Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / Are Forever Chemicals in Cookware Sabotaging Your Hormone Health and Metabolism? | Ep 359

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Are Forever Chemicals in Cookware Sabotaging Your Hormone Health and Metabolism? | Ep 359 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:02
  Philip Pape: When it comes to cooking and preparing your food, there's one area most people aren't thinking about, and that is the materials that touch your food before it hits your mouth.
• 0:10
  Philip Pape: I'm talking about microplastics that might be flaking off from scratched cookware, pfas, which are called forever chemicals from nonstick coatings and some plasticizers that might leach from food containers.
• 0:23
  Philip Pape: And the question isn't whether these compounds exist in your kitchen.
• 0:26
  Philip Pape: They do.
• 0:27
  Philip Pape: The question is whether they're actually affecting your health, your hormones, your physique goals, things like that.
• 0:32
  Philip Pape: So today we're going to separate the legitimate concerns from the fear-mongering, examine what the science shows about chemical exposure from cookware and packaging what I do personally and give you some steps to minimize risk without losing your mind over every container in your kitchen.
• 0:59
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that helps you build a strong, healthy physique using evidence, engineering and efficiency.
• 1:05
  Philip Pape: I'm your host certified nutrition coach, philip Pape, and today we're talking about something that we haven't covered before.
• 1:12
  Philip Pape: It's at the intersection of nutrition, health and consumer safety, and that is chemicals that might be migrating from your cookware and your food packaging into your meals.
• 1:22
  Philip Pape: And you might be thinking, wow, philip never really talked about this kind of stuff, because oftentimes it's in the realm of fear-mongering or selling you the idea that everything in your kitchen or you eat is toxic, and that is not what I'm doing today.
• 1:36
  Philip Pape: Instead, I want to look at the actual evidence around microplastics, pfas, other compounds that could potentially affect your health.
• 1:44
  Philip Pape: There's a lot of attention on these now and I personally in my family I don't want to be a hypocrite I have, over the years, gotten rid of, for example, teflon and nonstick cookware in favor of other materials.
• 1:56
  Philip Pape: I've gotten rid of plastic Tupperware in favor of glass.
• 1:58
  Philip Pape: I use glass water balls, things like that because I think there is a potential long-term concern here and I also think the bar is really low to make the changes.
• 2:07
  Philip Pape: That could, you know, avoid any of the concerns altogether, versus other things like, let's say, doing a cold plunge every day or buying a sauna.
• 2:14
  Philip Pape: That is in that 1% and is a high bar to change your behaviors.
• 2:19
  Philip Pape: So I want to talk about what the research tells us and give you a framework today to make informed decisions about what touches your food, and I'll give you some specific recommendations of what to look for when you go shopping or you're looking to replace your cookware and kitchenware.
• 2:33
  Philip Pape: So the exposures of these materials.
• 2:36
  Philip Pape: Again, I don't want to fear monger.
• 2:37
  Philip Pape: They're not going to make or break everything, but they can impact some people more than others and the toxin or the poison is always in the dose.
• 2:47
  Philip Pape: So for those of us who are meal prepping or cooking our food at home, which I highly encourage, you're eating eggs, you wanna use nonstick pans and such, you're using those materials a lot and so the material is touching your food in multiple different ways at high heat.
• 3:01
  Philip Pape: It is definitely important to make smart choices and kind of stack your odds in your favor for the long term.
• 3:06
  Philip Pape: So when we talk about chemical exposure from cookware and packaging, I'm going to break it into three main categories and understand the science of these is still developing, but we also have decades of research in some areas as well.
• 3:20
  Philip Pape: The first category is microplastics Very hot topic today.
• 3:23
  Philip Pape: I see it everywhere.
• 3:24
  Philip Pape: I subscribe to some magazines like Scientific American that are talking about it all the time.
• 3:29
  Philip Pape: It's in the oceans, it's everywhere, right, whether it's a big concern is what's being discussed Now.
• 3:34
  Philip Pape: These are very tiny plastic fragments.
• 3:36
  Philip Pape: They're smaller than five millimeters.
• 3:38
  Philip Pape: They can be released from synthetic materials through the use of those materials.
• 3:42
  Philip Pape: Now, many of us just intuitively when you sit back and think about okay, we're making petroleum-based synthetic plastic compounds and everything in the planet is made from these things and it touches everything.
• 3:54
  Philip Pape: There is some just common sense, I'll say, behind that, whether you subscribe to that or not, as evidence that they're probably interacting with our food supply in some way.
• 4:01
  Philip Pape: Right, but we know that they do to an extent.
• 4:04
  Philip Pape: In your kitchen, what happens?
• 4:06
  Philip Pape: Right?
• 4:06
  Philip Pape: This comes from plastic containers, especially when they get scratched, worn out, nonstick coatings, even synthetic cutting boards right, we all have those synthetic cut and you've got scratches all over them.
• 4:16
  Philip Pape: Well, what has come off from that?
• 4:18
  Philip Pape: That has potentially gotten into your food as well, right?
• 4:19
  Philip Pape: So what we know from the research, animal studies, lab work they're not always longitudinal, sometimes they're correlational.
• 4:26
  Philip Pape: We've got to suss through all that.
• 4:28
  Philip Pape: It's difficult, but what we think is that microplastics have some impact inside the body, whether it's inflammation, oxidative stress, disruption of the gut barrier, things like that and we don't have clear evidence of what these mean for long-term health at the exposure levels most of us experience.
• 4:43
  Philip Pape: It's like how we've studied aspartame to death.
• 4:47
  Philip Pape: We've studied artificial sweeteners and we know that the level of exposure of those is so high you don't need to be concerned.
• 4:52
  Philip Pape: But the level of exposures to these microplastics may be lower to cause that concern, and many humans might be experiencing high levels because of how we use this cookware and the heat behind them, right?
• 5:11
  Philip Pape: And so when they test these things in the studies, they often are using huge doses or higher order of magnitudes that you would get from you know, let's say, just cooking your eggs in a pan, but still the cumulative effect is where the concern is.
• 5:19
  Philip Pape: So that's microplastics.
• 5:21
  Philip Pape: The second category is PFAS.
• 5:23
  Philip Pape: Pfas and these are usually called forever chemicals.
• 5:25
  Philip Pape: These are man-made substances that are designed to do amazing things, right, they repel water, they repel grease, they repel stains, and that's what you'll find in nonstick cookware, coatings like Teflon and fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, even some takeout containers.
• 5:42
  Philip Pape: And the concern with the PFAS is twofold.
• 5:45
  Philip Pape: First is that they persist in the environment and in your body, right, they just don't break down, and that is the forever nickname, and that's a concern to me for sure.
• 5:54
  Philip Pape: The second is that when we look at large population studies, there are correlations between higher PFAS levels and changes in the population of thyroid function, cholesterol levels, hormonal markers.
• 6:06
  Philip Pape: And again, we have to watch out for interpretation, right?
• 6:09
  Philip Pape: Because these studies can't necessarily account for all the lifestyle factors that might be driving both PFAS exposure and health outcomes.
• 6:18
  Philip Pape: But still, the persistence of the compounds and the consistency of these findings across many different studies is concerning, and it has also led to regulatory action.
• 6:29
  Philip Pape: Again, whether you trust governments or not, right, we're in a very heated climate when it comes to that right now.
• 6:34
  Philip Pape: But we've looked at older forms of these chemicals, PFOA.
• 6:38
  Philip Pape: Pfos are being phased out in favor of newer versions still being studied.
• 6:42
  Philip Pape: It's kind of like, you know, refrigerant for air conditioning has evolved over years because we know it was poisoning the air, toxic to people, right?
• 6:49
  Philip Pape: So we just we've studied these enough to see that these effects happen.
• 6:53
  Philip Pape: So the first.
• 6:54
  Philip Pape: So that's, that's the second category.
• 6:56
  Philip Pape: The third category is plasticizers and related compounds.
• 7:00
  Philip Pape: So this would be BPA and BPS, which you've probably heard of, because there are a lot of companies marketing BPA-free hard plastic containers like for water bottles, and I personally use a glass water bottle.
