Using cast iron for cooking presents a little known but serious health risk particularly for middle-aged men and menopausal women. How to avoid this issue and use safely! 
Given the amount of time I spend in the kitchen preparing meals for my family, you might be surprised to learn that I do not own any cast iron pans. What’s more, I don’t intend to purchase or use cast iron anytime in the future (I choose to cook in toxin-free, traditional clay pots).
This may seem like heresy particularly since cast iron skillets are almost universally considered to be a healthy and durable choice for the preparation of homecooked meals.
However, I have good reasons for my decision, and science bears out my serious concerns about using cast iron pans unless they also include a quality enamel layer to prevent contact of the food with the iron surface.
Excess Iron is a Health Hazard
My primary reason for opting out of cast iron revolves around the health problems caused by excess iron in the diet. Research has demonstrated that cooking with iron pots and pans significantly raises iron levels in food. Correspondingly, the iron levels of those who eat that food increase as well. (1, 2)
Women do not typically need to worry about this problem as long as they are menstruating. The monthly cycle is a protective factor against this condition. Growing children also are not particularly susceptible as growth obviously requires more blood and more iron.
Adult Men and Menopausal Women Most at Risk
However, for adult men (even fully grown young men) and menopausal women, cast iron can definitely pose a problem as the iron that naturally gets into food from the utilization of this type of cookware can result in iron rising to toxic levels. This condition is associated with a host of serious health problems.
Iron is one of the few minerals we cannot eliminate except through blood loss. Therefore supplements should never contain iron. Moreover, cooking with cast iron is a questionable choice for this segment of the population.
Most people view iron as a nutrient, and indeed it is. It is also a powerful agent of oxidation in the body. This means that excess iron increases the chances of cancer and can severely damage the heart, arteries, and other organs.
In addition, persons with an inherited condition called hemochromatosis, or iron overload disease, can be especially harmed from iron intake. If you have any family members with this condition (about 1 million Americans), you should be especially careful with sources of iron in your diet.
Iron Overload Symptoms
Unfortunately, the symptoms of iron overload are similar to those of other conditions. Therefore it may be wise to request a transferrin saturation test at your next check-up to eliminate iron as a potential source of your health woes.
Avoiding cast iron is particularly important if you suffer from any of the following conditions and/or are an adult male or menopausal female:
- Fatigue
- Joint or muscle weakness
- Mysterious stomach or other gastrointestinal pain/nausea
- Weight loss that cannot be explained
- Elevated liver enzymes
- Shortness of breath
- Early menopause
- Loss of sex drive
- Impotence
- Loss of body hair (this is also a symptom of adrenal fatigue)
Later stage symptoms of iron toxicity
If iron overload continues for extended periods of time, more serious symptoms can emerge such as the following.
- Greying or bronzing of the skin
- Blood sugar issues
- Irregular heartbeat
- Liver problems
- Arthritis
How to Resolve Iron Overload Quickly
If you’ve been cooking with cast iron for a long time and are an adult male or menopausal female, it might be wise to donate blood right away. This practice will reduce iron stores immediately. Remember, loss of blood is the only way to resolve iron toxicity problems.
Continue regular blood donation until you can completely switch over to another type of nontoxic cookware such as clay, enamel, glass, or titanium.
Anemia Usually from an Imbalanced Gut NOT Inadequate Iron
Believe it or not, there is plenty of iron in the diet of the typical American. Even those eating the horrific Standard American Diet need not worry about inadequate iron intake. In addition, there is almost certainly adequate iron intake for a person eating a diet based on traditional foods and also in the diets of vegetarians.
Therefore, if you are anemic or suffer from pregnancy anemia and feel the need to use cast iron to increase your iron levels, you may wish to consider an imbalanced gut as a more likely source of the problem. Common gut pathogens consume iron and are a frequent cause of anemia.  These pathogens include Actinomyces spp., Mycobacterium spp., pathogenic strains of E. coli, Corynebacterium spp., along with many others. Previous use of the birth control pill or antibiotics makes one especially prone to anemia issues.
Unfortunately, increasing iron intake with cast iron only makes these iron loving pathogens grow stronger. It does little to remedy anemia over the long haul. Therefore, rebalancing the gut with beneficial bacterial strains through diet and lifestyle changes rather than use of cast iron or iron supplements is the best approach to solving the root of the problem.
Using Cast Iron Safely
As mentioned above, using enameled cast iron is a safe option if you prefer the ease of use and heavy feel of cast iron pans. The enameled layer protects the food from contact with the iron portion of the pan and hence, offers an option that is both practical and safe. I recommend Le Creuset cookware as one of the best quality brands on the market if this is something you wish to explore.
It’s not just cast iron that is a potential health hazard. Learning to use stainless steel cookware, aluminum bakeware, and other kitchen equipment safely is of paramount importance for the modern cook. It’s not just about the food. Preparation is very important too to avoid the introduction of unwanted toxins!
References
(1) Food prepared in iron cooking pots as an intervention for reducing iron deficiency anemia
(2) Iron Content of Food Cooked in Iron Utensils
(3) Excess Iron: A Health Risk?
(4) Gut and Psychology Syndrome
Thank you for this article. Now I have learned this, I should throw my iron pans right away.
Well my great grandfather lived to be well over 100 and cast iron is all they had to cook with. My grandmother 86 and her sister 96 both have used cast iron all of their life.
So if there were great health problems you would think all the old people I know who cook with it in the south would have died at a young age.
Stainless steel can be scratched so where does that go. Enamels contain lead now some Le Crueset products are made in china!!! All other cookware has a long list of problems too except for lead free glass which I love.
