is indeed everything else.
“It’s probably ok” “I just throw them away” “their production is really bad for the environment, but”..... I’m good on non stick pans.
@Chimpanzee bra, if you eat as much meat as I do, and you’re cooking on non-stick I’m embarrassed for you.
@Chimpanzee good for you, I’ve never had camel. What does it taste like?
@Chimpanzee what’s your favorite cut?
@Chimpanzee makes sense
@Chimpanzee ever try and make a prosciutto type thing out of the rear legs?
I bet that’d be tasty given enough time.
Concerns about PFOA aren’t just PFOA, but the entire class of PFAS, including PTFE. Also, what DuPont is using to replace PFOA in the process is still just as harmful.
No no no we are supposed to just listen to DuPont's Studies about DuPont's Product's being safe, and believe it! What do you mean? it's inert! It can't mechanically get stuck, it's inert so it'll just pass through./s
@D-Vinko exactly. Asbestos fibers are inert as well but they don't just pass through you.
@@D-Vinko 88
it took me over a week to realize your channel art is a reference to 'vinegar leg is on the right'. just got that today.
megan moo I just noticed it too!
What is that?
@@safir2241 the channel banner you see when you click on his profile is the channel art and the vinegar leg is on the right is a reference to his buttermilk fried chicken video where he tried replacing buttermilk with vinegar and normal milk. He kept saying vinegar leg is on the right to remember which one was which.
Legate
I thought it was wingdings
I've been really worried about the safety of my nonstick pan lately. This resolved a lot of my fears, thank you.
Your videos are becoming so good lately, your channel is amazing
1:16 - It's resistant to reacting to other chemicals because of the way it is.
Got it.
That's how I could tell it's an aspen tree
If you want an actual explanation, Chlorine and Carbon form very strong bonds due to the difference of electron affinity. Chlorine is much more hungry for those electrons than Carbon so when they share those electrons in a covalent bond, Carbon becomes positively charged and Chlorine becomes negatively charged. This allows it to essentially double dip on the strength of an ionic bond and a covalent bond at the same time. Hope this helped!
Sean Chen even though I took ap chem this made absolute no sense to me lol
@@seanchen7815 Just to correct, the elements in PTFE are carbon and fluorine.
Yh could’ve just said the Carbon-Fluorine bond is so strong that they don’t react to other chemicals.
There’s also other factors (such as that PTFE’s non-polar despite the C-F bond being polar) but that’s generally the reason why it’s non-stick
Her expression is all like ‘this is so not a problem’ chillest scientist ever
As a subscriber, I can't believe I skipped this one for two weeks. This was your video I have personally found most valuable. Thanks!
Polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE (Teflon) coatings are widely used in a variety of industries and a myriad of applications. In the medical field, PTFE is commonly used to coat surgical instruments as well as medical components such as catheters, guidewires, and implantables. PTFE is a polymer of fluorine and carbon which has an extremely strong bond and because of this it is an extremely inert material, which is why things don't stick to it.
The process to stick PTFE to stainless steel or aluminium fry pans is chemically difficult to explain here. In a nut shell the PTFE surface which will be stuck to the pan is chemically modified by a reducing agent so its "sticky" by breaking the strong bonds of between the fluorine and carbon atoms and combines with the fluorine so there is no a carbon radical that combine together as a unsaturated hydrocarbon. Because these lack a full complement of electrons in the outer electron shell of the atom they are eager to bond with anything that could "donate" electrons...in other words they stick "like shit to a blanket" to the metal and you have a teflon coated pan!
The "crap" in microwave bags are Fluorotelomers which are used in many applications which need to be grease and oil resistant such food packaging, microwave popcorn bags and so on. The real problem is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which has proven to be nasty to your health. In the production of fluorotelomers PFOA is an an unintended byproduct. As well if fluorotelomers coating the microwave bag contain PFOA precursors (a substance that will be formed into another substance) these can be metabolized by heat into PFOA or just degrade over time...and that is the problem. Not teflon which is entirely a different substance.
