You've heard correctly. Food cooked in aluminum cookware does gain some aluminum that it wouldn't gain if it were cooked in stainless, for instance. But the amount we're talking about is utterly trivial.

Aluminum is found in the soil, so it's found naturally in anything that grows in the soil. That means you consume anywhere from 1 to 10 mg of the stuff every day from produce alone — that's before we count other dietary sources of aluminum.

A dish prepared in an aluminum pan will end up with a fraction of a milligram more aluminum in it than a dish prepared in a different type of pan. And yes, that includes dishes like long-simmered, acidic braises. It takes days of sitting in an aluminum pan for food to accumulate more than an insignificant trace amount of aluminum.

To put that in perspective, if you take an aspirin you're getting between 10 and 20 mg of aluminum all in one go.

Here are the facts: In some autopsy studies, Alzheimer's patients have been found to have between 10 and 50 times the normal amount of aluminum in certain parts of their brains. But (a) we're still talking minute amounts here, and (b) this finding is not consistent; it's only been found in some patients.

It is not known whether, first of all, there's any relationship between Alzheimer's and aluminum at all. The data just don't support a conclusion either way. And if there is a link, it's not known whether aluminum accumulation in the brain is a cause or an effect of the disease. It's entirely possible that some people with Alzheimer's bio-accumulate aluminum at an increased rate compared to people who are unafflicted. That would be as consistent with the data as thinking that exposure to aluminum causes Alzheimer's.

It's also a fact that food cooked in aluminum cookware does end up with some aluminum in it. The amount is insignificant compared to the aluminum you're already getting in your diet; if you prepared every meal of your life in aluminum cookware, you would not be exposed to a significantly greater amount of aluminum by the time you reach old age.

So if you want to use aluminum cookware, go ahead. There is currently no reason to avoid it.

You should avoid storing food in aluminum cookware or containers, though. Not for any medical reason, but for a culinary reason: After a couple days, the food ends up tasting "tangy" and metallic. food-grade plastic remains the best storage material for leftovers and such.

If you want to avoid using aluminum in your kitchen, that's fine too. It's totally reasonable to stay with stainless-steel-clad cookware for things like saucepans and sauté pans. It'll set you back a penny, because that stuff is much more expensive than comparable commercial aluminum cookware, but it's also pretty much universally agreed to be of higher quality overall, so it's not like you'll regret the investment.