Total Metal Diet
| Biology: | Food Additives, Nutrition Labels |
| Grade Range: | Elementary School, Middle School |
| Format: | Hands-on |
This is a classic demonstration about finding iron in cereal. This will help students understand how food additives can be put into their food, and why it is important to be aware of what they eat throughout the day.
Materials
- Iron-rich Cereal (such as Total)
- Large Strong Magnet
- Two 2000mL Clear Plastic Beakers
- Water
- Whisk
Safety Precautions
Please read the General Safety Precautions section of the Demonstration Safety page before performing this demonstration.
Demonstration
- Fill each of the beakers with 500mL of water. Pour cereal into one beaker until it reaches the 800mL line. Let The cereal get soggy, and as it soaks use the whisk to keep it in the water.
- When students come up, have them help you whisk the cereal in the beaker until it completely breaks up. Let them know that they will be checking to see if the cereal has any metal in it.
- Once the cereal has completely broken up, have the student hold the magnet against the beaker, near the pour spout. Pour the slurry slowly out of the beaker into the second beaker, making sure they hold the magnet against the beaker the whole time. Once the slurry is poured out, there will be a bunch of tiny metal pieces where the magnet was held!
- After explaining this demonstration, pour the metal bits back into the slurry and re-mix it. As you repeat the demonstration, you may need to add more cereal to the slurry from time to time. When you do, add cereal only 100-200 mL at a time, and be sure to have it completely break down in the water.
Why This Works
Food companies are required to include nutrition labels with their products. This allows consumers to check and see if the food fits their diets, and decide if they should buy the product. Nutrition labels will have a lot of information on them, including the amounts of different dietary ingredients that are in them. Some of these vitamins, minerals, sugars and fats are not normally in that type of food, and are actually added in during the preparation process. Food Additives are these additional nutrition pieces added during the preparation process, and they can be helpful in making sure we get enough vitamins and minerals. Some cereal boxes will mention that they are a good source for iron, which is a necessary metal that we need in our diets. The extra iron is added directly into the cereal, and by breaking it down our bodies can extract the iron and use it. By breaking down the cereal in water and using a magnet, we can separate out the iron that was added into the cereal as well!
Additional Information
- This demonstration pairs well with the Banana DNA.