That slick coating is made with chemicals called PFAS, the ones scientists nicknamed forever chemicals, because your body has no good way to get rid of them. Every time the pan heats up, microscopic particles can release into your food.

And when the coating scratches, and in my experience it always scratches, you're not seasoning your food with salt anymore. You're seasoning it with plastic.

I cooked on stainless for most of my career. It's tough, it sears beautifully, and every restaurant kitchen is full of it. But stainless steel isn't one metal. It's an alloy, and nickel and chromium hide inside it.

Heat and acid pull them out. Right into your eggs. Your tomato sauce. Your stir fry. You won't see it, you won't taste it, but it's there. Every single time.

I respect cast iron. But it's a reactive metal, and it dumps iron into everything you cook. A little iron is fine. This much, at every meal? That's more than your body wants, and excess iron is hard on you over time.

Then there's the upkeep. It needs constant seasoning just to work. Miss one step and your food sticks and tastes like metal.

Here's what the marketing doesn't tell you: the ceramic is just a coating. Underneath sits aluminum, a reactive metal. The pretty white surface chips, peels, and wears off, often within months.

Then you're cooking directly on the exact thing you bought the pan to avoid.