• 7:12
  Philip Pape: I don't even want to take a chance of any of these plastics, you know, leaching off in any way, especially if you send them through the dishwasher and they're experiencing heat.
• 7:20
  Philip Pape: They can be on the linings of cans.
• 7:23
  Philip Pape: You know people don't realize when you get a can of soda or beer or whatever.
• 7:26
  Philip Pape: A lot of those cans, they're not just raw aluminum, they actually have a coating, a plastic coating, inside and if you're drinking multiple of those every day you're getting exposed to that Phthalates hard word to pronounce from very soft, flexible plastics.
• 7:41
  Philip Pape: And then even aluminum can leach from uncoated cookware if you're cooking very acidic food.
• 7:46
  Philip Pape: So if you look at the research here, we know that some of these compounds can be endocrine disruptors, can impact hormone receptors, at least in laboratory resetting.
• 7:56
  Philip Pape: So again, you, the real world, impact.
• 8:01
  Philip Pape: How?
• 8:01
  Philip Pape: How much is it for most people, you know, given our bodies can detoxify, I wonder that that that's where my skepticism comes from, but it's also where I say look, where can we make decisions that are easy in our life, that can avoid these concerns?
• 8:16
  Philip Pape: And the cost benefit is there, knowing that there's an, a level of uncertainty, right Like, why take the chance if it's easy enough to just get glass versus plastic, or easy enough to get ceramic versus, you know, other coatings on your cookware?
• 8:29
  Philip Pape: So I it isn't just theory, right Like, I think there's a practical perspective to this, for why I wanted to make this, this study.
• 8:38
  Philip Pape: And we talk a lot about fat loss.
• 8:39
  Philip Pape: We talk about metabolism, insulin sensitivity, we talk about inflammation, things like that.
• 8:44
  Philip Pape: Any one of these things could, systematically and through a cascade in your body, be affected by something like oxidative stress from microplastics, right?
• 8:53
  Philip Pape: And it's not like that's the thing that's causing you not to lose fat.
• 8:56
  Philip Pape: If you're listening to this, thinking this is a fat loss episode.
• 8:59
  Philip Pape: No, that comes down to energy balance, consistency, other lifestyle factors, training, et cetera.
• 9:04
  Philip Pape: That is outside the scope of today.
• 9:07
  Philip Pape: But when we think of hormones, for example, et cetera, that is outside the scope of today.
• 9:09
  Philip Pape: But when we think of hormones, for example, right, pfas levels correlated with lower testosterone or altered thyroid function, at least at the population level, I wouldn't be surprised if, over the longterm, we do discover these effects, because we are seeing much lower T in the population among men, hence the ranges have dropped.
• 9:25
  Philip Pape: We're seeing fertility issues.
• 9:28
  Philip Pape: You know, people can't pinpoint a single root cause, but when, systematically, you're exposed to a lot of these things, you can call them toxins if you'd like.
• 9:36
  Philip Pape: They're basically foreign substances that really shouldn't be in the body.
• 9:39
  Philip Pape: The accumulation of these could actually be a concern, right, even if they're within normal variation based on what the studies have told us.
• 9:46
  Philip Pape: If you're the type of person that uses these a lot more and cooks a lot more food at home and uses the microwave a lot more, then you might be of more concern than someone else.
• 9:53
  Philip Pape: Longevity and overall health is probably where this is of most concern, because it's not one exposure we're concerned about, right, it's the accumulation over time, the cumulative load of stressors and I'll use the word inflammatory inputs basically just your body having to respond, right, the oxidative stress, your body having to deal with it, process it through your liver, process it at the cellular level.
• 10:19
  Philip Pape: And if you're already optimizing the big pillars nutrition, training, sleep, stress, et cetera I do think this is one of those smaller pillars that can be helpful to just be conscious about, and that's why I wanted to make this episode.
• 10:34
  Philip Pape: So let's do that.
• 10:35
  Philip Pape: Let's let's talk about what you should practically consider doing.
