Due to our menstrual cycle women need more iron in their diets than men. Adult women should aim for 18 milligrams of iron a day, and an easy way to bump up your iron intake is to cook with a cast iron skillet.

Acidic and watery foods cooked in a cast iron skillet absorb iron molecules from the pan, and this a safe way to meet your recommended daily allowance of the important mineral.

You’ll get more iron from your pan when it is new though, as you continue to use it the pan builds up a coat of thin coat of fat which acts as a barrier on the iron.

To give you an idea of how well this works researchers found that the iron in one serving of tomato sauce increased from under one milligram to almost 6 mg when cooked in an iron pan.