5 ms·

I did the same. I still use cast iron and ceramic though.

esperent 2y ago
I have, very regretfully, stopped using cast iron. Being a man, in a country where I can't easily donate blood, iron load is something that I want to be careful of. It is possible to cook with cast iron in a way that won't leech too much iron into food, just as it is possible to cook with nonstick in a way that won't leech Dupont chemicals. But I'd much rather just use foolproof stainless or ceramic cookware that doesn't have these issues.
- alexey-salmin 2y ago
  Sorry, I can't understand the idea, why iron is bad and what does it have to do with blood donations? I mean I know iron and blood are related but this particular statement just won't compute
  - nine_k 2y ago
    Too much of anything is bad. A quart of table salt would kill you. A bucket of water force-fed into you could kill you. Hemoglobin in blood contains a lot of iron; it's used to bind oxygen. Too much iron intake apparently can result in its overproduction, and too much is no good. Donating blood rids you of excess iron, while also benefiting other people. I suppose you should first check if your levels of iron are indeed excessive.
- notnaut 2y ago
  Is this comment an implicit endorsement of giving blood as a health benefit because it allows to slough off heavy metals or something? what…? News to me.
  - com2kid 2y ago
    Donating blood actually has multiple positive upsides!
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      My other half works for the NHS blood/transfusion department and was able to trace my blood (after I gave her the number on the blood pack) and confirm that I was negative for various diseases including syphilis. Also, you get a free iron/anaemia test before donating.
  - andy_ppp 2y ago
    No giving blood particularly for men (I wonder why) is good because having too much iron in your body rots your flesh: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/haemochromatosis/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/haemochromatosis/
    - BoiledCabbage 2y ago
      Am I missing something? You link is to an inherited disease. If you don't have this inherited disease is this relevant for most people? The way the comment is phrased, it implies that it's bad for men in general. Your link says for people with a specific issue.
      - andy_ppp 2y ago
        Here is a better link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload The link actually says iron overload can also be called haemochromatosis too so a bit confusing that that page says it’s inherited…
        rv3392 2y ago
        I don't understand the issue with cast iron pots after reading that either. My understanding is that to get iron overload, your body would need to absorb excess iron and store it. This happens with haemochromatosis over a long time (30+ years), but it can also happen if you consume way too much iron by, for example, taking too many iron supplements when you don't need them. In normal circumstances and with a standard diet, the body will regulate it's iron intake so that too much doesn't get stored and so there's no iron oberload. Maybe I'm missing something here, but this leaves me a little confused about what the commenter meant. If you have a normal diet and don't have haemochromatosis or some other confounding factor, I don't see how enough iron could be leached from a cast iron pot to cause iron overload.
        esperent 2y ago
        If you cook acidic things like tomatoes, apparently it can leech a significant amount of iron - apparently in some cases exceeding what you'd get from food. https://examine.com/articles/are-cast-iron-pans-unsafe/ https://examine.com/articles/are-cast-iron-pans-unsafe/
- ikiris 2y ago
  What? Unless you have haemochromatosis this is really tinfoilery over the iron levels acquired through natural ingestion, especially the thought of leach levels from a pan. You get more iron from meat or a bowl of cereal than you could ever get from a pan without it being flat out dissolved in the process over the course of a handful of cooks.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    Is the iron that leaches from pan even bio-available? Aren't supplements very specific compounds? I can admit that it might be toxic, but that toxicity is not due to something like over production of haemoglobin...
    - dmurray 2y ago
      Iron filings (mostly elemental iron with some iron oxides) are used as supplements, so definitely bio-available.
      - ikiris 2y ago
        But to get enough iron out of a pan to even match a single bowl of cereal you'd have to use a grinder.
        dmurray 2y ago
        Cereals run around 5 mg iron for a bowl [0]. A pan is about 1 kg (a good cast iron one could be much heavier). That's enough for 200,000 bowls of cereal. Even if you reckon the pan is degraded enough to be obviously useless after losing 5% of its weight, that would require you to use it every day for 30 years, not "a handful of cooks". [0] https://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/breakfast-cereals-and-their-iron-content https://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/breakfast-cereals-and-th...

