Cooking With Aluminum Foil—Is It Safe?

Image by ajafoto/Depositphotos

Aluminum foil can be useful for quick and convenient cooking. When you wrap the food in it before cooking, it takes much less time to clean up after you’re done. It’s also great for when you don’t have an oven dish with a lid for baking anything that requires being covered, as you can use it to cover a dish, to line a pan, or simply to wrap food in it. But are there health risks to using aluminum foil in such a way?

When you use aluminum foil in cooking and baking, some of it can leach into the food you’re cooking. This can cause health problems if you do it over a long period of time. One research found a link between high concentrations of aluminum in the brain tissue and Alzheimer’s disease, and another one found that high aluminum intake and the human cell growth rate are connected.

However, as long as you’re not using too much aluminum foil, you shouldn’t be worried about it. The available research only links the particular problems with high amounts of aluminum, and unless you use the foil on a nearly daily basis, you’ll be safe from its negative effects. You may want to pay special attention if you’re at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.