The Great Cereal Caper or a Science Project on Breakfast!

I seem to have been appointed chief photographer of science projects for my grandniece.  For the past few years, Macie will tote her project down the lane from her papa's house to mine.  She will set up the display and show me her actions during the procedures.  I am supposed to capture this on film so she can use those pictures on the science project display board.  Things have definitely changed over the years in this as back in the day, nothing required photographs.

Her project this year was to prove that the iron found in "iron-fortified" breakfast cereals was, indeed, iron as we know it.  In other words, it was attracted to a magnet.  She came to the Little Bayou House with three plastic baggies filled with soggy cereal.  Each baggie held a different type of cereal that had been smooshed up in distilled water.  These she carefully placed on the table and then proceeded to run a strong magnet over the squishy stuff.  Sure enough after a few minutes, you could actually see the tiny shards of metal following the magnet.  In a cereal that had 100% of the daily recommended amount of iron, the shards gathered together in quite a large mass whereas the cereal with less added iron, of course, had a smaller mass.  I was surprised how well this actually worked and at how large those "shards" of iron really were!  She informed me that iron occurs naturally in plants and meats but that the iron-fortified cereals contained tiny dustings of iron that could actually be compared to iron filings made in a machine shop.  Now go figure!  Who would have ever thought that the stuff could be one and the same?  How does the human body deal with little pieces of metal being introduced through food?  Is the stuff really digested and used by the body or is it just passed through the digestive system?  Are these iron filings really healthy for the human body or is this just a good marketing ploy to get us to buy iron-fortified cereal?  So many questions!  Of course, I really could not expect an eleven year old to answer all of these questions that were whirling through my mind.  Her project had nothing to do with the health issues but rather whether the stuff was truly iron in the sense that we know it. (And it is!  She definitely proved that there is some minute iron threads in the cereals!)

I have drawn a hexagon around the iron that was pulled from the cup of "iron-fortified" cereal during the science project.  

Macie's project did cause me to start pondering the safety of such additives to foods.  Sure, iron is great for the body but I wonder if practically eating nails is a good idea.  There is so much hype about vitamins and minerals added to food that it becomes a tad confusing.  I think I will try to stick with naturally occurring iron, minerals and vitamins that I get through things from my garden.  Somehow, I just feel a bit better about it.