Everyone needs a rice cooker. You might think a single-purpose appliance is a waste of space, but it totally isn’t.
I didn’t know this until Ryan and I bought our first one in 2019 with a wad of Kohl’s Cash he got from his parents. It was a super basic nonstick Aroma rice cooker with a steamer tray and a single switch that gave us two options: cook rice and keep warm.
Since we got it, we’ve used that thing several times a week for almost five years. The cooker’s seen its fair share of white rice, brown rice, flavored rice, and even non-rice things like pancakes and tamales. Even now in 2024, it cooks food just as well as it did when we first got it.
But there’s one thing that’s starting to bother us: the rice cooker’s nonstick coating is starting to peel off.
In general, I try to stop using nonstick cookware once we see signs of damage. That’s because many types of nonstick coating contain PFAS and PFOA — also known as forever chemicals — even if companies claim their cookware is nontoxic. And when nonstick coating becomes damaged, that’s when it can flake off and fall into your food, increasing the amount of PFAS you consume.
I’d rather not eat forever chemicals if I can avoid it. I won’t get too in the weeds with all the research on PFAS, but in general, they’re correlated with higher rates of cancer, liver damage, and decreased immune system function, among other things. They’re unfortunately in a lot of things we eat and drink (as well as the air we breathe).
During my first few years living on my own, I didn’t think much about the cookware I used. My first set of pots and pans were all nonstick, and I was just excited to have something to cook with.
But being a science writer, I started to come across scary stories about forever chemicals more often, and it made me think of the places I might be exposed to them. One of the most obvious sources was my cookware. And boy, were my nonstick pots and pans looking pretty beat up after just a few years of use.
I don’t even want to think about the amount of PFAS I probably ate in college. Rather, I’ve been trying to focus on what I can do to decrease my exposure going forward.
Now, I should say that this forever chemical issue isn’t really one we can solve entirely on our own as individuals. PFAS and PFOA are part of the manufacturing process for many modern products. We need stricter regulation on when and how much factories are allowed to produce this stuff, and we also need safe ways to dispose of it.
Many people are exposed to forever chemicals in ways they can’t control. A lot of places in the US have PFAS in their drinking water. And as I mentioned before, it can even become concentrated in the air we breathe inside and outside. It’s literally everywhere.
I try not to fixate too much on this fact because it honestly makes me feel hopeless sometimes. But it does help to think of the things I can control in my own life to limit exposure when I can.
One of those actions has been to replace most of my nonstick cookware with uncoated stainless steel and cast iron. Neither of these metals contain forever chemicals, and in my experience, they’re much more durable than nonstick.
I got my first cast iron pan for Christmas about two years ago. It definitely took some getting used to, since cast iron holds onto heat way more intensely than nonstick. It also takes some TLC to maintain, as you have to be careful how you wash and dry it, and also take the time to season it every now and then.
But cast iron is basically indestructible, and only gets better with age. It’s also surprisingly affordable — a brand new 12” Lodge pan costs $25-$30, and you could definitely find one for cheaper at your local thrift store.
I also love cooking soup in the giant stainless steel pot I got for my birthday (thanks mom!!). And the latest nonstick item we replaced was our rice cooker.
At first, we were thinking of getting a replacement bowl in stainless steel, but Aroma doesn’t make them for the type of cooker we have. However, we did see that they make a different model with a stainless steel bowl that is quite a lot nicer than the old rice cooker we got at Kohl’s.
It was a little pricey at $60, but since we use our rice cooker so much, it felt worth it. Now we have a new machine that will hopefully last as long as the older one (or longer) and won’t leech little bits of PFAS into our food.
In the meantime, we’re trying to figure out what to do with the old rice cooker. Is it responsible to pass it along to someone else who will inevitably run into the same issue with the nonstick bowl someday? Even if they buy a replacement, it’s bound to become scratched up over time and lose its coating after a few years.
That’s the thing that sucks with nonstick items. Even though many of them contain forever chemicals, the cookware itself doesn’t last forever. It gets all scratched up the more you use it, and just doesn’t age well like cast iron or stainless steel.
But as long as consumers buy nonstick items, companies will keep making them. And that creates more potential for forever chemicals to end up in the environment, as well as our bodies.
By the way, I’m absolutely not judging you if you use nonstick cookware in your kitchen. If you already bought it and like using it, that makes perfect sense!! I personally ran all my nonstick pots and pans into the ground before deciding not to use them anymore.
However, when it’s time to buy new cookware, I do think it’s worth considering the butterfly effect of our purchasing habits. I always think about the longevity and environmental impact of whatever I’m buying (or putting on a wish list).
Obviously, an indestructible cast iron pan is going to last me decades longer than a cheap Teflon set. And since I can afford the better pan, I think it’s my responsibility to buy it.
Also, isn’t it just nice to not eat little flakes of coating whenever you cook? That’s certainly a plus to me.
Btw, here are some excellent YouTube video explainers on Teflon/nonstick pans:
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