Most woman don’t eat a lot of red meat so our iron is usually low.
So I say season it well with grape seed oil and store it properly cook in it properly and you would be fine.
Oh and my great aunt was almost 100 and she used it all of her life too. hmmm.
Then there’s my health concerned mother-in-law she weighs 114 lbs her whole life and who used any thing but cast iron and she’s almost dead at 77 and has been very ill for about 15 years now. She used stainless.
I have heard doctors say it’s extremely hard to take in the iron from cooking in it. So we breath toxins every day. Toxins are in the air and water etc so just enjoy life eat healthy and live.
Found this study which clearly mentions “Study reports on nickel release from different grades of stainless steels clearly show that even in the worst cases, the Ni release from stainless steels is usually clearly below the limit of 0.5 µg/cm2 /week. Only studies with one grade (AISI 303, high sulphur content) have shown release rates above the limit.”. Guess SS should be safe for all kinds of cooking.
ttl.fi/en/publications/Electronic_publications/Documents/Stainless_steel.pdf
Interesting article and perpective, but I believe oversimplified. There apparently is evidence that iron cookware can add some iron to your intake; and iron overload is a hugely overlooked problem.I know, because I have an overload problem that is genetically induced. However, I also just bought iron cookware because I’m tired of eating Teflon. I donate blood 4-6 times per year and have my iron levels checked annually. They are now nearing normal levels, and I plan to aim for an optimal level of 50-100 micrograms per milliliter. Iron tests are almost never part of a normal physical; the should be. Everyone should have their iron levels checked; donate blood as needed to bring it to an optimal level (the very low end of what’s considered normal); and if this were done, it might preven vast amounts of health problems. Iron cookware, per se, is not the problem. The problem is a complete ignorance of, and lack of action about iron overload issues.
Sorry to use your post as a starting point but I couldn’t find a “post reply” option. So first of all I agree with you. People that use Teflon just don’t realize how many pieces of that stuff gets scraped into every meal they cook. It’s a poison and was NOT designed for long term use as cast iron was. I grew up with the ol’ cast iron skillet and proudly use one today. For anyone to become afflicted with “iron poisoning”, you’d have to probably use the stuff for every meal, every day for years. I’d be more worried about overdosing on iron from supplements than I would be cookware. Secondly, going back to the Teflon issue, unless one replaces their Teflon coated cookware every six months or so, you my friends, are the ones in danger of food poisoning. Not only from the Teflon itself, but also from the left behind food particles that it absorbs. If you are to really against cast iron, the buy stainless with copper bottoms. . .but I hope you know how to cook! 🙂
Thanks Sarah for saying this. I read about 20 years ago that cast iron cookware was identified as a major cause of liver cancer particularly in developing countries. Iron is ageing and not something you want to add to your load, particularly if you are post menopausal or not allowed to donate blood. For those suggesting lack of evidence they also do not cite any studies about the long term use of cast iron cookware on mortality, because they don’t have any studies. There seems to be this huge sales job going on with cast iron cookware on the internet which is quite recent. Dr Mercola sells some ceramic cookware for those of you wanting a healthy option.
Please share your sources that Cast Iron cookware is a source of Iron overdose.. There is such a small trace of additional iron in a final cooked food that the only way for a person to to O.D. on a CI pan would be to eat the pan.. Considering for almost a century Cast Iron was the primary cookware on this planet I find it amazing that we have all survived.. And the claim that we can’t eliminate if from our Bodies???? Really???? The most common cause of that problem is an hereditary disease known as Hemochromatosis……
http://www.livestrong.com/article/185197-how-to-get-rid-of-excess-iron-in-the-human-body/
people have been using cast iron for a long time and they’ve been fine… case closed.
People have been using it for a long time and MOST of them have been fine. Just like most people don’t get cancer. But iron in cookware can be a problem for some people, and that problem can be fatal. For them it’s not so much case closed as casket closed.
That’s not how it works. I work in healthcare field. What it comes down to is individual vulnerabilities. One person might be fine with higher levels of Iron while another person can develop toxicities. We see same thing with smokers. Some can smoke for 70 years and not develop lung problems and another can smoke for 20 years and develop advanced COPD. Everyone has disease process they are vulnerable to. It depends on if those vulnerabilities are triggered enough to initiate the disease process.
I recently switched to cast iron pans, mostly because I got tired about replacing my cookware every 2 years. So, I switched to the all American Lodge pans. Although they are pricey in my part of the world, they still are a lot cheaper then Le Creuset or Hackmann.
Before switching to the scientific part- the shocking truth was how much tastier everything seems to taste. I was truly amazed.
OK now the scientific part – as always, the truth is somewhere in the middle:
According to some studies (e.g. apparently it CAN add to your iron intake:
ABSTRACT: Amounts of iron released from iron pots vary from meal to meal. The effects of salt, pH, and organic acids as iron chelators were studied. Maize (corn) porridges were prepared in a cast iron pot from maize flour and 12 aqueous solutions with different pH (3.7 or 7.2), salt contents (0% or 0.5% NaCl), and organic acids (1% lactate, 1% citrate, or none). Salt had no effect, but acidic pH or organic acids (citrate > lactate) significantly increased iron amount, from 1.7 mg to 26.8 mg Fe per 100 g. The amounts released could be important in the treatment and prevention of iron deficiency.
These levels are nothing to be worried about. And I will, for sure choose cast iron again.It is imho opinion, the safest, and tastiest way to cook.
I was just wondering what brand of titanium you would recommend?