Why does blood taste like metal and why are we not magnetic?
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From the brains behind Brains On, this is the Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Anna Wegel. I don't know about you, but sometimes if I have a tiny cut on my finger, I have this impulse to, and okay, I know this might sound kind of gross, put it in my mouth really quickly to try to stop the bleeding. Trust me, I am not a vampire.

It's just an impulse that I've had before. And when I did it, I noticed a sort of strong, icky, metallic taste. Have you ever noticed that? I'm not recommending that you do it, but I'm just saying if you have, then maybe you've noticed that too. And if you're wondering why our blood tastes that way, you're not alone. Listener Sophie was also wondering why blood tastes like metal. And additionally, listener Adrian was wondering why our bodies aren't magnetic.

We have just the expert to answer both questions. Well, you kind of answered it for yourself, but blood is actually quite rich in iron, and that's why it leaves that metallic taste. Hi, I'm Courtney Jordan Beckler, and I'm a cardiologist. That means I'm a heart doctor that takes care of mostly adult patients. But luckily, we became internists or internal medicine doctors first because

before we became cardiologists and learned a lot about taking care of sick people and in general, how our bodies work. We need iron for our hemoglobin and hemoglobin is part of our red blood cells. So there's all different types. There's white blood cells, there's red blood cells, there's platelets. They do different things. The white blood cells help fight off sickness and

The platelets help the blood clot. So when you bleed, your blood clots in part because the platelets are working well. The red blood cells are what carries the oxygen to our lungs and make sure that our whole body stays oxygenated. So the hemoglobin is the critical piece of that on the red blood cell. And we need iron as a part of that to be able to carry oxygen and remove blood.

carbon dioxide, which is the waste product from our bodies. Now, interestingly, as we talked about how critical iron is in our body, the reason we're not magnetic is that we only have about two and a half grams of iron in our whole body.

So we have a very small amount based on that's kind of the average adult amount. So for kids, it's going to be even less. But just to give you an idea, two and a half grams is about the amount of a penny's worth of iron in our entire family.

body. But here's the deal. You can actually experiment with this. You can't do it with your body, but you can do this with food. So you can actually take Cheerios and you can mush them up in a baggie, make sure that you have your parents' permission so that you're not making a mess.

And you can put water in the bag of Cheerios mushed up and then a big magnet on it. And you can actually see the iron come out of the Cheerios because in that there's enough to be able to draw it to the magnet. So it might be something you want to want to try, but we don't have enough iron in our bodies to be magnetic.

So what would someone do if their doctor tells them that they're low in iron and they need to eat more iron-rich foods? Do you have any suggestions for that?

The one that always comes up is red meat, pork, and poultry. All are high in iron. However, there are lots of vegetarian-friendly foods that are also high in iron. And as one vegetarian to another that might be out there, just know that you do not have to eat red meat to get iron. So those other suggestions, beans have lots of iron, dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach,

Have iron dried fruits such as raisins and apricots. I ate a lot of dried apricots over the years when my iron had been low. And then lots of cereals. Like we talked about Cheerios. There's many iron fortified cereals. There's iron fortified breads and pastas as well. Peas and seafood are also higher in iron. So hopefully something out there that you can find that's tasty to you. Um, uh,

Okay, if anyone ever gives me an experiment to do, you know I'm going to do it. So here I am putting my Cheerios in a bag. Here we go. Crushing them up. Okay, now I'm adding my water. I'm mushing them all around. And now I'm holding my big magnet up and... Oh my gosh! I can see the iron. That's incredible! Good thing my body doesn't do this though. ♪

If you liked this episode, take a second to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you've always wanted to learn whether people can read other people's minds, like in the movies, check out the Brains On podcast where we have a whole episode all about whether people can actually read minds. If you have a moment of um question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. See you next time and the next day and every weekday. Until then. ♪