This is a known fact. Even the World Health Organization believes iron cookware can be a decent source of iron. If someone in the poorer countries has iron deficiency anemia, then an iron skillet can be beneficial.
It is especially good to cook something sour in an iron dish. Tomatoes, citric acid or lactic acid improve the release of iron from dishes.
This whole story was started precisely for the poorer countries. There, people cannot buy iron tablets for months. But the frying pan will last for several years. A very elegant solution, in my opinion.
Of course, there were some troubles. Well, that is, iron is best absorbed from simple iron vessels with a high carbon content. These are all sorts of cast iron and blued steel. Stainless steel gives off iron worse, but also fits.
Resale
A curious incident happened with stainless steel dishes. These pans were handed out for testing in poorer countries. The pans were nice and light. But the poor people preferred to sell the vessel. She was too attractive.
Tricky two-layer pans
In some countries, people did not sell beautiful pans, but kept them for themselves. For such connoisseurs of beauty, they even came up with a two-layer cookware. On the outside, there was a light and attractive aluminum layer, and on the inside, the pan was lined with simple and useful iron.
True, there was a small air gap between the layers, because of which the pan warmed up worse. So the trick did not work, and such dishes did not take root either.
It turns out that rusting carbon steel remains the best choice. It burned food easily and rancid fat, but it was more difficult to sell.
Rusting pans proved to be such a good source of iron that sometimes it was even overkill.
Iron overload
Excess iron is bad for the liver. So occasionally the pans were even slightly harmful to their owners. But these were literally isolated cases.
Considering that almost every fifth inhabitant of our planet suffers from iron deficiency anemia, then it was worth it.
Can you imagine? People were given a simple, dirty, cheap and effective remedy that is difficult to break and sell. It will last for years. Helps prevent and treat anemia. Even immunity is good.
Somewhere I had an old iron frying pan, which was probably already seventy years old. I ought to find her ...
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