Magnetic food: Metal Bits in YOUR Cereal! Yummy!

I recently saw a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ahlawrQHeA where it was demostrated that some iron-enriched foods actually contain enough elemental iron to be magnetic. I wanted to see more of this, so I did the experiment myself, and sure enough - even the cereal I had for breakfast was magnetic! In this video, you'll see floating magnetic Bran Flakes, a free-standing magnetic Bran Flake demonstration, and finally, the actual magnetic iron material extracted from the cereal and shown under high magnification. This sort of iron looks similar to the kind of black iron you would collect by passing a strong magnet through ordinary soil. After a bit of reseach, it turns out that this "reduced iron" will dissolve in your stomach's hydrochloric acid, at least to some degree. It can be then absorbed into your bloodstream for bodily processes, although not as efficiently as iron compounds such as ferrous fumarate, iron sulfate, "chelated" iron/amino acid compounds, or colloidal iron found naturally in plants/non-processed foods. So why THIS type of iron in cereal? Well apparently, ionic types of iron such iron sulfate (usually seen in vitamin pills, etc.) can actually speed-up spoilage of food, where metallic (elemental) iron doesn't. More interesting stuff: A quote from an iron ore mine (manufactuerer) press release in Peru: "Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) is a high-quality iron product created through the removal of oxygen (reduction) from iron oxide material, in solid state (without melting). Reduction is achieved when a reducing gas (typically hydrogen and carbon monoxide) is passed through the iron oxide feed material at a temperature between 900 degrees and 970 degrees C. Direct Reduction Iron is commonly used in an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) to produce steel, instead of, or in combination with, scrap iron." Some more interesting reading on this subject: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7407526/description.html (reduced iron US patent) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_reduced_iron (Wikipedia) http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/081020/0444422.html (Iron ore supplier in Peru, full press release) The music is "A New Age" from the "Digital Dreaming" CD by Technician, available at http://technician.jcmdi.com Bon appetit!