• 10:38
  Philip Pape: That's easy, and the first one is cookware.
• 10:40
  Philip Pape: So if you have old, non, if you have old scratched nonstick pans and the coating's flaking off, or you scratched, or just just that you scratch them a lot, I mean, when I cook, you know I've got, you know, either a spatula or fork or something scraping on in there and there could be small pieces that flake off on a regular basis.
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: I would say that's worth replacing.
• 11:01
  Philip Pape: I personally just don't use the traditional non-stick pans.
• 11:06
  Philip Pape: What I use now it's actually from Chef's Foundry.
• 11:09
  Philip Pape: It's a ceramic coating that doesn't chip and it has a lot of other cool features in the pans, like the handles come off and you can use it on different surfaces.
• 11:19
  Philip Pape: You could put it in the oven.
• 11:19
  Philip Pape: It's multi-use.
• 11:20
  Philip Pape: I love multi-use stuff.
• 11:21
  Philip Pape: Like we replaced our crock pot with the instant pot and also with another one that can do multiple functions, like a Dutch oven, right.
• 11:29
  Philip Pape: So I love that kind of stuff because it's very efficient.
• 11:31
  Philip Pape: So I would get something like the Chef's Foundry stuff and, by the way, they are a sponsor of this episode.
• 11:37
  Philip Pape: So if you go to witsandweightscom slash Chef's Foundry, you can get 50% off Really good stuff.
• 11:43
  Philip Pape: I use them myself.
• 11:44
  Philip Pape: If you love to cook eggs or you like to sear your meat and you want a nonstick surface love to cook eggs or you like to sear your meat and you want a nonstick surface, that is an easy change to make, right, that is an easy change to make.
• 11:54
  Philip Pape: If you're already in the market for them.
• 11:56
  Philip Pape: Definitely check those out, along with wherever else you're looking, amazon, walmart, wherever you're doing your shopping and when it comes to cookware.
• 12:04
  Philip Pape: So let me go through the different materials.
• 12:06
  Philip Pape: First, stainless steel is great.
• 12:08
  Philip Pape: I have all clad for a lot of my stuff stainless steel.
• 12:10
  Philip Pape: It's durable, it's non-reactive, it doesn't have any coatings You're good.
• 12:14
  Philip Pape: But it's not non-stick right.
• 12:16
  Philip Pape: So things will stick to it and that's the biggest not complaint.
• 12:19
  Philip Pape: But like people who just want the convenience easy to clean, you know, easy to cook eggs and things like that it's not non-stick right.
• 12:32
  Philip Pape: Cast iron is great.
• 12:33
  Philip Pape: It has to be seasoned.
• 12:33
  Philip Pape: It's really good for heat.
• 12:34
  Philip Pape: It's great for things like steaks and grilling.
• 12:35
  Philip Pape: It's naturally nonstick, but I've not known anyone, myself included, that can keep it that way for very long.
• 12:39
  Philip Pape: So I wouldn't necessarily call cast iron nonstick per se.
• 12:42
  Philip Pape: And then we get to the ceramic cookware and that's where it's a great material.
• 12:46
  Philip Pape: I think ceramic's awesome.
• 12:47
  Philip Pape: It avoids synthetic coatings entirely.
• 12:48
  Philip Pape: Typically it could be more fragile, but, like I said, this particular product the P600, again go to witsandweightscom slash chefsfoundry.
• 12:57
  Philip Pape: It's much more robust than that and it's 50% off.
• 13:00
  Philip Pape: So check that out.
• 13:01
  Philip Pape: For food storage, the biggest win here is avoiding microwaving your food in plastic containers.
• 13:07
  Philip Pape: Just don't do that.
• 13:08
  Philip Pape: I mean, my wife convinced me of this years ago.
• 13:10
  Philip Pape: You can get really nice glass containers that have rubber tops and then if you're going to store food, I think that's that's a little less of a concern to use plastic right, cause you're not heating it up, and you can get BPA free, very hard plastic containers.
• 13:24
  Philip Pape: So I mean we just use the glass for everything.
• 13:26
  Philip Pape: It's going to last forever.
