How to Remove Iron From Breakfast Cereal

Believe it or not, iron-fortified breakfast cereals really do have bits of iron metal in them. If you have to see it to believe it, try this easy experiment. You can pull the tiny iron pieces right out of the cereal and onto a magnet.

Things You'll Need

• High-iron breakfast cereal, such as Total or Cheerios
• Blender (you can get by without one, though)
• Bowl
• Spoon
• Hot water
• Zipper-seal plastic bag
• Very strong magnet

Instructions

1. Put a cup of cereal into the blender and add hot water until the cereal is submerged. (If you are not using a blender, put the cereal into a bowl and use the spoon to crush it to a fine powder. Add the hot water after the cereal is crushed.)

2. Wait five minutes for the cereal to get a little soggy.

3. Blend for about 60 seconds. (You might want to try putting the magnet on the side of the blender as it is mixing and see what happens.)

4. Pour the cereal puree into the plastic bag and zip it shut.

5. Run the magnet along the bottom of the bag. Be patient and continue doing this for several minutes. The iron needs time to sink to the bottom of the bag.

6. Observe tiny iron filings collecting around the magnet. These really are little bits of metal. The cereal company adds actual bits of metal because added iron in other forms reduces the shelf life of the cereal. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve these tiny bits of metal and release the elemental iron into your system.