Mike “The Health Ranger” Adams has been a frequent guest here at Bad Science Debunked. We’ve caught the anti-GMO fanatic hypocritically pushing GMO products1 (more than once)2, and hawking formaldehyde3 in pain relief formulas while simultaneously screaming about the compound’s toxicity.
The Health Ranger often relies on the general public’s lack of enthusiasm for science (and, sadly, love of conspiracy theories) to pull off his scams. No better example can be found in his great “Wheaties Contains Metal Fragments” scare–a video that I won’t link to here, not out of fear of spreading hysteria, but because I can’t: on March 4, Facebook science/skeptic pages lit up with the news that Adams has, at least temporarily, been banned from YouTube.4,5
Because I believe in free speech, I’ve obtained a copy of the Adams’ Wheaties video and resurrected it–in true Internet “I Fixed That For You” style. In my video, we use Health Ranger Blood Builder,6 a product I purchased from Mike Adams’ own online store. The Ranger’s argument is that if a food product is attracted to a magnet, it must be full of metal shards.
With Health Ranger’s own product on the ol’ kitchen lab table, let’s put that claim to the test, shall we?
I purchased my bottle of Health Ranger MegaFood Blood Builder tablets6 in late 2017 for approximately $30.
Questions and Answers
My video prompted some interesting science questions that aren’t easily answered via multimedia updates. Here’s a summary:
“In both the Bad Science Debunked and Mike Adams videos, the Wheaties (and Adams’ product) only cling to the edges of the rare earth magnet, not the its entire face. Why is that?”
This is due to the way that rare earth magnets are manufactured. You’ll notice that my magnet is cube shaped, while Adams’ is rectangular, and, indeed, the Wheaties only stick to the edges of the both magnets.
The magnets didn’t come by these shapes naturally. According to my magnet’s manufacturer, the element neodymium is literally packed into the desired form during the manufacturing process. The brittle material is later encased in a rust-proof alloy for protection. The end result is a higher density of neodymium along the edges of the respective magnets (which aren’t even magnetized yet–they’re “zapped” with an electrical current at the end).
The higher density of magnetic material results in a higher pull strength at the edges; this is where the tiny ferromagnetic particles in the food products are pulled.
“Is this not just static electricity causing the attraction and clinging? Try a piece of non-magnetic steel to see what happens?”
First just a quick note: the magnet itself isn’t covered in steel; it’s an alloy of nickel and copper. But you might theoretically attract small pieces of cereal, etc. with static electricity. You’d need to build up an excess of electrons first. Because steel is made from iron, and iron is ferromagnetic (though not necessarily magnetized), I’d instead use something like a rubber balloon rubbed on a wool sweater if going that route. Sitting at my kitchen “lab” bench, frequently touching a grounded computer as I did the experiment, I doubt I was able to build up a charge. (I did use a stainless steel kitchen knife to scrape the particles together for photos, and nothing stuck to the knife.)
Finally, as part of my niece’s fifth grade science fair, she did a version of this experiment (yes, a fifth grader can easily debunk the Health Ranger.) Part of my niece’s experiment included a control group of fine-grained non ferro-magnetic materials such as salt, spices, etc. None were attracted to the rare earth magnet. If static electricity was the culprit, I’d expect a response from something besides just ferromagnetic materials.
This article was updated on March 12 to add a questions and answers section.
References
(1) Mike Adams’ GMO Addiction
https://badsciencedebunked.com/2017/01/18/mike-adams-gmo-addiction/
Retrieved 04 March 2018
(2) Natural News, Mike Adams Selling Even More GMOs
https://badsciencedebunked.com/2017/01/16/natural-news-mike-adams-selling-even-more-gmos/
Retrieved 04 March 2018
(3) UnNatural News: The Health Ranger Sells Formaldehyde
https://badsciencedebunked.com/2016/07/15/unnatural-news-the-health-ranger-sells-formaldehyde/
Retrieved 04 March 2018
(4) YouTube Terminated Natural News (via Skeptical Raptor/Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/skepticalraptor/posts/1760360460707584
Retrieved 04 March 2018
(5) Natural News Banned From YouTube (via Debunking Denialism/Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/DebunkingDenialism/posts/1544990368947885
Retrieved 04 March 2018
(6) Health Ranger Blood Builder (60 Count)
https://www.healthrangerstore.com/products/blood-builder-60-count?variant=16535372673
Retrieved 04 March 2018
Image/Video Credits
Mike Adams/Health Ranger/Natural News video excerpts are used in strict compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of United States copyright law (commonly known as “fair use law”). This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.
Snake Oil intro image used under parody provisions of Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of United States copyright law (commonly known as “fair use law”). This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, parody, and increase public health knowledge.
Bad Science Debunked 
Is this not just static electricity causing the attraction and clinging? Try a piece of non-magnetic steel to see what happens. I also note in your video and MIke’s that stuf sticks only to the edge of the magnet. Wouldn’t magnetically attracted particles stick to the flat surfaces of the magnet as well?
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Hi Terence,
Thanks so much for reading, and for the great questions. I hope I can do them justice:
They should, all things being equal, but all things aren’t equal. I spoke with an engineer from my magnets’ (plural, I’m a geek) manufacturer, CMS Magnetics, who explained that the density of magnetized neodymium particles is higher at the edges of the magnet. This density is determined during the “packing” process, where the raw materials (e.g. neodymium) are shaped into a cube, cylinder, bar, etc., before the cube is even charged to make it magnetic. The higher density of neodymium packed at the corners gives a greater pull strength there. In the article I touched on the fact that there’s so little iron in the cereal or Mike Adams’ supplement that it’s difficult to get anything to be attracted to the magnet in the first place. What you see in the video are the tiny ferromagnetic cereal/blood supplement being pulled to the part of the magnet exerting the greatest force on them.
Great question. First just a quick note, the magnet itself isn’t covered in steel, it’s an alloy (I believe nickel and copper). But anyway, you could possibly, theoretically, attract small pieces of cereal, etc. with static electricity. You’d need to build up an excess of electrons somehow first. Because steel is made from iron and iron is ferromagnetic (though not necessarily magnetized), I’d use something like a rubber balloon rubbed on a wool sweater if trying to do this with static electricity. Sitting at my kitchen “lab” bench, frequently touching a grounded computer as I do the experiment, I doubt I was able to build up a charge. I did use a stainless steel kitchen knife to scrape the particles together for photos, and nothing stuck to the knife.
Finally, as part of my niece’s 5th grade science fair, she did a version of this experiment and debunked Adams. Part of her experiment included a control group of fine-grained non ferro-magnetic materials such as salt, spices, etc. None were attracted to the rare earth magnet–if static electricity was the culprit, I’d expect a response from something besides just ferromagnetic materials.
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