POPEYE: SPINACH AND MYTH
Where does Popeye get his supernatural strength from?
I think we all know the answer to that: from spinach, of course.
We have been taught since childhood that spinach is healthy, tasty and rich in iron.
Too bad, however, they are not rich in iron (and also I express reservations on “tasty”…).
Better to say, they are not an optimal source of iron: they contain it in modest quantities, and it is poorly assimilable[1].
So where does this misunderstanding come from?
The scientist Hamblin, in an article titled precisely “Fake!”[2], published in the prestigious British Medical Journal, explained it: the error dates back to 1890. In reporting the iron content of various foods, under the heading spinach, he was wrong to put the comma.
The iron contained in this vegetable thus went from 3mg to 30mg per 100 grams. The error could not deceive everyone forever, in fact, it was discovered by some scientists in the 1930s. But by then Popeye (1931) was born and the consequent myth of canned spinach, squeezed to the sound of the famous jingle (it’s playing in your head right now, isn’t it?).
Furthermore, due to the hardships of the war, it was a clever move to advertise vegetables as a source of iron comparable to red meat, a food that is certainly less sustainable, as we would say today. Hamblin even coined the acronym SPIDES (Spinach Popeye Iron Decimal Error Story), making it a sort of case study.
SPIDES explained to the world how we should not uncritically trust what we read, regardless of how authoritative the author may be. In 2006, a BBC special also identified the person responsible for the error: Dr. von Wolff, a German chemist.
But here’s the plot twist: there is no typo. There is not a comma missing, nor a design by the authorities to divert consumption in times of war.
It was Mike Sutton, a criminologist, who debunked this myth in his wonderful article “Spinach, Iron and Popeye: Ironic lessons from biochemistry and history on the importance of healthy eating, healthy skepticism and adequate citation”[3]. Oh yes, because it took a criminologist to get to the crux of the matter.
There was no decimal error. Hamblin simply wrote down (by his own admission) a tale he had heard about. It didn’t all start from an oversight by Von Wolff. Rather, someone started telling this story and, by word of mouth, it was established as factual without even a shred of evidence. Whether the source of the story was Hamblin or whoever before him, unfortunately, we cannot have proof.
But, even more ironic (pun intended): the original Popeye (the one whose stories where created by his inventor, E.C. Segar) has never stated his strength comes from the iron found in spinach.
In a 1932 cartoon, he even says that he eats spinach for its Vitamin A content, which makes men “strong and healthy”. And this is the furthest point the sailor has ever gone in the field of bromatology.
[1] In short: the presence of oxalic acid inhibits the assimilation of iron
[2] https://www.bmj.com/content/283/6307/1671
[3] https://www5.in.tum.de/~huckle/Sutton_Spinach_Iron_and_Popeye_March_2010.pdf