Man's reaction after realizing that iron in food is the same as metal iron is as hilarious as it gets

Throughout our lives, we learn many things because we are never too old for that. While we dispel many preconceived notions while growing older, many still remain. As individuals, we get to know the truth much later on, in often hilarious circumstances. Such was the case for The Basement Yard Podcast cohost Joe Santagato when he came to know that the iron that was in food was actually the same mineral present in other metallic things.

The hilarious clip shared on TikTok, captioned, "I'm too old to not know this" has gained 3.2 million likes and 25.9K comments on the social media site. It has also been shared on Instagram. Santagato tells his cohost Frank Alvarez, "Also, I used to think that iron that's in cereal was iron." Alvarez immediately confirms that is indeed the case. Santagato is taken aback to hear this and inquires again a few times.

He tries to reason, saying, "You're eating metal? You can't eat metal." Alvarez explains that people cook in cast iron utensils to enrich the food with iron. Santagato is still not entirely convinced and reasons that iron is a metal substance and cannot be consumed. He looks it up on his phone, saying, "I'm very confused by this."

On looking at this phone the truth slowly dawns on him. Alvarez finds his cohost's realization to be quite hilarious. Santagato then begins questioning what iron was naturally like. He asks Alvarez to categorize it within the different states of matter and Alvarez simply replies, "Iron" for all his queries. The video concludes with Alvarez saying that he hopes for the topic to be picked up by "Instagram scientists."

Alvarez and Morgan's wishes came true as fellow content creator Hank Green (@hankgreen1) replied to the post, saying, "On it." Soon enough Green posted an elaborate video on both TikTok and Instagram stitched with the duo's original conversation explaining how iron existed in food items. He begins the clip by saying, "I just freaking love it when Frankie's right about stuff," referring to Alvarez's reply to Santagato's queries.

He affirms, "Yeah, iron is iron. It's literally little metal shavings." Green then showcases how one could put a magnet over certain food items to see iron particles showing up. As for Santagato's query about what form of matter iron was, he confirmed that it was a solid. Green goes on about how iron was present as "little tiny pieces" that made it more "bioavailable" for the human body to intake.

Halfway through his explanation, Green funnily remarks that he is one of those "hyper Instagram science guys." The creator shares how he ran into videos from parents finding metal in their children's food. But this was supposed to happen so that kids could have the proper nutrition for their developing bodies. He mentions how calcium was another metal present in human bodies, but not in a metallic form.

He reaffirms that iron found in food was actually just iron atoms. Green concludes the video by saying that he was a big fan of their podcast. A lot of viewers shared that they wanted Green to be a guest on the Basement Yard podcast. @reaganvoss said, "Hank 100% needs to be a special guest on the basement yard where they just ask him all the questions they can think of on the spot."