Dr. Daniel Pompa (@dr.pompahealth) regularly shares health advice with his 21,000+ TikTok followers. In a recent daily health tip video, he explained that not all stainless steel utensils are created equal. If you eat food with a specific type of metal, you may be subjecting your body to harmful toxins.
Moreover, Pompa also states that some cutlery can spark allergic reactions in people sensitive to a particular metal. His recommendation: look out for numerical indicators associated with stainless steel cutlery. As far as he’s concerned, there’s only one type human beings should ever be eating with.
18/0 all the way
At the onset of the clip. Pompa records himself holding a large drawer filled with spoons, knives, and forks. All of the items, he says, are made of 18/0 graded stainless steel. “What’s the only silverware I buy? 18/0 stainless steel. Why? What is the 18? What is the 0?” he says.
Next, he explains what these numbers mean. The first figure is the volume of chromium present in cutlery, and the second is nickel.
Pompa says, “The 18 is the parts of chromium, 18% chromium. And if it’s 18/10, it would be 10% nickel. That’s why I buy 18/0 to be 0% nickel.”
At this point in the video, he shares why he’s so staunchly against purchasing stainless steel cutlery with nickel content.
“Why? Because nickel is toxic,” he shares. “And yes it comes off the more you use the silverware and more and more comes off and it toxifies our gut.”
Additionally, Pompa also explains folks may be inadvertently self-inflicting allergic reactions in themselves. That’s because they may be unaware that they’re allergic to nickel.
“Many people are allergic to nickel. Unknowingly eating off 18/10 silverware,” he claims. “Look, all of us want 18/0 whether we’re allergic or not. Some people absolutely are reacting unknowingly.”
Is nickel in cutlery that bad?
According to the National Library of Medicine, nickel can indeed be hazardous to one’s health. The agency published a study titled, “Nickel: Human Health and Environmental Toxicology.” Moreover, the prompt listed a litany of various side effects from consuming nickel. This includes “allergy, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, lung fibrosis, lung and nasal cancer.”
As for why this is the case, the published material hypothesizes that the metal’s “mitochondrial dysfunctions” play a role in its toxicity. Also, “oxidative stress” contributes to the adverse phenomena of eating nickel.
Mamavation, a blog that specializes in assessing products, also echoed concerns over nickel content in cutlery. The same piece delves into “non-toxic” flatware options for consumers. It recommends that folks “sensitive or allergic” to nickel opt for an 18/0 variant, as Pompa states. This type of steel, the website states, is called “Ferritic Steel.”
However, the same write-up goes on to call 18/10 stainless steel cutlery as being the “highest quality” when it comes to durability.
“It will last for decades and is rust and corrosion-resistant,” it wrote. Conversely, 18/0 stainless steel flatware is prone to corrosion and isn’t as heat resistant as the nickel-packing alternative.
@dr.pompahealth This is the only silverware you should buy 🍴
Viewers are upset at the news
One TikTok user on the app joked that they needn’t worry about stainless steel utensils. That’s because they eat their food without flatware.
“I use tortillas to grab food off my plate,” they wrote.
Someone else questioned why utensils that aren’t made out of silver are still called silverware: “It’s not silverware if its not silver. That’s called flatware.”
Another expressed concern about all of the years they spent not considering the information Pompa relayed. “Oh my God for years I have silverware that I probably took from who knows where. This is mentally exhausting,” they said.
There was one TikToker on the app who offered up an alternative. They asked, “How about wood spoons and pretty porcelain spoons?”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Pompa via TikTok comment for further information.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
The post ‘On Amazon you can get 20 piece set stainless steel..for 20 bucks’: Expert says he only buys 18/0 stainless steel cutlery. Then he shares why appeared first on The Daily Dot.