Simple yes?
Wait so is it bad or no
@@annelove3460 I think that there is an unavoidable byproduct that's bad. Which sort of makes teflon bad
I have always been skeptical about non-stick pans. To me Plastic (PTFE or PFOA) + heat + food is a big no no. I watched the whole video and I think Adam made some very good points. I still stand by what I said. Thank you.
It’s a matter of risk assessment. It’s why mothers of young children are the most adamant about these things (as well as why people making fun of “chemical free” folks are likely misogynistic). Also it’s possible another expert is going to say something different.
@@kathyl9222 I'm a dad, I cook. I'm slowly replacing my teflon pans.
Chemical free folks are mostly just being dumb (whether they're men or women). I just don't want plastic in my kid's balls. Might be safe, but then again, they might find some shit 20 or 30 years in the future. I'd rather play it safe.
To be honest, I love the informative part that the chemical is everywhere; and that we just don't know it. But I slightly disagree with the conclusion. If we don't support it, don't buy it even if the amount it pans seems minuscule and/or not seem as health hazardous. Why? Because when you produce thousands or millions of them, they still add up.
Not to mention, it became annoying the last time I tried buying a pan, there wasn't non-stick coated options around where I lived. They became so cheap and common, they became the only option around. (this was around 4 years ago when I bought that non-stick coated pan)
Order them online. What's stopping you?
@@sebaschan-uwu There are times you need a cookware on the same day and don't want to wait a couple of days for shipping.
@@JohnSmith-kw6be thats a really lame excuse. I have a non stick wok because I was gifted it but I don't need extra chemicals in my food so I'm just gonna order a real one online.
@@sebaschan-uwu Are you alright man? Are you having issues in real life and so you are trying to vent online?
@JohnSmith-kw6be your comment was stupid and I explained why. No need to feign pride with a needlessly condescending response. Get over yourself, I'm begging you.
I thought entertainment killed journalism long ago. In a bit of irony, you have brought these 2 ingredients together to make consistently wonderful content.
I've been getting really strong Alton Brown Good Eats vibes from the past couple months of videos, and I love it.
Really? Where are the yeast sock puppets, or the passive aggressive refrigerator fairies, or the spiteful appliance salespeople
Bought a cast iron pan, seasoned it and never looked back.
does it work well and is it expensive? might get one but ehh idk
@@eltiolavara9 got mine for 5$ on sale... Seriously though Cast Iron pan are literally just cast molded Iron which is why it is generally cheap. If you're lucky you can just get a rusty one in a surplus store and just scrape off the rust. Someone already inherited my Grandma cast iron set which is why I tried to buy one.
@@eltiolavara9 cast iron pans are like $20 for a Lodge one - which heats and behaves exactly the same as the expensive ones.
@@eltiolavara9 Yes, but contrary to myth, they will stick to things more than something like a teflon pan would.
They also require specific types of care.
@@seigeengine yea if i got one it'd mostly be for just cooking something and then slapping it in the oven
"I'm a sucker for kits of any kind" same! Idk why but it's so interesting to open up those small packages from kits and figuring out how to use them
Is that a “vinegar chicken is on the right” image at the end??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
*Adam, we need to talk about the memes.* 'Why i season my board, not my steak' has become the meme of this channel.
The internet needed this
Funny how they have a news story about micro plastics that says cracks in non stick pans release thousands of micro particles for each break in the surface... Yet they ignore that things as light as wind erode rocks. So what erosion cause of food sliding across the surface doesn't happen at all. Or is that just acceptable contamination?
As hot things also erode faster. Like hot water in a plastic cup leaches plastic from the container but ignore that the same thing happens with non stick pans and food...
Odd to how some people can have literally a dozen health issues. But can switch to nothing but fruit for 1008 days and somehow all those issues go away... Maybe our food is why we have all the health issues there are in America. I mean they did test on rays and animals that can eat dead things and survive things that kill us like the black plague and other illnesses. And those animals still had some that got sick with health issues and had reproductive harm in tests far shorter than our lifetime of basically 24/7 exposure as they say it's safe.... Yet aren't most of our health issues the same as those found testing foods and products.... Hmmm. Just ignore that to right.
