Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
It's needed for the transport of oxygen in your blood.
It's built into the hemoglobin
We as GP's regularly see patients with a shortage of iron.
Where do we see a shortage?
In patients who need extra iron because they are losing a lot of blood.
These are woman in their fertile period, because they have their period.
You also see it in pregnant woman and when they breastfeed.
They are the groups with a risk of an iron shortage.
In young men we seldom see it.
Sometimes in top athletes.
I do not think you sport a lot, so you are not at risk.
The chance that you have a shortage of iron, assuming you eat a varied diet, is very small.
But why do they add iron then?
Does the government want it?
You say that humans in general do not have an iron shortage.
What I know from the past is that they said that brown bread is a good source of iron.
A good source of iron is a slice of brown bread
with appelsirop and a glass of orange juice.
Cornflakes are poor in iron.
I think they're adding iron to correct this.
I have heard of another test where we can extract iron from the cornflakes.
That will be the ultimate proof!
This should be enough.
Push it in a bit.
Oh, sorry... Good I have a coat on.
It does not get really fine.
Maybe that we can make it smaller with a mixer.
I think it looks ok. now.
Ok. Now it looks like baby food.
We've got the same magnet as before.
We put it in a plastic bag.
We suspend it in the bowl.
And now we have to wait for the iron to attach.
Assume we get iron out of this...
Would this mean that cornflakes can rust?
That's a funny question.
It depends how the iron is added.
But if it's pure iron, yes it can rust.
That's a reaction with oxygen, then you get ironoxide.
And that's what we call rust. So, it should be possible.
Let's see if we can see something.
Ok.... I do see something, but I don't know if it's iron.
It looks like it's attached to the inside. Yes.That's strange.
It's not on the inside, you see?
Oh yes.
I put the magnet into the bag again.
It looks like black powder.
Could this be iron powder?
Yes, that's possible.
It looks like it.
And it looks very concentrated.
The magnet did its job, I think.
I think it's clear now that iron powder is added.
To my surprise.
Iron powder in the cornflakes. Yes.
It's a company secret says Kellogg's.
We already know that shredded bicycles are added to cornflakes.
We stunned a professor from the Dutch Food University.
But where does Kelloggs get its breakfast scrap metal?
At the iron plant?
Also here another professor will be stunned.
The iron professor of Corus iron plant.
Hello. Good morning.
Good morning. Maarten Remmers.
Welcome. "Food Diggers CIA".
You're the iron expert?
Well, I am head research. One of my working fields is iron.
You know a lot about it? I have looked into it.
But I still do not know everything about it.
But Corus doesn't put iron in food? No.
We put iron in steel cars, ships, bridges and rails.
And in cans.
I also brought some iron. Yes.
Hidden in a product like cornflakes.
Maybe you know about it.
But look...
Now I have here... iron. Yes.
It does not specify in which form.
I did a test at home.
And I found this.
I have brought a magnet.
Can you help? Yes.
Do you see, yes.
This is metallic iron, otherwise it wouldn't be magnetic.
So when it sticks to a magnet...
It's the same material as we know from cars and nails?
Yes, to me this looks almost as pure iron, yes.
Did you know that this's added to food?
No, I didn't know.
Yes, it does surprise me.
Kellogg's Germany, Hallo.
Yes, with Tony.
I want to ask something about the iron in Special K.
What kind of iron is it?
It's fine iron that's suitable for human consumption.
Fine iron? How do you get fine iron?
I do not know exactly. But it's pulverised.
Pulverised? Yes.
So it's a real metal? Yes.
They're quite big, you see? Yes.
There's more in it. This's only part of it.
Did you heat it so the crystals got bigger? No.
You didn't do anything special with it? No.
It's added as pieces of nails? Yes.
The pieces are quite big. Yes.
I don't think you will absorb these easily.
It will be difficult to chew it into bits.
So, summarised we can say that this is iron as we know it, it's a metal.
And that it's pulverised. Yes, correct.
Can I try this at home?
How do you mean? Pulverise iron and eat it.
Yes, you can do that.
But you will not be sure if it has the correct chemical form.
There are puritying criteria.
Otherwise you can't add it to medicine or food.
But eating iron isn't dangerous? Correct.
I never realised that when I eat spinach, that I eat pieces of iron.
But I don't think this is the case. It's not in there in that form. It's dissolved.
I don't expect that a baker, when making a bread, sprinkles iron into it.
I don't expect this.
I also don't expect that in a package of cornflakes..
Somebody adds a handful of iron.
Continue with part 3!