I am sure that you have seen breakfast cereals that claimed to be enriched with iron. You may have thought that the manufacturer added some extract from spinach or liver, but the actual ingredient may surprise you.
For this experiment you will need:
- 1 cup of iron enriched breakfast cereal. Look at the ingredients for one that supplies
100% of the daily recommended amount. - a plastic bag. The kind with the zipper seal are less likely to make a mess.
- water
- a strong magnet. These can be found at many hardware stores.
Put the cereal and water into the bag and seal it up. Gently mash the bag around until the cereal and water mixture turns into a soupy mush.
Then place the magnet against the side of the bag, near the bottom. Holding the magnet against the outside of the bag, squeeze the bag to move the mixture around a few times. Keeping the magnet against the side of the bag, move it to the top of the bag and look carefully. You should see tiny bits of iron sticking to the inside of the bag.
You may be horrified to learn that there are pieces of metal in your food, but it is a perfectly acceptable way to get your daily iron. I don't recommend eating nails, but your body will absorb enough iron from these tiny bits of iron to fulfill your daily needs.