Can Cooking With Cast Iron Help If You Have An Iron Deficiency?

Iron deficiency is a condition that can sneak up on you, especially if you're not careful about eating an iron rich diet. CNN reported in 2024 that as many as 1 in 3 American adults could have an undiagnosed deficiency, which can cause fatigue, lack of energy, and breathlessness. The good news is that it's easy to get more iron in your diet either from taking supplements, eating more spinach, tuna, and iron-fortified breakfast cereal, or just using a common pan you probably already have in your kitchen: a cast iron skillet.

Research has found that the simple act of cooking food in a cast iron pan can significantly increase the iron in the food, which is great if you love cooking with a skillet or Dutch oven. A 1986 study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that food cooked in a new, seasoned skillet could increase as much as a few milligrams depending on what was being cooked. Acidic foods, like applesauce and spaghetti sauce, absorbed the most, with the applesauce increasing from 0.35 milligrams to 7.3 milligrams, and the tomato sauce from 0.6 milligrams to 5.7 milligrams of iron. However, this effect is still not enough to treat an iron deficiency on its own.

If you've been recently diagnosed with iron deficiency, don't throw away the supplements just yet. While it's true that you can get a measurable amount of iron from cooking with your grandma's skillet, experts say that it's not enough to overcome a deficiency. In fact the levels are so low that it's perfectly safe to cook with a cast iron pan all the time, despite any myths you might have heard about cast iron skillets. Of the two types of iron, called heme and non heme, the stuff that you get from cast iron cookware is non heme, which is harder for your body to absorb. So while you can get some of the iron you need from cooking, think of it as a tool in your arsenal to fight a deficiency along with eating more iron-rich foods.

Also, pan choice is important. Cast iron cookware with enamel coating will not give off any iron because the coating is non reactive and creates a barrier between the food and the metal (this also doesn't make them non-stick). Dissolved iron can also sometimes give certain foods a metallic taste (which is why acidic foods are a no-go for cast iron), so if you're sensitive to that, stick with traditional sources of iron, and be sure to work with a doctor to monitor your blood levels. It's always better to know for sure where your iron levels are than relying on guesswork . . . or spaghetti sauce.