Spinach is a vegetable that’s achieved idol status in the world of pop-culture. It’s impossible to think of Popeye without envisioning him chugging back a can of spinach and watching his muscles swell. In fact, after Popeye first hit the airwaves, spinach sales in the U.S. saw a 33% increase. The story of spinach’s high iron content made parents confident in serving it to their children, while the kids just wanted to mimic Popeye. It was a win-win until another story came around claiming that a nutrition test conducted in 1870 was faulty due to a misplaced decimal point and created the myth that spinach was 10x higher in iron than it really was. Go ahead and Google “iron and spinach”. The vast majority of results all seem to confirm this story. However, the misplaced decimal point is just an urban myth; spinach is great for you, and Popeye didn’t give a lick about iron.
The story of the fateful decimal point seems to be widely accepted, but there isn’t a shred of truth to it. The mistake never happened, and Popeye was really interested in vitamin A, which spinach has loads of. Spinach is incredibly high in iron, with .8 mg in just 28 grams of spinach. In comparison, kale has .5 mg and tomatoes only have .1 in the same amount. It certainly doesn’t have as much iron as red meat does, but it’s still very dense in iron for being a leafy green. The Popeye myth states that E. C. Segar, the creator of the cartoon, picked spinach as Popeye’s favorite food for its rich iron content, but that’s also a myth. In one of the early episodes of the cartoon, Popeye clearly states that he needs the vitamin A found in the dark green leaves. Spinach does contain an extraordinary amount of vitamin A. Spinach really is a superfood, so where did this myth come from?
After the myth had floated around for several decades, an esteemed university professor used the anecdotal story in a paper that was published by a highly respected academic journal. He never bothered to fact check before publishing and gave the myth the appearance of fact. Now, the myth of the missing decimal point has become Internet folklore that fills blogs, newspapers, and magazines alike. Spinach is an amazing food that is incredibly healthy and full of essential vitamins and minerals, and this myth really downplays how wonderful it is. Switching spinach for iceberg or romaine lettuce in any salad is a healthy and tasty decision to make.