And ignore that the statistics were useless as side effects said screw your animal testing as one guy tested processed foods for a month (less time than animal testing, should have low chance of effects) yet less than a month in that doctor developed weight that was hard to lose, became irritable, developed insomnia and high blood pressure... But oh ore that to as they taught in school decades ago that processed foods were the future and would save humanity.
I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of so called natural deaths from normal ailments are actually caused by food side effects and they just claim it's a natural death or hereditary sickness.
I think your my favourite cooking/science channel
The Action Lab and Townsends are also pretty good.
Believe it or not, Chinese cuisine best practices require you to burn the wok on stovetop without anything inside, this makes it very easy to surpass 350 c. That's with the home stove. Commercial stoves are even more powerful than that. Some dishes require the chef to finish in 10s with maximun heat possible. That's why no Professional Chinese chefs use non-stick woks. That's also why I'm switching back to iron wok and use non-stick pans only for acidic stuff like tomatos.
My coating degraded, now I just got a stick-pan
Same lol
Throw it away, the aluminum is polluted with a lot of heavy metals
I like how this dude answers important questions in regards to cooking while citing research results. That's why I subscribed.
my parents: * almost every pan they own is non stick *
also my parents: * almost every kitchenware they own is metal *
I thought far east Asians didn't use metal on metal (assuming you're Korean because of the name)
@@Uyiosa3000 nah we traditionally use metal utensils in the kitchen especially for dining, our ancestors would use silver chopsticks or needles to test if the food is poisoned😂 I'm from Taiwan and my grandparents mostly cook with steel kitchenwares on woks, it's also very common in east asian kitchen to cook with chopsticks
@Daniel all traditional Chinese resteraunt cooking are done with one long-handle scoop and one wok, both completely metal. so metal-on-metal cooking is actually very Asian.
I'm with Adam on this one. I think PTFE pans are the least of our worries unless you live in a hermetically sealed bubble. Different tools for different jobs - I have PTFE, Stainless, Cast Iron -- each are better at different things. Try not to create unnecessary waste and take care of your tools and make them last a long time. That will lessen your environmental impact if that's your worry.
In my opinion, cast iron sears meat and vegetables much better than Teflon. It is also cheaper, bigger, and is oven safe. In a previous comment you said Teflon was oven safe too, but calphalon.com says that it is only oven safe up to 400F, and cannot be used in the broiler. Cast iron can.
Cast iron is also heavy and needs seasoning. The right tool for the right job
I use Cuisinart stainless steel pans.
It's also a pain in the ass
I once had an issue with burning a non-stick pan and I felt bad for the rest of the day. I didn't die. Luckily I usually use timers and don't leave the kitchen with the heat turned up on a burner enough where it could burn the pan, so this was a rare case. And yes, when you do this there will be some noticeable damage to the pan. You might not see the cooking surface damaged, you might see on the bottom of the pan that you burned it. It will let off those fumes even though it's not much.
I usually stick to the directions of not going over med. heat, unless it's liquid in the pan in which case the liquid makes sure the pan never gets over a certain temp anyway which is why my non-stick pasta cooker looks almost perfect after 15 years of use other than some stains on the outside of the pot.
"Nah dude, I'm a sucker for a kit of any kind."
Adam is my spirit animal...
It's refreshing to hear a way I am *not* killing myself for a change.
I season my cancer, not the food.
🙈
Thank you for putting things into perspective. I wish I would have watched this 5 years ago.
Absolutely loving these educational vids. Keep up the good work Adam!
I appreciate how many genuine experts you consult for your videos.
