# Safety of cast iron cookware? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825 "2007-10-24T15:29:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/1 "2007-10-24T15:29:28Z")
On another forum, someone asked for recommendations for cast iron cookware or other safe alternatives to non-stick pans. One poster asserted that cast iron isn’t safe, saying that it’s porous and holds “carcinogenic heated oils”, and that the type of iron (ferric vs ferrous) in pans can’t be absorbed by the body, or maybe it leaches too much into food and causes health problems. I have never heard such a claim, and wonder if there’s any validity to it. The only hits Google gives me are sites selling stainless steel cookware or other “health” sites that make wild-ass claims with no scientific backing. I get plenty of hits, including university sites, that say what I’ve always heard, that cast iron is safe and adds beneficial dietary iron to food. So, is this person a wackjob (or just gullible), or is there ANY real evidence that cast iron might be unsafe? ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/2 "2007-10-24T15:41:30Z")
I’ve read that one shouldn’t cook acidic foods in cast iron cookware. I’m not sure if the reason is excessive leaching of iron or damage to the cookware. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/3 "2007-10-24T17:34:41Z")
When you’re talking about elemental iron, “ferrous” vs “ferric” has no meaning. These terms only apply to the valency of iron in compounds. You may choose to generalize from this piece of nonsense to the credibility of the poster on related matters. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/4 "2007-10-24T17:54:40Z")
For a **babe** from Georgia, you sure ask a lotta questions. I’ll try to answer some of them, and dodge the rest. Cast-iron pots and pans add a little iron to everything cooked in them. The Lodge cast-iron folks say so. Alton Brown says so. The Indiana Blood Center says so. That’s okay. An iron-rich diet won’t hurt you, and you won’t rust. About those “carcinogenic heated oils,” I guess that refers to a study or two claiming that searing red meats over a charcoal fire develops compounds on the meat surface which encourage cancer growth. I don’t have much info on that. You won’t develop charcoal-like temperatures inside a cast pan on a kitchen stove. I’m not aware of any cooking oils that become dangerous when heated, or even overheated. Feel free to use olive oil like it grows on trees. 😉 Most foods are a little acidic, but some are moreso; tomato sauce and citrus juices are like that. They will react with the cast iron, pulling more iron than usual into the food. I’m not sure if that’s bad for us, or bad for the pan. Both? Neither? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/5 "2007-10-24T18:36:35Z")
Acidic foods will leach iron out of the pan. It makes them look, and sometimes taste, funny. AFAIK, it doesn’t really hurt the pan or you. FYI - highly acidic foods (e.g., citrus, tomatoes) will do the same thing in stainless-steel pans, if you leave them long enough. I learned this the hard way when I left chili in a pan for a couple days. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/6 "2007-10-24T18:44:38Z")
[QUOTE=Geobabe] One poster asserted that cast iron isn’t safe, saying that it’s porous and holds "carcinogenic heated oils… [/QUOTE] There are heated oils in almost everything we cook and eat. This is a silly claim. > [@mks57](#): > > I’ve read that one shouldn’t cook acidic foods in cast iron cookware. I’m not sure if the reason is excessive leaching of iron or damage to the cookware. Acid can etch metal. The reaction can also gives foods a distinct acid-metal off taste (sounds like a rock sub-genre). But it won’t hurt you. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/7 "2007-10-24T19:11:21Z")
[QUOTE=Geobabe] One poster asserted that cast iron isn’t safe, saying that it’s porous and holds “carcinogenic heated oils”, and that the type of iron (ferric vs ferrous) in pans can’t be absorbed by the body[.] [/QUOTE] Well, good. If it’s bad for you, you don’t want it absorbed by the body; you want it to pass right through you. Lemon juice and tomatoes aren’t such a problem on a very well seasoned pan, as long as you don’t use them every single day that they end up deseasoning significant portions of the pan. They’ve got to work their way through the polymer first. A properly seasoned pan is _not_ oily (acid washes right through that). ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/8 "2007-10-24T19:15:52Z")
Don’t drop the pan on your foot. Remember that the handle is not insulated like your nice teflon & stainless steel pans, and gets really freaking hot. Otherwise, I’ve never heard of any safety issues with cast iron. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/9 "2007-10-24T19:52:14Z")