• 13:27
  Philip Pape: I mean we just use the glass for everything.
• 13:31
  Philip Pape: It's going to last forever.
• 13:31
  Philip Pape: And the reason is the heat and the fat increases the migration of compounds from the plastic into your food, especially soft Like I can't.
• 13:37
  Philip Pape: I cringe a little bit thinking about this really soft plastic basically melting and re hardening right next to my food in the microwave.
• 13:45
  Philip Pape: I don't know.
• 13:46
  Philip Pape: I mean that's just more of a whether there's evidence on it or not, and I think there is, I'm just not going to do it right.
• 13:51
  Philip Pape: So glass or ceramic containers eliminate this concern and oftentimes they work better in terms of heating.
• 13:56
  Philip Pape: So try those out.
• 13:57
  Philip Pape: If you use storage containers, again, look for BPA-free.
• 14:00
  Philip Pape: Always replace containers that are starting to show wear or it depends on how often you're doing it.
• 14:14
  Philip Pape: But there are certain wrappers and like microwave popcorn bags and some takeout containers that they have a grease resistant coating inside that are treated with PFAS, these forever chemicals.
• 14:24
  Philip Pape: So be careful, you know, and definitely don't heat them up in there, right?
• 14:28
  Philip Pape: Occasional exposure is probably fine, but if you're eating takeout multiple times a week and I know some people who just don't wanna cook and they eat out a lot, which people who just don't want to cook and they eat out a lot, which isn't great for your waistline when it comes to fat loss usually, but if you do, just watch out for those.
• 14:46
  Philip Pape: So you might be wondering okay, philip again is the evidence-based guy he's talking about, with a lot of caveats are we sure about these health effects?
• 14:51
  Philip Pape: Are they of a decent enough magnitude to worry about this?
• 14:55
  Philip Pape: And I think it's a fair question, question that we should always be asking that question about everything in this industry, and I'm a fan of informed decisions and understanding even the small impacts that could exist out there, so that you can then decide.
• 15:08
  Philip Pape: You know, if someone says broccoli is toxic because it has certain compounds, I'm going to ask you how much broccoli are you eating and does it affect you in any negative way?
• 15:14
  Philip Pape: And then, thirdly, if, if you're not eating that much and it doesn't affect you are much broccoli are you eating and does it affect you in any negative way?
• 15:17
  Philip Pape: And then, thirdly, if, if you're not eating that much and it doesn't affect you, are you still concerned or will it make you feel better to avoid broccoli, but without fear, mongering it, right?
• 15:25
  Philip Pape: It's very individualized and so when it comes to your cookware, if you're going to replace something, anyway, I would look.
• 15:32
  Philip Pape: I would be thinking consciously okay, I've got a scratch pan, I need something new.
• 15:37
  Philip Pape: Okay, let's go shopping.
• 15:38
  Philip Pape: Let me listen to Philip's episode again on what to look for.
• 15:41
  Philip Pape: You know, with the ceramic cookware, with the glass containers, things like that.
• 15:45
  Philip Pape: Not to be paranoid, but just because it's easy to do, it might as well, right, just gets the uncertainty out of that.
• 15:51
  Philip Pape: That's my thought on this.
• 15:59
  Philip Pape: And when we're talking about forever, chemicals, microplastics that leach from nonstick services, and you are meal prepping and you're making food from home and you like nonstick pans, you're using it a lot, and that's my point.
• 16:06
  Philip Pape: You're using it a lot because I do too, and I just got rid of that stuff.
• 16:09
  Philip Pape: So, again, that's why I was interested when I hooked up with Dave at Chef's Foundry.
• 16:14
  Philip Pape: So they are just full disclosure.
• 16:16
  Philip Pape: They're sponsoring a string of episodes because I wanted to connect with them and share this change that people can make toward their meal prep.
• 16:24
  Philip Pape: So it's called the P600.
• 16:25
  Philip Pape: It's a ceramic cookware system.
• 16:26
  Philip Pape: It's basically three pans with some other goodies that come along.
