Science Experiment Video Shows How Healthy Your Cereal Is, Goes Viral

The health benefits of any particular breakfast cereal varies by brand and content. Usually the best way to learn what the nutritional breakdown of a box cereal is to look on its label. But have you ever actually seen some of the components your cereal? Chances are, you have not, but now there's a way that you can at least see how much iron your cereal contains.

A viral video, "Iron for Breakfast--Sick Science! #126," that appears on the Web site Steve Spangler Science, shows viewers a neat trick they can do to detect just how much iron their favorite cereal contains. Spangler is a science teacher who gained YouTube popularity in September of 2005 with his video for The Mentos Geyser Experiment.

In this new video, Spangler's demonstration involves getting half a cup of a cereal and placing it in a zip-top plastic storage bag to seal it closed. Then, you fill the bag three-fourths of the way with water. After allowing the mixture to set for an hour, you take a magnet, place it below the bag, and shake the bag lightly for about 20 seconds. Then, flip the bag over so that the magnet is on top, and voila, you will begin to see all the iron that was inside the pieces of cereal attracted to the magnet. You can even move the magnet around and watch as the iron in the bag follows your movements.

Iron is a very important component of hemoglobin, the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen from our lungs so that it can be utilized by our bodies. If your body is iron deficient, it can potentially lead to an increase in fatigue, a weakened immune system and respiratory issues.

[Related: 8 Unhealthy Vices to Extinguish Now]

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