While ingesting/breathing in PTFE may not be as carcinogenic as was feared, I wish you didn't gloss over "my plan is to use these pans and take care of it and replace it every few years". There are 122 million USA households. If each of them "used and replaced PTFE pans every few years" in an average cooking lifespan of say 50 years (an adult starts cooking at 20 and lives until 70), that's 15 pans per household=1.83 billion PTFE pans that need replacing in those 50 years. If the argument is "well it's everywhere"...1.83 billion pans in 50 years can't be ignored or rationalized as "well it's everywhere else." Ceasing support of over a billion pans that ends up in landfills will make a difference.
I'm a sucker for food and science and you always succeed to wrap up all the information in a neat little kit.
When i was a kid my granpa's parrots one day suddendly died at the same time. It took us a while to figure out it was Teflon poisoning :C
It was cats and dogs dying, that made people realise they were making fire proof pillows and children toys again. Those fire retardant stuff are carcinogenic.
My friends had to watch over my parrot when I was abroad. First night they accidentally killed him when cooking dinner by teflon. Still not funny story. They have kids now, hope they will survive.
I've switched to silver- and tin- and stainless-lined copper. The cooking results are perfect once I have built up a cooking surface like on cast iron. Yeah, the up-front price is high, but since I don't bang my equipment around, it's a one-time expenditure, except for re-tinning every several years on the tin-lined pans.
Very comprehensive, I appreciate this. I had always sort of assumed that any health risk associated with nonstick pans would be pretty minor, although oddly enough I really do pick up a strange smell whenever I use them. Honestly I'm just not the biggest fan of them in general, I haven't owned one in years. The list of things that they do better I feel is fairly small, and none of those things (at least that I do) are impossible in a stainless pan. I keep a pretty svelte kitchen so unless I really need something I don't bother.
I love science and scientist, they help us so much
You should look into making some traditional Mexican food like pozole!!
"why I season my corn and not my Pozole" oh si ya lo veo venir
i fucking love Pozole but apparently a lot of people make it different like my mom's is 2 different dried peppers for the juice. shredded chicken and cubed pork and hominy corn + chicken stock . while i see a lot more added in others recipes
grits, polenta . . . corn meal washed with lye.
@@olivia6632 ya ves
@@TheShootist not lye, just calcium oxide, quicklime
I'm not a very tidy person but after I moved out 7 years ago I got a non stick pan from my mum which I still use today and it's barely even scratched. I'm very proud of that, definitely one of my greatest accomplishments
Thank you to Adam for always bringing science and facts into these discussions. Food and cooking are topics that are often polluted with misinformation, either through ignorance or deliberate purposes. Keep up the fight!
Some said its safe while some said its dangerous.
I'm not sure which one is true
and he's such a fantastic speaker
i like that every video you make is always scientifically backed informative
If you heat oil to smoking hot, that can kill a bird. My position on this is twofold:
1: Don’t heat your pans (of any kind) to smoking hot.
2. Birds should be flying free, not kept as pets.
Adam Ragusea, the man who alleviates my fear of non-stick pans while also skyrocketing my fear of everything else.
What else are you afraid of?
I've never been fond of Teflon myself. But the environment I grew up in also didn't know how to cook with it right.
Honestly, I can live with traditional surfaces, because, what's super hot on one stove, may just be hot on another. There's never been a consistency for me to work with, and to add to it, it takes a bit of work for me to figure out a good setting to work with for cooking things.
I don't do much cooking myself, mostly cause I don't know much behind a handful of things, but, also because I've really only ever had enough money to make 2 weeks worth of cereal and microwavable meals before getting paid again.
I'll live with the standard pans, because, the idea of the non-stick coating coming off, and generally getting burned through and sticking to my food constantly when trying to figure out appropriate heat settings, isn't appealing to me. I want a product that last, not one I have to replace every 2-3 years. I've got enough of those elsewhere that are way more worth the trouble and price of doing so, that I'm not interested with cooking utensils.
Plus, if you mess up and burn the food, it's permanent. Which, more often than not, because I'm constantly trying to test proper temperatures for cooking, happens constantly for me. Then the whole thing starts getting dark and/or black, and is just aggravating.
