Burnt beach sand. Yum!

Well, it depends on how often you eat M&M's candy. Or Oreos. Or use toothpaste. Or eat white cake frosting. Or drink skim milk? They all get their white color from a chemical called titanium dioxide, and quite a bit of the titanium dioxide used in your food comes from the area around St. Augustine.

It is made from the black sand that you see in the photo. That black sand contains minerals such as zircon and staurolite, as well as several titanium rich minerals: ilmenite, rutile, and leucoxene. Those minerals are heavier than the light colored quartz sand, which lets the waves separate it into the black bands that show up so often on our beaches. Those minerals are removed from the sand using electrostatic separation. The titanium is then oxidized to produce the incredibly white titanium dioxide that makes up the "M" on M&M candy.

Titanium dioxide is also used to give magazines and printer paper their very white color. It is used in white paint, sunscreens, and many other non-edible substances we use every day.