How can cooking vegetables or any other food increase the amount of iron?

This question has something to do with a vegan diet. Since vegetarians avoid meat their source of iron are most on vegetables or iron supplements. I found this info about cooking food. I don't know what the rationale about the increase in the amount of iron content when food is cooked. I did some research but they can't give me the explanation. Does it have anything to do with heat? Do you think iron pans have something to do with that?How can cooking vegetables or any other food increase the amount of iron?
Hi Ruth. Cooked veges in some cases lose volume so a cup of raw can shrink to the size of a half cup of cooked. Therefore a cup of cooked may have up to twice as many vitamins in theory. If the vitamin is water soluble then a large percentage of that can be lost during cooking. On the flip side some won't be usuable without cooking.How can cooking vegetables or any other food increase the amount of iron?
Vegetarians need to work harder to add Iron to their diet because it is only found in high concentrations in a couple of types of vegetables; namely, broccoli, potatoes and bok choy. As omnivores, we humans recieve much of our iron from the blood/muscle/meat of other creatures.

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Also, some other foods make it hard for us to absorb any Iron we do eat, namely; red wine, soy, coffee, and spinach. These are often freqented by the common vegetarian (and sometimes me).

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