• 16:29
  Philip Pape: 50% off, go to whitsawastecom slash Chef's Foundry.
• 16:33
  Philip Pape: And the reason I like these is because I've been skeptical a long time about ceramic anything because it chips.
• 16:38
  Philip Pape: It's why we didn't get ceramic.
• 16:39
  Philip Pape: What do you call it a sink?
• 16:40
  Philip Pape: When we built our house, we went for straight up stainless steel and a little bit is unfounded, but not always, because I've been to people's houses and they've got chips in there.
• 16:50
  Philip Pape: They've got chips in their sink and I'm like, well, you're putting heavy stuff in there and washing it all the time.
• 16:55
  Philip Pape: But if we talk about cookware, the coating a ceramic coating like the one I'm recommending here it doesn't have Teflon, doesn't have PFAS, doesn't have any plastic, right?
• 17:05
  Philip Pape: That's the basic thing we're looking for and it's Swiss engineered, which I don't know what that means, other than it seems highly, highly durable and doesn't chip Like stuff has on.
• 17:16
  Philip Pape: It doesn't chip, it is genuinely non-stick and it'll just stay that way forever.
• 17:20
  Philip Pape: You want eggs slide off, you want to sear protein and, you know, steer your roast on there at high heat and just easily clean it, like that is super convenient.
• 17:28
  Philip Pape: And then again, I mentioned multi-purpose, this one.
• 17:31
  Philip Pape: It works on induction as well as gas, which I know most pans do, but some, some pans have a hard time with induction, like electric stoves.
• 17:40
  Philip Pape: And then the really cool thing about these is it has removable handles.
• 17:43
  Philip Pape: So not only does it make it easy to store so you're not like flipping them around and getting them all locked in with each other with the handles but you can put it in the oven without a handle, like if you guys like to use oven mitts and you don't have a lot of room in your oven.
• 17:55
  Philip Pape: It's really helpful for that.
• 18:02
  Philip Pape: So performance and design is pretty cool.
• 18:03
  Philip Pape: As an engineer, I like to see something that is high quality, that serves what you want but also is multifunctional.
• 18:06
  Philip Pape: So right now they're offering the P600 at 50% off and these free accessories.
• 18:10
  Philip Pape: You go to witsandweightscom slash chef's foundry and, whether you grab their cookware or not, check out the page because they have a guide there about cookware materials.
• 18:20
  Philip Pape: You know the safety.
• 18:22
  Philip Pape: That complements what we're talking about today.
• 18:25
  Philip Pape: Check it out, witsandwheatscom slash chefs foundry.
• 18:29
  Philip Pape: All right, let me continue here and talk about the regulatory environment for a second, and I know again, there's a lot of mistrust right now about government agencies and administrations and whatnot.
• 18:39
  Philip Pape: The food safety agencies here in the US and in Europe have been aware of PFAS and microplastics for many, many years and they're still trying to update the guidelines and regulations.
• 18:49
  Philip Pape: This stuff never ends right.
• 18:50
  Philip Pape: The challenge that I found looking into this is toxicology testing wasn't designed for a couple areas that they're trying to evolve to.
• 19:00
  Philip Pape: One is the persistent compounds that accumulate over time.
• 19:03
  Philip Pape: Right, a lot of this testing is acute, or it's what am I trying to say?
• 19:07
  Philip Pape: It's like isolated.
• 19:08
  Philip Pape: Right, it's hard to look at the long-term impacts of compounds that accumulate.
• 19:11
  Philip Pape: It's also hard to look at mixtures of chemicals interact in what you'd say are complex ways, so regulation is always catching up to the science.
• 19:20
  Philip Pape: Then, that creates uncertainty for all of us, and my goal at Wits and Weights is to give you a little more clarity.
• 19:25
  Philip Pape: Ceramic cookware, glass containers, glass water bottles is a great place to start.
• 19:30
  Philip Pape: And the compounds that we've been discussing today we know a lot about them.
• 19:35
  Philip Pape: They've been used for decades.
