It could be this way. I'm not sure. I do remember our shop teacher telling certain students that if they insisted on making bowls on the lathe, to use steel instead of aluminum because aluminum apparently causes lock jaw??
Being into lightweight hiking, I looked into aluminum cookware and quickly found this timid underworld of people who abhorr aluminum because it gives you all kinds of diseases form cancer, to alzheimers, to gout, to, now, lockjaw.
I spent an afternoon on the third floor of the OSU library researching these varied claims and was suprised to find out that this entire aluminum phobia going around seems to have originated from some study some group did (sorry, didn't write down my sources) with alzheimers patients that linked alzheimers with elevated levels of aluminum in the body.
The study, however, only showed a correlation. And correlation is not causality. That is to say that the alzheimers may have itself caused the accumulation of aluminum in the body, instead of the accumulation of aluminum causing alzheimers. So, the grapevine took that study and ran with it, because it is still possible that elevated levels of aluminum cause alzheimers. And, near as I can tell, that seems to be why everyone is afraid to cook in aluminum these days.
However, it is much more likely that alzheimers causes your body to accumulate aluminum. Your body is an unfathomably amazing machine that keeps precise levels of untold multitudes of chemicals and elements right where they need to be for your entire life. Your body uses metals like aluminum, copper, and iron to do that, which means your body also regulates these metals. To me, that means that it is much more likely that your body has within it some mechanism to regulate metals like aluminum, and that, when a disease like alzheimers affects your body, it may also affect your body's ability to regulate certain things, like aluminum.
I personally prefer stainless steel because it has a higher melting point, a higher thermal mass (which means more even temperature distribution while cooking over a fire), is slightly more durable, and easier to clean up.
If you find you prefer aluminum, don't fear the aluminum! When someone claims it gives you some disease, ask them for substantial evidence to back up their claims. I guarantee they won't be able to produce any. :thumb:
