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Cookin in Cast Iron --> Iron in body?

RhythmSpring

RhythmSpring

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It seems to be relatively common knowledge that using iron cookware is good because you get trace amounts of iron. But is there any hard scientific evidence that cooking with cast iron leads to greater iron levels in the body? Is it absorbed and utilized?
 
I would dial that back and investigate whether the common knowledge was true before inquiring about absorption.

When I was a kid, somebody up on a stage put a bowl of Total cereal in a blender, macerated it, and then wiggled a relatively strong magnet in the slurry. When he pulled it out, there was iron deposited on the magnet.

I suspect you wouldn't get a meaningful amount of iron out of a similar experiment using cast iron cookware and a low-iron food.
 
Pander Bear said:
I suspect you wouldn't get a meaningful amount of iron out of a similar experiment using cast iron cookware and a low-iron food.
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On the contrary, I worry that I'm getting too much iron (and possibly the wrong kind of iron) whenever I use my decently-seasoned cast iron skillet. There is visible, yet teeny tiny black dust when I wipe it with a paper towel. It's there, believe me.

I just wonder if it's in a non-usable form (iron oxide, perhaps?) as opposed to the highly absorbable kind of iron, which is heme iron, found in meat.
 
Interesting thread RhythmSpring.

Would straight up elemental iron even digest and metabolize properly in the first place?? Hence why iron supplements contain iron salts either in the ferrous or ferric forms, ie: ferric pyrophosphate, and ferrous gluconate. To be absorbed by the enterocytes in the duodenum, the iron must either be part of a protein, in the ferrous Fe2+ form, or can be Fe3+ but requires reduction by enzymes.

Your concern may be well founded. As you know, iron is highly toxic in excess (see: haemochromatosis), and there's no way of easily measuring how much does leach into each meal.

*EDIT: I got interested in this topic and so did a quick search on university account. It turns out not only does it leach from cast-iron cookware, but was also found to help with anaemia, so ipso facto it must be in a form that can be readily metabolised. (n.b. I don't think I'm legally allowed to C/P whole articles so these are just abstracts, hope that is OK) --

"This study evaluates iron and manganese migration from iron pans and the impact of routine meal preparation on the iron status of vegetarians. Rice and tomato sauce were cooked in iron pans. Fe and Mn quantification were done by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Vegetarians had their meals prepared in cast-iron cookware for 12 weeks. Tomato sauce took up more Fe and Mn than rice. Mineral transfer increased with cooking cycles. Iron anemia decreased from 32.1 to 5.3%, while the prevalence of hematologically normal individuals increased from 41 to 67.8%. Migrated Fe from cookware improves the nutritional iron status of vegetarians."'

- Quintaes, K.D., Farfan, J.A., Tomazini, F.A., Morgano, M.A. Hajisa, N.M. (2007). 'Mineral migration and influence of meal preparation in iron cookware on the iron nutritional status of vegetarian students,' Ecology of Food & Nutrition, 46(2), 125-141.
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"Culinary utensils may release some inorganic elements during food preparation. Mineral migration can be beneficial for as long as it occurs in amounts adequate to the needs of the consumer or no toxicological implications are involved. In this study, the migrations of Fe, Mg, Mn, Cr, Ni and Ca, along seven cooking cycles were evaluated for two food preparations (polished rice and commercial tomato sauce, the latter as an acid food), performed in unused stainless steel, cast iron and soapstone pans, taking refractory glass as a blank. Minerals were determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES). The utensils studied exhibited different rates, patterns and variability of migration depending on the type of food. Regression analysis of the data revealed that, as a function of the number of cycles, the iron pans released increasing amounts of iron when tomato sauce was cooked (y = 70.76x + 276.75; R-2 = 0.77). The soapstone pans released calcium (35 and 26 mg/kg), magnesium (25 and 15 mg/kg) into the tomato sauce and rice preparations, respectively. Additionally, the commercial tomato sauce drew manganese (3.9 and 0.6 mg/kg) and some undesirable nickel (1.0 mg/kg) from the soapstone material, whereas the stainless steel pans released nickel at a lower rate than steatite and in a diminishing fashion with the number o cooking cycles, while still transferring some iron and chromium to the food. We conclude that while cast iron and glass could be best for the consumer's nutritional health, stainless steel and steatite can be used with relatively low risk, provided acid foods are not routinely prepared in those materials."

- Quintaes, K.D., Farfan, J.A., Tomazini, F.M., Morgano, M.A. (2006). 'Mineral migration from stainless steel, cast iron and soapstone (steatite) Brazilian pans to food preparations,' Archivos Latino Americanos de Nutricion, 56(3), 275-281.
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Interesting. Are you concerned, Rhythm, because you exhibit symptoms of iron toxicity?
 
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good thread. even if it is just a few mg's, the rda on iron is <10mg in the first place, and iron doesn't leave your body as easily as, say, vit C or B.
/wrt those cereals, i wouldn't be surprised if they had added iron ('fortified') like many processed products in the us are.
 
Polluted_Mind- That first study is exactly what I was looking for, thank you. I know iron goes into the food. The question is does it have any benefit for iron-deficient people? And it looks like the answer is yes, at least according to that study.

TheAppleCore- No, quite the opposite. I have chronic iron deficiency anemia, so I'm wondering if cast iron helps.

As for those cereals, they are certainly "fortified." I wonder what form that "iron" is in. I tried looking it up, but the ingredients labels just say "iron," and don't go into the specifics of what form it's in.
 
I wouldn't worry about iron overload from cast iron. Your body is able to substantially regulate its iron uptake by increasing or decreasing transferrin in the mucosa of the digestive tract. Some will always get through no matter what, but the upper limit where iron overload happens is somewhere like >40mg/day for a prolonged period. You are unlikely to get that from your cooking pan, especially if it's ceramic-coated or seasoned with another protective coating.

People who usually get quick iron overload are people with genetic disorders like hemochromatosis whose bodies can't regulate iron uptake. If you had that you'd know already.

I will say though, for myself, I do not take multivitamins that have iron in them because I think I'm already getting enough from other sources.
 
I'd expect a lot of the elemental iron to become oxidized to rust either during the cooking process (acids in there etc) or otherwise when hitting the stomach acid. Elemental iron itself cannot be absorbed in the body, I'm pretty sure it has to be in ionic form at some point. But oxides are usually insoluble / hard for the body to absorb as well. On that topic, oxides of e.g. magnesium are definitely not the best to use if you wanna take supplements - a major reason why cheap vitamin pills can be semi pointless if they put those cheap hard-to-absorb forms in there.

With heavy metals I'm not quite sure how they accumulate in the body. I wanna say in the lymph nodes?

If you have actual symptoms that are a constellation typical for iron poisoning go to your GP and/or use chelating agents to get rid of the excess. Just make sure you don't overdo it as you very much need iron for your blood (among other things).

Aluminum pans and foil are also used widely in cooking, but aluminum poisoning can lead to nasty shit like Alzheimer's. I don't see a real epidemic there either.
 
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