How much longer can we realistically live? I’ve known women who fried chicken in these pans twice a week for decades and lived into their nineties. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/10 "2007-10-24T19:58:32Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] Don’t drop the pan on your foot. Remember that the handle is not insulated like your nice teflon & stainless steel pans, and gets really freaking hot. Otherwise, I’ve never heard of any safety issues with cast iron. [/QUOTE] Oh, and they hurt like heck if you’re knocked in the head with them. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/11 "2007-10-24T20:38:55Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] Remember that the handle is not insulated like your nice teflon & stainless steel pans, and gets really freaking hot. [/QUOTE] Also hot metal and cold metal look exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/12 "2007-10-24T20:57:45Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] How much longer can we realistically live? I’ve known women who fried chicken in these pans twice a week for decades and lived into their nineties. [/QUOTE] Yes, but they could probably have lived into their early 100s if they hadn’t used the eeevil carcinogenic cooking oil ferrous ferric ooh scary cast iron pans! I suggest that we eat only lab-produced food substitute substitute created in a sterile laboratory environment and injected into our mouths by robots. Provided it doesn’t have any chemicals in it. They’re bad for you. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/13 "2007-10-24T21:24:19Z")
Alton said. I believe it. That settles it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/14 "2007-10-24T21:44:34Z")
Alton said. I believe it. That settles it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/15 "2007-10-24T21:47:25Z")
Wow. When the page fails to load right and you just hit refresh because you were doing something else and forgot that what you were waiting for to load was your just-posted comment, sometimes you can get a 20-minute double post. Coo-ul. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/16 "2007-10-24T21:47:28Z")
If Alton had said it, that would settle it for me. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/17 "2007-10-24T22:02:16Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] When you’re talking about elemental iron, “ferrous” vs “ferric” has no meaning. These terms only apply to the valency of iron in compounds. You may choose to generalize from this piece of nonsense to the credibility of the poster on related matters. 😉 [/QUOTE] Heh. The poster responded to a comment about iron absorption in the body by a person who actually has a background in biochemistry with, “I can clear that up. That quote is referring to iron, the metal. What our body needs is iron from the green leafy things.” So…um, yeah. I didn’t want to dismiss their claims out of hand without more knowledge of the subject, but the more they say, the clearer it becomes that they’ve bought into some wacky unsupported-by-reality crap out there on the web. And there’s a lot of it out there. Alton, on the other hand…that’s pure gospel. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/18 "2007-10-24T23:25:43Z")
A cast iron skillet is a really impressive weapon, if you want to bludgeon someone. If you really want to make good cornbread, you have to use a cast iron skillet. ---
**Author:** ![Fozzie\_Bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Fozzie\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fozzie_Bear)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/19 "2007-10-24T23:46:08Z")
[QUOTE=Geobabe] Heh. The poster responded to a comment about iron absorption in the body by a person who actually has a background in biochemistry with, “I can clear that up. That quote is referring to iron, the metal. What our body needs is iron from the green leafy things.” So…um, yeah. I didn’t want to dismiss their claims out of hand without more knowledge of the subject, but the more they say, the clearer it becomes that they’ve bought into some wacky unsupported-by-reality crap out there on the web. And there’s a lot of it out there. Alton, on the other hand…that’s pure gospel. 😃 [/QUOTE] Is the biochemist a vegetarian, or something? There’s iron in both meats and plants, and both are fine as far as nutrition goes. The NIH says here [http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/iron.asp](http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/iron.asp) > [@](#): > > There are two forms of dietary iron: heme and nonheme. Heme iron is derived from hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells. Heme iron is found in animal foods that originally contained hemoglobin, such as red meats, fish, and poultry. Iron in plant foods such as lentils and beans is arranged in a chemical structure called nonheme iron [9]. This is the form of iron added to iron-enriched and iron-fortified foods. Heme iron is absorbed better than nonheme iron, but most dietary iron is nonheme iron. The CDC has more to say here [http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrition/nutrition\_for\_everyone/iron\_deficiency/index.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrition/nutrition_for_everyone/iron_deficiency/index.htm) Of course, if they’re real whack-jobs they may distrust a government web site as a source of information. That’s the point at which you should start talking about the potential toxicity of tin-foil caps. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825/20 "2007-10-25T01:31:01Z")
No, the biochemist was trying to respond to the whack-job with some facts, and that’s what she came back with. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safety-of-cast-iron-cookware/423825.md?page=2)