b'SENSE, NONSENSE AND SCIENCEBY: JOE SCHWARCZIRON IN SPINACHM ea culpa. I plead guilty to thewasAlas, the error was mine. Therein fresh spinach, or in the dried variety. crime I often accuse others ofnever any decimal-point mistake,A cup of dried spinach would have much committing, namely not check- Popeye was not responsible for a dra- more iron, given that fresh spinach has a ing facts properly! While looking into thematic increase in spinach sales; and mosthigh water content. The fact, though, is maca plant, I came across an ad fromstrikingly, Elzie Sagar had never claimedthat while early analysis may have over-Popeyes, a sports-nutrition company thatthat Popeyes strength was due to iron instated the iron content of spinach, noth-sells maca extract. As I searched the webspinach! Where did I get my story? I hading to do with any decimal-point error, for info about this supplier, I came upon andone my research, just not well enough.the correct value was already well-known article by criminologist Dr. Mike Sutton:My first stop had been an article publishedbefore Popeye was ever conceived. So, is Spinach, Iron and PopeyeIronic les- in 1977 by Professor Arnold E. Bender,spinach a good source of iron? Yes and no. sons from biochemistry and history onwho was head of nutrition and dietetics atA cup of cooked spinach contains about 6.5 the importance of healthy eating, healthyQueen Elizabeth College in England. Hemgs of iron, which is a fair amount, consid-scepticism and adequate citation. I wasdescribed the determination of the ironering that an average person needs about immediately intrigued, given I had oncecontent of spinach by Dr. E. von Wolff,eight milligrams a day. Premenstrual and written an article in which I discussedin 1870, and how a subsequent analysispregnant women need 18 and 27 mgs, how cartoonist Elzie Sagar attributed thein 1937 by Professor Schupan had foundrespectively. A cup of raw spinach has strength of Popeye to the high iron con- that spinach contained no more iron thanless than 1 mg because of the high water tent of spinach. I described that Sagarany other leafy vegetable. In fact, onlycontent. But theres another issue: Spinach had actually overstated the vegetablesone-tenth the amount von Wolff reported.is high in oxalic acid, which inhibits iron iron content, because of a mistake in theThe fame of spinach appears to haveabsorption. Basically, spinach is not a scientific literature. Apparently, a Germanbeen based on a misplaced decimal point,great source of iron. And as far as iron researcher in the late 19th century hadBender concluded, as it turns out, withoutproviding extra energy goes, that would placed a decimal point in the wrong place,any evidence. A 1981 article in the Britishonly be the case if weakness were due to ascribing to spinach a 10-fold greater ironMedical Journal by haematologist Dr. T. J.iron-deficiency anaemia. Now, for the real content than was actually present. I pro- Hamblin confirmed the story.crime that Sutton uncovered. Elzie Sagar ceeded to relate how Popeyes fondnessSutton did a remarkable job tracingnever made any mention of iron in con-for spinach led to a huge increase in sales.the confused story of Popeyes link withnection with spinach. His first reference And I pointed out that it all was becausespinach. He did what all good scientiststo spinach was in a 1932 strip that shows of an error in the placement of a decimalshould do: he checked the facts, if pos- Popeye declaring that spinach is full of point. sible, by going to the original source.vitamin A an thas what makes hoomans While there was no decimal-point error,strong and hefty. Sagar clearly attrib-the German chemists who determined theuted spinachs value to Vitamin A, not iron content of spinach in the late 1800siron. He erred a little here, since spinach did make some mistakes. There may havecontains no vitamin A, but it does indeed been contamination of samples withcontain a good dose of beta carotene, iron from laboratory equipment,which the body converts into vitamin A. and there was also confusion(Interestingly, Vitamin A helps mobilize about whether the iron theyiron from its storage sites; so, a deficiency found referred to ironof Vitamin A limits the bodys ability to use stored iron, resulting in an apparent iron deficiency.) In summary, there was never a decimal-point error in the deter-mination of the amount of iron in spinach. The vegetable is not a particularly great source of iron. And Popeye never claimed his strength came from iron in spinach.The moral of the story?Even when it comes to apparently trusted authorities, check the facts. And as far as claims about maca go, Im going to do some very careful checking.24IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'