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Comment by debacle | Hacker News Reader

My wife was anemic (vegetarian) for a long, long time. We use close to 100% cast iron these days, and she hasn't had an iron issue in 2+ years.

And as another commenter said, it lasts forever. My favorite pan has been in my family so long (at least 5 generations) that no one really knows who owned it first.

Most people I know who have had issues with cast iron either buy bad cast iron, or don't know how to season a new pan - an old pan can be re-seasoned in about 30 minutes, but a new pan will take several days, and possibly some sandpaper, to get its first good seasoning.

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Good for your wife's anemia, but test from time to time (every 2 to 4 years) your blood iron levels to check if it is not too high. It's problematic too (tiredness, then liver cirrhosis), and iron cookware can cause iron buildup (over several years, but still). Doctors don't often think to check iron levels in patients when doing checkups.

High iron levels are almost never caused by exogenous excess iron but rather the cause is always genetic. Iron absorption is very tightly regulated

>High iron levels are almost never caused by exogenous excess iron

One of the exceptions is using steel cookware: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_iron_overload

Iron absorption is tightly regulated, but can't be totally stopped, and the body has no way to excrete excess iron outside of the rather slow cycle of blood formation and destruction

"The probable cause of African iron overload is the combination of excess iron intake and functional changes in ferroportin.[4][5]"

It stops when ferroportin uptake of iron is saturated

If you are able are so inclined, donating blood includes a check on your iron levels.

Meanwhile, there's me. I discovered cast iron last year and have been loving it for all sorts of things. Of course, my yearly blood test showed high iron levels in my blood so I need to tone it down a little bit.

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