I have, very regretfully, stopped using cast iron. Being a man, in a country where I can't easily donate blood, iron load is something that I want to be careful of. It is possible to cook with cast iron in a way that won't leech too much iron into food, just as it is possible to cook with nonstick in a way that won't leech Dupont chemicals. But I'd much rather just use foolproof stainless or ceramic cookware that doesn't have these issues.

alexey-salmin 2y ago
Sorry, I can't understand the idea, why iron is bad and what does it have to do with blood donations? I mean I know iron and blood are related but this particular statement just won't compute
- nine_k 2y ago
  Too much of anything is bad. A quart of table salt would kill you. A bucket of water force-fed into you could kill you. Hemoglobin in blood contains a lot of iron; it's used to bind oxygen. Too much iron intake apparently can result in its overproduction, and too much is no good. Donating blood rids you of excess iron, while also benefiting other people. I suppose you should first check if your levels of iron are indeed excessive.
notnaut 2y ago
Is this comment an implicit endorsement of giving blood as a health benefit because it allows to slough off heavy metals or something? what…? News to me.
- com2kid 2y ago
  Donating blood actually has multiple positive upsides!
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    My other half works for the NHS blood/transfusion department and was able to trace my blood (after I gave her the number on the blood pack) and confirm that I was negative for various diseases including syphilis. Also, you get a free iron/anaemia test before donating.
- andy_ppp 2y ago
  No giving blood particularly for men (I wonder why) is good because having too much iron in your body rots your flesh: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/haemochromatosis/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/haemochromatosis/
  - BoiledCabbage 2y ago
    Am I missing something? You link is to an inherited disease. If you don't have this inherited disease is this relevant for most people? The way the comment is phrased, it implies that it's bad for men in general. Your link says for people with a specific issue.
    - andy_ppp 2y ago
      Here is a better link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload The link actually says iron overload can also be called haemochromatosis too so a bit confusing that that page says it’s inherited…
      - rv3392 2y ago
        I don't understand the issue with cast iron pots after reading that either. My understanding is that to get iron overload, your body would need to absorb excess iron and store it. This happens with haemochromatosis over a long time (30+ years), but it can also happen if you consume way too much iron by, for example, taking too many iron supplements when you don't need them. In normal circumstances and with a standard diet, the body will regulate it's iron intake so that too much doesn't get stored and so there's no iron oberload. Maybe I'm missing something here, but this leaves me a little confused about what the commenter meant. If you have a normal diet and don't have haemochromatosis or some other confounding factor, I don't see how enough iron could be leached from a cast iron pot to cause iron overload.
        esperent 2y ago
        If you cook acidic things like tomatoes, apparently it can leech a significant amount of iron - apparently in some cases exceeding what you'd get from food. https://examine.com/articles/are-cast-iron-pans-unsafe/ https://examine.com/articles/are-cast-iron-pans-unsafe/
ikiris 2y ago
What? Unless you have haemochromatosis this is really tinfoilery over the iron levels acquired through natural ingestion, especially the thought of leach levels from a pan. You get more iron from meat or a bowl of cereal than you could ever get from a pan without it being flat out dissolved in the process over the course of a handful of cooks.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  Is the iron that leaches from pan even bio-available? Aren't supplements very specific compounds? I can admit that it might be toxic, but that toxicity is not due to something like over production of haemoglobin...
  - dmurray 2y ago
    Iron filings (mostly elemental iron with some iron oxides) are used as supplements, so definitely bio-available.
    - ikiris 2y ago
      But to get enough iron out of a pan to even match a single bowl of cereal you'd have to use a grinder.
      - dmurray 2y ago
        Cereals run around 5 mg iron for a bowl [0]. A pan is about 1 kg (a good cast iron one could be much heavier). That's enough for 200,000 bowls of cereal. Even if you reckon the pan is degraded enough to be obviously useless after losing 5% of its weight, that would require you to use it every day for 30 years, not "a handful of cooks". [0] https://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/breakfast-cereals-and-their-iron-content https://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/breakfast-cereals-and-th...