Health Reasons to Cook with Cast Iron Skillet Cast Iron skillet is a Chemical-Free Alternative to Nonstick Pans Another bonus to using cast-iron cookware instead of nonstick pans is, you avoid the dangerous chemicals that are seen in nonstick pans. Repellent coatings found in nonstick pans contain PFCs (perfluorocarbons), which keeps food from sticking to the nonstick pots and pans and it's linked to liver cancer, liver damage and, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) get released and inhaled from nonstick pans form of fumes when they are heated on high heat. Also, we can ingest these PFCs when surface of pan is scratched. Both ceramic-coated and regular cast-iron pans are perfect alternatives to nonstick pans for this health reason. Cooking with Cast Iron Fortifies Your Food with Iron Being certain that cast iron does not leak chemicals, it can as well release some iron into your food, which is a good thing. Iron deficiency is quite common globally, particularly among women. About 10% of women living in the U.S are iron-deficient. Cooking something acidic such as tomato sauce within a cast-iron can increase iron content, twenty times more