13 Toxic Kitchen Items Americans Use Daily (That The Chinese Replaced Forever)

Look at the pan you made eggs in this morning. If the coating has grey worn patches and fine scratches, some of it has already gone somewhere, and that somewhere is your food. That pan isn't the only one. There are twelve more things like it in most American kitchens, used every day without a second thought. I'm Mei Lin, and I grew up in Guangzhou, in the south of China, in the 1960s. My mother fed six children in a kitchen with almost no money in it, and she didn't own a single thing on this list. She never read a study. Plastic cost money, and she already had iron, wood, bamboo, clay and cloth. She was protected by being poor, and science has spent fifty years catching up with her. First, don't panic. Nothing here will hurt you at dinner tonight. These are small, quiet exposures repeated over many years, and most of the replacements cost less than what they replace. In this video: • Scratched non-stick pan → a carbon steel wok, and how a Chinese family "opens" a new wok • Black plastic spatulas → metal, bamboo and long cooking chopsticks, plus the honest truth about the black plastic study • Plastic cutting boards → the thick round wooden chopping block, and why wood did well in the bacteria tests • Plastic wrap on hot food → a plate turned upside down • Aluminum foil with sour or salty food → parchment in between, a lid, or a lotus leaf • Cooking spray → a small dish of oil • The kitchen sponge → a dried loofah gourd and a bamboo wok brush that actually dry out • Paper towels → cotton cloths boiled clean • Pyramid tea bags → loose leaves in a clay teapot • Takeout containers in the microwave → a ceramic bowl, or steaming leftovers the old way • Melamine plates with hot food → ceramic, glass or porcelain • Old painted bowls → where they belong, and why • The one thing on the list that isn't an object at all No expensive "non-toxic" cookware sets, and no fear. It's one drawer at a time, the way my mother's kitchen worked in Guangzhou. Start with two changes this week, and both are free. Which of these thirteen is in your kitchen right now, and which one will be gone by Sunday? Do you have a cupboard full of takeout containers too? Tell me about the woman who ran your family's kitchen. Where was she from, and what did she refuse to throw away? Tell me in the comments. I want to hear it before it is gone.