The Strength of a Coma
- Germany 1870. Chemist Erich von Wolf examined green leafy vegetables to figure out how much iron they contained. The results of the study were written in a notebook in which the spinach clearly stood out: In 100 grams of spinach there were 35 milligrams of iron, while in lentils, which we have as good sources of iron, it moves around 8 milligrams. Beware!
In early 1929 the comic strip of the character Popeye was first published in the United States, created by the cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar. The comic was then called the Thimble Theater. Originally, the sailor got an extraordinary force by rubbing the head of a hen called Bernice. But in 1932, Segar changed the unusual source of energy: from then on, super power would be devoured by spinach.
In the 1930s, due to the crisis caused by the 1929 Krax, infant anemia was growing a lot; the adventures of Popeye and his friends were a perfect campaign to improve child nutrition. The character Olive Oyl, who would later be his girlfriend, could be a subtle campaign in favor of the consumption of olive oil, but it did not have much influence. But Popeye's spinach does. The production and sale of this vegetable increased considerably; a 2006 study showed that children eat spinach much more easily after seeing Popeye's cartoons.
In 1937, another German chemist, Werner Schuphan, re-examined the ingredients of vegetables and deduced that the amount of iron from spinach was 3.5 milligrams per 100 grams. Von Wolf was roughly one-tenth of the result, and so he came to the conclusion that the other chemist had been forgotten to make a comma or would lose that fundamental comma in some transcription or copy of that data. But the wrong data was stronger than the truth.
1981: Terence J. The English immunohematologist Hamblin published an article in the British Medical Journal in which he tried to definitely break the myth of spinach iron. In addition to emphasizing that the amount of iron was ten times lower than was thought, he explained that it is very difficult for the human body to absorb iron from products without hemoglobin because, in addition, oxalate salts, calcium, magnesium and fiber contained in spinach make it even more difficult. We aspirated only 2-7% of the total iron of spinach. “If Popeye wanted iron, it would have been best to chew the can of spinach jars,” Hamblin wrote.
It did not achieve its goal and today spinach is considered the main source of iron. Not bad that they don't provide iron but they have many other beneficial properties.