I'd rather see shiny silver and know I have to scrub it really good, than to see blackened/burnt non-stick material that I'm still ingesting anyway. Plus I've had problems historically that make me want to avoid black flakes of any kind whatsoever in my food if I didn't directly put it in, such as pepper.
I have used a triple ply and cast iron pans for 30 years, as long as you use a spritz of non-stick spray and a little fat, along with a more gentle approach to heat you don't need to use these chemicals.
Oh my god I've never been this early! Just wanna say, Adam you're really the best chef on yt imo, I love how your videos aren't very long and are very scientific
😍💞
R/wooooooooosh
Literally as you said "It's even in Floss" I inserted my floss between the first pair of teeth, wow what a timing.
I don't like the idea of supporting the industry that exposes their workers to these chemicals and also which pushes them out into the environment. There are many industries that do this, but if more people avoid them the supply and manufacture will decrease.
Oh, I've actually had mild teflon flu. Only had a lot of coughing and a small headache for a day or two.
My parents cooked something with an electric pan with teflon coating and whoever turned it off didn't check. Several hours passed and I woke up to the melted and vaporized material, I immediately took the lid off and didn't think of opening a window first. I inhaled a lot of it, and the rest spread out to the whole house (minus my parent's bedroom!) and the kitchen smelled of burnt teflon for two weeks.
Hey, I can officially say that I've gotten sick from one of these pans after overheating it. Totally my fault, BTW. I was young and stupid. I was trying to make a stir fry. I didn't have a wok. So I put some oil in my nonstick frying pan. And got distracted watering my garden and picking veg for dinner. Came in "later" to kill the smoke detector that had alerted me to my stupidity ... and while checking out the smoking pan accidentally dripped water from wet hands (no, not dumb enough to put out the smoke with water, just not smart enough to dry my hands before running to the emergency either) and WHOOOOOOSH!!!! Just that tiny bit of water caused the oil to EXPLODE! Into a raging fireball that might have burned the house down, had the kitchen ceiling not been a crappy ugly fiberglass drop ceiling from ancient times. Well, let me tell you ... that turned off the smoke detector! ROFL The pan did not fare well either. It ... err ... looked worse than the one pictured. LOL Whoopsie! Fortunately I jumped back in time to only lose some hair and get some minor burns. No one was seriously injured. BUT I did get a "flu" the next couple of days. A little online research later told me I was dumber than even I had thought. (And lucky!) Besides nearly burning face off, I'd also poisoned myself. Now I only use nonstick pans on medium or low temperatures. And I don't neglect heating oil even if I only "plan" to be gone a minute. These days I have a variety of pans. Some traditional nonstick. Some ceramic nonstick. Some steel. Some cast iron. Unfortunately, I still do dumb things on occasion, but at least I do NEW dumb things. I learn from my life-threatening mistakes. LOL But so yes, you can breathe in a LOT of this crap and ... after a couple of days ... be just fine. I wouldn't recommend it, but if it happens, unless you react really badly from it, there's no need to panic. You might not even realize that the flu you had was related. I didn't. The internet had to tell me. LOL
Fantastic explanation and research; this is top notch food journalism, way better than most content on the Food Network. Reminds me of Good Eats with Alton Brown. Thank you for this!
Could you do one about ceramic ones too. Are they better to use? I have 2 ceramic pans and they aren't as non-sticky as teflon in my experience.
Ceramic is definitely better if you have a bird. Otherwise, I've seen plenty of people arguing in both directions.
This video was very well researched Adam. Keep going !
I kinda low-key hate this, the whole idea behind "It's not that bad" "Eh, it's everywhere anyway so!", "Yeah but there's probably more of it in the rain anyway".
Yeah it's in a ton of stuff, so we should be avoiding those AS WELL instead of just saying "Oh well, what's a little more", and making the problem worse. I could understand if it was vital, but honestly a lot of it can be easily substituted. Spend a bit to learn how to use a fry pan properly and all of a sudden sticking isn't so bad, honestly how many people are making delicate french omlettes? everything else you can do in like a cast-iron or carbon steel fry-pan without it sticking.
