The authors argue that our hypotheses relating the C282Y mutation to the chilly and damp climates of Europe are not supported (Heath et al., 2016). We thank the authors for taking interest in our research. Below we reply to their major issues.First, our research focused on the C282Y allele, found almost exclusively in Europe. Second, we argue that climate variables only become relevant after the adoption of agriculture. We hypothesized that the spread of the C282Y mutation was in response to the iron poor diet of agriculture in Neolithic Europe. As populations migrated northwest they encountered, on average, increasingly chilly and damp environments where adequate iron is required for thermoregulation. They rightly state that, "Many genetic polymorphisms in Europe are characterized by a North-South gradient, such as pigmentation of hair and eyes (Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, & Piazza, 1994)." We concur and further point out that environmental factors have been argued as a driving selective force for variation in skin, hair, and eye color (Sturm & Duffy, 2012). Moreover, similar to our study, current research suggests that the North-South gradient of pigmentation in Europe is associated with environmental factors but only after the arrival of agriculture (Mathieson et al., 2015; Olalde et al., 2014).The authors also criticize our methods stating that, "Correlations do not always offer an explanation for the observed findings." We concur a more fine-grained analysis would have strengthened our research and we encourage more data collection on C282Y allele frequencies throughout Europe. However, our methods were suitable for testing our hypotheses. In our article, we state that about 52% of the variation in C282Y allele distribution is associated with chilly and damp climates. It is not surprising that there would be counter-examples within the sample data that are at odds with our hypothesis.The authors demonstrate that a similar mutation occurs in sub-Saharan Africa in the absence of chilly and damp conditions. The thermoneutral range for humans is relatively narrow (25-278C, 77-818F)