Caste iron pans unsafe?

[WCM]

A naturopath recently told me that the iron we absorb from caste iron pans is not a safe or useable form, and that they are thus not safe to cook with. ditto enamel coated pans such as le creuset. What are your thoughts??

[treeoflife3]

I have no clue, but I HAVE been wondering what on earth kind of pan we CAN cook on safely. Especially if you are an AWFUL cook who does worse on anything that isn't nonstick :sigh

[Fuamami]

I've never heard that. Why don't you ask the naturopath for the study?

[cocoanib]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

I've never heard that. Why don't you ask the naturopath for the study?

Oh goodness. I thought the cast iron skillets were the best to cook in.

[ChildoftheMoon]

The only thing I have read about cooking with cast iron as "unsafe" is if you cook with a cast iron pan that is not adequately seasoned then it can add too much iron to the food you are preparing. This is a pretty minor thing, and easily avoided.
Cast iron is very safe!
Go ahead and google it

[SuburbanHippie]

I just avoid cooking acidic things in it (like spaghetti sauce) which I heard can leech out iron.

[Mom2M]

I also heard that it is fine if it is seasoned properly. I have awesome cast iron pans that are totally non stick because they are seasoned so well and I can even wash them and not lose the patina so I also cook with anything, even tomatoes. However, I also have one that didn't season well and keeps getting rusty. I really need to sand it down to nothing,. If you are cooking with cast iron that has visible rust I can see that being unhealthy. I would ask for links to research done on that.

[wendyland]

I've searched for articles before to try to figure out if iron gets absorbed in food. I haven't been able to find anything that says that it does. It's not something that's going to keep me from using my cast iron. I love it.

[allnaturalmom]

If I'm reading this correctly, a seasoned cast iron skillet is leaching chrome (and of course iron - it does not say if it is a good form of iron as these are just the test results).

http://www.ceramcor.com/files/pdfs/t...ls_8-17-09.pdf

It's part of this web site for cookware: http://www.ceramcor.com/

hth