• 19:36
  Philip Pape: Right, I'm not gonna fear monger over some massive health problems they're gonna cause, but if you're using them a lot, it's worth being concerned, especially from the endocrine disruption and the oxidative stress perspective, and you could always test yourself before and after.
• 19:50
  Philip Pape: I don't expect you're gonna see a huge difference in the short term.
• 19:53
  Philip Pape: Long term, though, I think it could help, you know.
• 19:59
  Philip Pape: Let's talk about your hierarchy of kitchen safety.
• 20:01
  Philip Pape: Just to wrap this up, level one is basic food safety.
• 20:02
  Philip Pape: Use the right cooking temperature, avoid cross-contamination, wash your hands right, stuff like that.
• 20:07
  Philip Pape: If you get eggs from chickens, like we do, we wash our eggs to avoid, you know, any salmonella or anything like that, so you don't get those acute illnesses, those bugs, those food poisonings, things like that that none of us love.
• 20:23
  Philip Pape: So that's level one.
• 20:24
  Philip Pape: Level two is, I'll say, quality food and ingredients.
• 20:25
  Philip Pape: Right Now, again, it depends on what you can afford and I actually spoke to a rancher on the show not long ago about beef and organic and all the different labels.
• 20:33
  Philip Pape: And really, if you, if you get whole foods, that's a huge step up right to begin with, regardless of someone's claim as to their quality.
• 20:42
  Philip Pape: But it's up to you to kind of decide okay, what is quality for me and why am I choosing this food, without, again, without the fear-mongering.
• 20:48
  Philip Pape: And then level three is what we're discussing today and that's just minimizing external exposures to things like chemicals, all these, all these great products we make over the year, over the decades.
• 20:57
  Philip Pape: Unfortunately, some of them have things that might be getting into our food that provide benefits over the longterm.
• 21:02
  Philip Pape: So why not reduce your exposure to those?
• 21:04
  Philip Pape: And I would say it's a hierarchy, so you focus on level one, then level two, then level three.
• 21:09
  Philip Pape: If you're looking for new cookware, check out the guys at chef's foundry, witsandweightscom, slash chef's foundry.
• 21:14
  Philip Pape: And then, before we wrap up, I want to address the psychological aspect here because I don't want you to develop anxiety around food safety.
• 21:21
  Philip Pape: I don't want you to develop that.
• 21:23
  Philip Pape: Okay, and I know some of the language is marketed that way and that's marketing.
• 21:27
  Philip Pape: That's marketing and I hope I haven't used that language myself.
• 21:30
  Philip Pape: If you're worried about everything you do every day, that's going to cause you stress.
• 21:34
  Philip Pape: Right, if you focus on the big pillars make your own food, eat adequate nutrition, train, you know, maintain your social connections and relationships those are the best ways to kind of keep that stress down.
• 21:46
  Philip Pape: The goal here is informed awareness, not hypervigilance.
• 21:56
  Philip Pape: So just to recap, for cookware, replace your nonstick pans when they're scratched, when the coating is degrading, or if you're looking for new cookware, consider stainless steel, cast iron or my favorite, ceramic WoodsonWeightscom slash Chef's Foundry.
• 22:04
  Philip Pape: Check those guys out.
• 22:05
  Philip Pape: Don't panic about using something else occasionally, right, especially newer versions that may not have some of these chemicals.
• 22:11
  Philip Pape: Things are always changing, but if you want something long-term, stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic are a great way to go For food storage.
• 22:17
  Philip Pape: Use glass or ceramic when you microwave, replace plastic when it's cloudy, cracked or showing wear, and you know it's less of a concern storing in the fridge versus heating things up For takeout, for packaged foods.
• 22:29
  Philip Pape: Just be aware of the frequency and like what these things are coming in and transfer the food into your own containers, plates, bowls, things like that.
• 22:37
  Philip Pape: If you're gonna heat it up, use the glass.
• 22:38
  Philip Pape: And then for water you could use a filter, because we didn't even talk about microplastics potentially in water.
• 22:44
  Philip Pape: I personally have well water so I'm lucky because I avoid all that stuff, even though we do have a couple of filters on that.