I mean how do you think we got in this mess in the first place! BUT THE CONVENIENCE!! Considering how long it took for the world to realise how bad PFOAs are, as well as how long DuPont literally sat and hid that information I'm not so sure that GenX is any better. Sure it might not kill you straight away, but is it probably slowly killing the planet and us in slow and insidious ways? Who knows, I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime it's not that difficult to avoid them. Oh no! No teflon, no waterproof spray for clothes or shoes? However will we live without them.
Meanwhile, what do you think happens to all that shit once you throw it away? Yeah! But it's GenX not PFOA, it's just almost identical, surely the effects wouldn't be almost identical... like it's performance... Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
And with all those smarts you could have taught a ton of people how to cook without sticking, or maybe think of a smart way to cook a french omlette without it sticking, maybe bain marie/sous vide style or something, but no, instead. "Eh, it's not that bad, those other companies are much worse".
This, amen
Absolutely we need to go vegan!
I love how people think there’s “science” going on in this video. This is why we have an educational disconnect about what constitutes “science” and actual research. The risk of PFAS and micro-plastics entering your body is simply far too great to merit the “reward” of a non stick pan. When done right I can easily cook eggs in a stainless pan without them sticking.
I see what you did at 1:14, lining up the graphic with the shelf in the back. Looks great 👍
Put little poison in everything and no one will be able to point a finger to the cause of death
what about carbon steel pans? I find them sitting in between non-stick and cast iron pans. They're not too heavy and if seasoned correctly provides a good non-stick surfaces (especially with butter)
Carbon steel pans have much the same safety as the cast irons. Slightly different charcteristics and it depends from the thickness
I like this channel, he takes the time to explain what he does in depth.
Knew about this in the 80s when I had a part time job while at university selling pots and pans at Marshall Fields. It was known back then. Even the stuff about birds. Personally I just don't like nonstick pans. I'm on the side that they are mostly useless in a kitchen. I have two for the rare occasion I prefer to cook a particular dish. I would point out that being nonchalant about who gets sick from polymer related illnesses is poor medical science. Lead poisoning was thought to kill more workers in gasoline lead processing plants that only killed about four people a year.
Adam Ragusea reads The Intercept. +100 cool points.
Got rid of my nonstick a while ago for cast iron. The more I use it the more I love it. Becomes more nonstick over time. I am kinda attached to them now!
I got bummed out when I found out that acidic things like tomatoes didn't play well with cast iron.
@@deathm3t4l1 I just use a pot as a pan for those xd
I do a lot of cooking in an electric frying pan. I dropped a heap of money on a good quality stainless steel one about 20 years ago and used it for well over 15 years. A few years ago I started thinking that it would be good to get one that had a non-stick surface for easier cleaning, and it was great for a while, until a year or so later the non-stick surface was starting to wear off and chip and then it became harder to clean than my trusty old stainless steel one. Fortunately I had kept my stainless steel one and so I got rid of the no longer non-stick one and still use my stainless steel one to this day. I also tried out some non-stick pots and pans for the stove to the same result. I now stick with stainless steel, except that I do keep a couple of non-stick stove top pans exclusively for cooking eggs.
What about the huge number of microplastic particles that come from scratched Teflon that has been recently reported? Would be nice to get an updated version of this video.
EDIT: Apparently there is one he put out semi-recently. It is called "Nonstick is prob safe - the factories aren't (PFAS contamination)"
There already is, the video title is " Nonstick is prob safe - the factories aren't (PFAS contamination) ", uploaded 3~ weeks ago
@@dragomon2 : Ah, thanks. I'll update my comment to include that for people seeing it in the future. Thanks!
I'd consider the environmental impact of the manufacture of the pans something to consider when it comes to buying teflon
this video was so well done, bravo good sir
I recently just took a materials class where I learned a little about this. I appreciate the scientific approach rather than all the TH-cam "Doctors" telling everyone they'll die ten seconds after they heat up a nonstick. 🤦🏻♀️ While there is possible danger(as with anything), there's an insane amount of scare tactics when It comes to nonstick.
