Hacker News Reader

Comment by badc0ffee | Hacker News Reader

What is the leaching risk, though? If aluminum does get in your food, is it bad for you in a specific way, or is it more like iron?

View on HN

Aluminum is generally thought to be benign by most authorities.

However, it is worth noting that humans were not exposed to aluminum in the environment until relatively recently, when we started extracting it from bauxite and melting it.

Aluminum is a major component of all soils, and soluble aluminum salts have been used in medicine and dyeing since ancient Greece, probably since ancient Egypt. They have been used in food preparation for at least several centuries.

These are all separate chemical compounds, though. Are you claiming they all behave the same as refined aluminium?

I'll readily sprinkle soluble sodium chloride salt over my food. I still very much prefer to keep both substances away from it in elemental form.

Note that I'm not claiming aluminium were dangerous, just that your argument is deeply flawed.

It's not that my argument is flawed so much as that it depends on some basic background knowledge about processes like corrosion and solvation. Lacking that knowledge, you're better off taking my word for it that humans are not exposed to aluminum in the environment in a different way since we started refining the metal.

Pure aluminium maybe not, but it's a major component of clay.

Like most metals, excess aluminum in your diet is almost certainly bad for you.

EFSA full review: animal studies show nervous-system effects from aluminum exposure. https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2903/j.efsa....

CDC/ATSDR: oral risk levels are based on neurological effects seen in exposed animals. https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/ToxProfiles/ToxProfiles.aspx?id=191...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com