• 22:49
  Philip Pape: Tap water in most developed countries is quite safe, but I say that with a big asterisk because we know Right, don't leave plastic water bottles in hot cars, for example.
• 23:06
  Philip Pape: That could heat them up Right, and the research on this stuff is evolving really quickly, and five, 10 years from now we're going to have maybe more long-term studies, maybe some more better analytical methods on for the toxicology and things like that, and so I just don't know where it's all going to go.
• 23:20
  Philip Pape: But today these are the things you can do.
• 23:22
  Philip Pape: I hope I gave you guys the right amount of nuance, because your body's ability to detoxify and process and eliminate compounds like that is pretty amazing, but sometimes you know there's a little too much load based on these wonderful inventions that humans have made when they interact with our food.
• 23:40
  Philip Pape: And so you know the best way you can support yourself is living well, moving, eating mostly whole foods.
• 23:47
  Philip Pape: You know you have a liver that detoxifies, you have a kidney, you have a really strong gut, you have a lymphatic system, and they're all improved when you have good foundational health practices, like we talk about on this show, and so your body can handle a lot of this.
• 24:04
  Philip Pape: Right, you should be strength training that's one of the best things for inflammation and circulation and supporting your detoxification and your organs.
• 24:13
  Philip Pape: Believe it or not, you should be moving around.
• 24:15
  Philip Pape: You should be eating a lot of protein and whole foods right.
• 24:17
  Philip Pape: Your liver needs the amino acids for what it does.
• 24:21
  Philip Pape: You need lots of sleep, you know.
• 24:23
  Philip Pape: You need to clear that metabolic waste from your brain by getting enough sleep.
• 24:27
  Philip Pape: We haven't even talked about that too much on the show.
• 24:29
  Philip Pape: It makes sense, however, at the same time, to minimize unnecessary exposure when it's practical when it's practical.
• 24:36
  Philip Pape: So have a healthy, resilient body and then complement with some of these informed choices.
• 24:42
  Philip Pape: So I want to leave you with one final thought before this episode gets too long, and that is that in our modern world, we are exposed to lots and lots of synthetic compounds that didn't exist 100 years ago.
• 24:50
  Philip Pape: Some of these exposures are probably not a big deal.
• 24:53
  Philip Pape: Some might actually be helpful, and then some might pose risks.
• 24:56
  Philip Pape: So we want to have critical thinking skills to evaluate these based on evidence rather than fear.
• 25:01
  Philip Pape: Make simple changes where they make sense and focus your energy on the factors that have the biggest impact on your health when it comes to what touches your food quality materials.
• 25:11
  Philip Pape: Don't let perfect be the enemy good enemy of the good, you know, and just pay attention, folks, just pay attention.
• 25:18
  Philip Pape: It's all about daily choices, all right.
• 25:20
  Philip Pape: So if you found this episode helpful and you're considering upgrading your cookware.
• 25:24
  Philip Pape: Anyway, I mentioned Chef's Foundry earlier, their P600 ceramic system.
• 25:27
  Philip Pape: It eliminates all these coatings that we've been discussing.
• 25:30
  Philip Pape: Any of the microplastics just makes it easy.
• 25:32
  Philip Pape: It's an easy choice.
• 25:33
  Philip Pape: Definitely, shop around, tell me what you use, send me an email, hit me up on Instagram.
• 25:38
  Philip Pape: I love something that is multifunctional, that looks good, that works well and that cooks my eggs without sticking to the pan.
• 25:49
  Philip Pape: That's it, especially what we do in my family, where we cook multiple batches of eggs in a row and you know how that can get really nasty if it's a traditional like steel pan.
• 25:55
  Philip Pape: So quality cookware, good performing, you know food, food prep hardware, all that good stuff.
• 26:01
  Philip Pape: Go for it.
• 26:02
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep easing your wits, lifting those weights and remember, when it comes to what touches your food, quality matters, what's on your plate matters, how you cook your food matters and, most importantly, how you show up for yourself.
• 26:15
  Philip Pape: This is Philip Pape and you've been listening to Wits and Weights.
• 26:18
  Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time.