Not to be all, womp womp, but another household item can now be added to the list of things that may hurt your unborn child. I know, I know, there's already a thousand things to worry about when you're pregnant, but I guess I thought I'd mention this study that discovered that non-stick cookware may affect your child's birth weight, and their weight throughout their lives, because, well, knowledge is power, right? Even though I'm more or less convinced that if you adhered to all the "don't"s while expecting you'll go so crazy that your unborn baby goes crazy, I suppose adding non-stick pans to the tally of potential harms is somewhat important info.
So! There's good news, there's bad news, and there's confusing news. Here we go.
The bad news is that researchers found a link between a compound called PFCs, which are found in non-stick cooking stuffs, water-resistant clothing, and some packaging products, and birth weight. The more PFCs the mother has accumulated in her lifetime in her body, the higher the possibility of a low birth weight for her baby, but a higher than average weight for him at 20 months old.
The good news is that nothing's been set in stone. Scientists see a correlation between mothers with high PFC rates and their babies' weights, but it hasn't been found to be a hard and fast rule.
The confusing news is, well, now what? It's not like avoiding non-stick pans during your pregnancy could make a giant impact on your PFC level -- that's been accruing since the first day you wore a raincoat at 2 years old. Researchers say they need more data before they're able to give any helpful tips, but 'til then, they suggest not using non-stick stuff, and not heating up food in the microwave in the container in which it came. Dump your frozen meals on a plate first, then nuke it, is what I think they're saying. Safe, and classier than ever.
Non-stick pans and raincoats. Who knew?
Does this make you worried?
Photo via WordRidden/Flickr
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Comments 12
Lord.
Let's put it this way: If these "SCAAAARRRY" things we should avoid were really harming us that much, we'd all be dead. I don't avoid nail polish with toxins, cleaning products, spray on sun-screen, teflon, I smoke, I eat meat & drink milk, I eat some processed food that supposedly doesn't decompose in a landfill, etc, etc, etc,
I wish everyone would stop being so afraid of living life. Chances are very high, that you WILL get cancer or heart disease. You have a 100% chance of death at some point, after all.
Is it really worth all the stress of worrying about every little thing?
Don't take life so seriously, you won't make it out alive anyway.
I've known about the potential harmful effects of non-stick cookware for years and I haven't used any since I got married almost 7 years ago. There really is just no need to use it.
We got an awesome, quite expensive set of cookware before our wedding. It was one of those sometimes sketchy things from when you sign up for giveaways from David's Bridal. "Hey come listen to our spiel and you win a vacation, no obligation to buy." It was actually a legitimate thing though, we got our vacation papers before we even decided to buy and won another trip from a drawing out of all the couple's there. Anyway, we did buy the cookware. lol We needed some anyway, we had the money to do so and we were sold on this stuff. They're made of stainless steel on the outer layers and layers of copper and other things inside. I can't remember exactly. Anyway, they have a really amazing warranty covering everything for 50 years. I set one on fire by accident. It was engulfed in flames for several minutes. After some elbow grease it looks brand new. They all still look brand new after almost 7 years. They cook everything so evenly. I LOVE THEM. lol So I use those and I use cast iron. I love making big breakfasts on cast iron griddles. Yum!