Metal Utensils

[Wolf]

I've been meaning to ask this for a while, but do any of you guys avoid using metal utensils?

After reading a detox solution of raw eggs and lime juice that says not to use metal utensils or else the concoction won't work, about how high meat made in a metal container caused botulism, and after my mom told me that an apple cut with a metal knife will turn brown, but when cut with a plastic or ceramic knife it doesn't, I went out and bought myself a ceramic knife.  Since then I have been avoiding metal utensils as much as possible, although I have used them here and there, it is certainly no longer a daily occurrence.  I don't let any of my food come into contact with metal if I can help it, and I often wonder if any of my food had touched metal before I bought it.. I'm sure all of my cuts of meat were probably cut with a metal knife, or ground beef ground with metal machines, who knows if my raw milk and dairy products were ever stored in those metal milk containers, or otherwise came into contact with metal.. although I'm sure most fruit and eggs should be fine, since eggs are protected by their shell, and fruit would only have the vines cut by metal.  I often wonder if my water has come into contact with metal, too, and I wonder if all this exposure to metal is a bad thing, or if I'm just being paranoid for no reason?

I never really noticed too much of a difference in my fruit cut with a ceramic knife as opposed to a metal knife and left in the fridge.  But one thing I did notice was that when I accidentally cut myself with a metal knife, just little small cuts, they sting and hurt like hell.. but when I accidentally cut myself with my ceramic knife, it hurt, but it didn't even sting at all and didn't hurt nearly as badly.

[Techydude]

Yeah I avoid metal. Chefs use ceramic knives cause the metal reacts with certaid foods like plants and makes them oxidize(turn brown/die/wilt) when used to cut em.

Plus I hate the way my hand smells like metal, like its absorbing it and itches after touching something metallic like a doorknob, etc. I treat metal like gold, poison. Avoid it like the plague.

Wood is best to use, ceramic next best, then glass.

[raw-al]

Wolf,

I am fascinated. was the knife serrated, in other words wavy as opposed to a smooth surface?

Hulda Clarke went on about metals getting into the system and advised (she's passed away) using plastic cutlery. However all I have read is that plastics are a no-no because of the phalates and PBA in them being associated with amoungst other things early onset puberty in girls.

I advise against any plastics coming in contact with food.

Ayurveda says that different metals have different affects on the body however that is usually associated with cooking as the cooking naturally causes them to leach out more easily.

[Wolf]

I try to avoid plastic, too.  But plastic is MUCH MUCH MUCH more difficult to avoid than metal.. if I want bottled water, all of it comes in plastic bottles, unless I get nasty tap water which is filled with who knows what kinds of chemicals and chlorine and sanitizers and ugh.. the raw milk that I buy only comes in plastic containers, all of the grassfed meat that I buy comes in vacuum-sealed plastic, all of my fruits come in plastic containers or if they don't, then there's only plastic bags to put them in.. there's also the plastic shopping carts I have to touch, plastic toothbrush I have to use, plastic shampoo bottles, plastic this, plastic that.. eggs seem to be the only safe thing, they come in cardboard containers and have their shells to protect them.  But otherwise, plastic is completely unavoidable.  even glass bottles come with either a plastic cap or a metal cap.  I've given up on avoiding plastic, because otherwise I would have to live off eating only eggs, and then I wouldn't be able to go anywhere or touch anything.. no working either, because everything at work is kept in plastic.

[Wolf]

oh, and the knives are smooth-edged but are serrated on the sides I guess.. the ceramic knife I use is called a Yoshiblade, and the metal knife I used was just a regular steak knife?

[RawZi]

    May sound strange but there was a time for years I completely avoided metal forks for years.  Av thought the reason I had the nightmare from the first beef I had in decades was because the wonderful grass fed meat from the very recommended store was ground using metal, and maybe it had been freshly sharpened and still had metal remains.  I've seen cow butchering where the butcher sharpens the metal knives over the meat without thinking.  I hadn't thought about cuts stinging with metal, but I think you're right.  I've been using ceramic knives for a few years.  I have wooden cutlery too, fork, spoon, knife but I don't use them as often.  A lot of times I eat with my hands too.  Sometimes I rip meat off with my teeth instead of cutting it to bite size pieces, but more often I cut it all.  My birthday this year I received a set of ceramic knives.  I like that gift.  Paleo men were from before the metal age, right?  That would only make sense that using less metal is more paleo, but plastic, well you're right, good it's not metal.  I like it cause it's less noisy.

[raw-al]

    May sound strange but there was a time for years I completely avoided metal forks for years.  Av thought the reason I had the nightmare from the first beef I had in decades was because the wonderful grass fed meat from the very recommended store was ground using metal, and maybe it had been freshly sharpened and still had metal remains.  I've seen cow butchering where the butcher sharpens the metal knives over the meat without thinking.  I hadn't thought about cuts stinging with metal, but I think you're right.  I've been using ceramic knives for a few years.  I have wooden cutlery too, fork, spoon, knife but I don't use them as often.  A lot of times I eat with my hands too.  Sometimes I rip meat off with my teeth instead of cutting it to bite size pieces, but more often I cut it all.  My birthday this year I received a set of ceramic knives.  I like that gift.  Paleo men were from before the metal age, right?  That would only make sense that using less metal is more paleo, but plastic, well you're right, good it's not metal.  I like it cause it's less noisy.

[raw-al]

Ultimately you should eat with your hands. Forks etc came into fashion around the 15th century when it was considered a gentile thing to do. Eating with your hands allows you to notice the texture, andf temperature and see if it is still alive etc.

[RawZi]

Eating with your hands allows you to notice the texture, andf temperature and see if it is still alive

    Maybe that's why they use forks.  Because if they touched with their hands they'd know it's dead.  The forks were probably a necessary step to switch them over from live food to dead.  During the years I lived with no forks, I also didn't use a refrigerator, and made and ate everything at home.  I noticed then that the fruit felt and tasted much more alive than refrigerated fruit.  Another advantage of eating with hands instead of fork is that you'll never chip your tooth on a fork unless something one in a billion happens.