While you may be doing a million things the right way to shave off the extra pounds, there might be a zillion things unknown to you that may act as barriers and prevent weight loss from happening. And it has emerged that the cookware that one uses in the kitchen plays quite an important part and can make you gain weight, even if you are cooking healthy meals in them. We should really be worried about chemicals leaching into our food from non-stick pans coated with such chemicals when they are heated at high temperatures or when the initial protective coating wears off because they can pose several health risks , from raising cholesterol to increasing the risk of cancer. But did you know, such chemicals might also be the reason why your belly fat refuses to budge! So, let’s find out whether cooking in non-stick pan makes you overweight.
We are talking about two chemicals commonly found in non-stick cookware and food packaging – perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) and Perfluorooctanoic acid. Studies have revealed that people who initially lost weight through dieting and exercise gained back all the weight they had lost and had remarkably higher levels of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their blood profile upon testing. These are chemicals used extensively in waterproof, non-stick cookware and even food packaging. These chemicals also lower down metabolism and hinder with hormonal activities. As we have mentioned above, the other risks associated with PFAS are high cholesterol, low immunity, and increased risk of cancer.
Coming to perfluorooctanoic acid, it’s an obesogen that is most commonly found in non-stick cookware and microwavable popcorn bags, and this chemical is found to have endocrine-disrupting properties, hindering with the normal functioning of essential weight-regulating hormones like insulin, estrogen, thyroid, etc. These tend to majorly mimic the hormone estrogen, altering their function, and encouraging fat storage. They also play havoc with hormones that regulate metabolism, control weight, regulate hunger and appetite, and makes them act in a way that they start accumulating fat instead of burning it out. They have been found to reprogram normal stem cells and turn them into fat cells. Since the body protects you from toxins by creating fat cells around toxins, you gain more weight easily. Also, since these are reprogrammed fat cells, they do not function like “normal” fat cells. These newly-created fat cells are hard to burn because they do not actively participate in the fat-burning process even with proper diet and exercise.
Another metabolism-regulating hormone that these toxins interfere with is “thyroid!” Thyroid hormones help regulate metabolism and their normal functioning is imperative to prevent weight gain. As we have mentioned previously too, a lot of hormones are needed in the fat-burning process, and when such chemicals interfere with their functioning, weight loss becomes extremely difficult to achieve.
Summing up, do choose your cookware carefully for better health and also for weight loss. Cast iron cookware, copper, and glass are some great alternatives to cook healthy food in. Apart from these factors, you can lose weight successfully by following a healthy diet such as on the Rati Beauty app and exercise routines that are easy to follow and practice.
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