Dude, you are awesome! Thanks for all the properly presented useful stuff!!
Dupont fucked up the world, I would never buy a non-stick pan. Cast iron for the win.
The last bit is insightful, thanks Adam.
5:17 Luckily for this man he lives in Japan and not the United States so his hospital trip probably only cost him about 1000円(approx $10) and not $8000.
you've gotta wonder the extent to which the U.S. health system undercounts the incidents of all kinds of illnesses because people are too scared to go to the doctor.
@@aragusea It's really bad. I've spoken to friends who live overseas (yes the internet is a wonderful thing)and there are people who will go to the hospital for a stomach ache because it won't cost them an arm and a leg. I've also heard stories about Americans freaking out after someone called an ambulance for them while in Japan and resisting the EMTs screaming "I can't afford it" just to find out afterwards the ambulance is free.
@@Matando i'm going full-time with this stuff in December, and that's really cool and exciting and awesome and all, except for one thing: buying health insurance for my entire family on the individual market. It's gonna be like $2k a month for a plan with a $9k deductible. THAT is what the sponsors pay for, friends. :-)
Congrats man, you've earned it! The hard work definitely pays off. Yeah, that is something I worry about myself too and I know it is way worse with a family. While my channel isn't monetized yet(65% of watch time needed) and I only have myself to worry about I was laid off back in Feb and have yet to find work. I'm hoping my channel works out as if it does I plan on sponsoring a visa to live abroad as I have plenty of contacts. It would be a fun adventure and I wouldn't have to worry about the health insurance issue outside of the USA. Good luck to you!
@Toxic Potato What country do you live in and can you give specific scenarios? I'm going to fact check this.
In college I actually got the “teflon flu” I worked in a warehouse and we had to heat up the ends of the PTFE and flare them out so a flange could but up against it to be used in PTFE lined steel pipe.
I got rid of mine about a year ago and have been using cast iron... once I learned how to care for cast iron it's been a very good experience.
Hello Fresh - This is what my brother said: I liked the food but the prep time took way too long. Maybe an accomplished chef could get it done in the allotted time. And the clean up..oh my. I canceled. I find the same thing and as an old man with a bad back the thought of cancellation has crossed my mind. I do like the meals. Thanks for the opportunity to comment
Just buy carbon steel. Will last forever unlike the non stick that last a year
what's this?
yeah but gl taking care of that
@@petervansan1054 it’s super easy to care for. I just rinse w hot water and use it a lot. I live in the high desert so I don’t oil it like I used to in the high humidity. But even that just took a second. It’s completely nonstick, and was really cheap.
@@ytreece never heard about carbon steel. I only heard stainless steel or cast iron. Both have carbon content. Any link for carbon steel pan?
@@nahrubish if you search "carbon steel pan" you'll get loads of results. They behave and require the same care as cast iron but are generally lighter
Thank you for this video. Just what i searched after.
Trying to buy cookware that doesn't have ptfe is quite a challenge. My biggest beef with it is that no matter what they say, it does not last.
Most non stick pans are made of aluminium which does not like dishwashers.
Excellent...no surprises. A little pushback about which "possessions serve you vs. you serving them" (as illustrated by the ubiquitous presence of PFOA's in the environment) and perhaps a more specific characterization/differentiation between the terms use and abuse. Familiar with your channel, always intriguing investigations with virtually no virtue signaling, real curiosity in real time and quantifiable results. Thank you. Was referred here by a more recent evaluation of HexClad cookware by Chris Young only to discover I'd (probably) already viewed it.😜
How are your videos so consistently good!?
Hey Adam, i'm from Brazil and love your videos man!
There's enough evidence out there that strongly suggests you don't just "pass" Teflon.
Good unbiased information. I have been trying to use buy kitchen equipment that was not nonstick and it’s really hard to do. Nonstick is everywhere however I continue to buy pots pans cast iron stainless steel etc. why if you look after them you pass them on to next generation. Love Miele Immer Besser