Non-stick pans/cooking surfaces . . . fact or myth???

[onlyme]

Shelley,

I've been surprised to see you endorse non-stick cookware recently (for example, in some other forums - Cleansing Fundamentals and Vital Recipes, I think? - you complimented the a non-stick sandwich press, as well as a non-stick pots and pans set). I thought it was supposed to be "bad for you" or "toxic." So, what is the real deal on non-stick cookware? If anyone knows, I'm sure you do!

[onlyme]

Bump (I'm afraid this got buried amidst all the "spam" in this forum).

Thanks!

[onlyme]

One more try . . . I'd really like to hear your perspective on this, Shelley. Thanks.

[shelley]

oh! thanks for bumping, I missed this one!

Okeydokey.. the non-stick I was talking about were the new style pans where the non-stick is built into the process, it's not a coat like the old days.

In the old days, the only way to get a non-stick surface was to coat it, treat it with something like Teflon. That was NOT good, throw those pans out!!!

But now we have pans like Calphalon pans that are called non-stick and they are perfectly fine. As long as they are "hard anodized."

http://www.surlatable.com/common/products/product_details.cfm?dmode=browse&StartRow=1&CRPCGNBR=27&CGRFNBR=35&prrfnbr=15801

Basically, anything that can peel and wear off is bad.

[onlyme]

Hmmm . . . I'm still confused. www.ewg.org says that calphalon and other hard-anodized brands contain PolyTetraFluoroEthylene (ptfe). ???

[onlyme]

Shelley???