The Typographical Mistake That Created the Spinach Super Food Myth
Many kids who watched Popeye the Sailor Man have dreamt that they might gain super powers if they could only overcome their distaste for spinach. Popeye’s love of spinach was popularized to a receptive public, primed by a widespread belief that spinach was extraordinarily beneficial. Sadly, kids who mastered their gag reflexes long enough to swallow the green stuff were not rewarded with an explosive increase in strength, prowess, or other abilities and talents. There was an upside, though, as the kids learned a vital life lesson: don’t believe everything you see on TV.
Popeye’s passion for spinach, as well as the popular faith in its exceptional qualities, was caused by a simple math mistake. In 1870, German scientist Erich von Wolf was conducting research into the amount of iron in Spinach and other vegetables, and discovered that spinach had an iron content of 3.5 milligrams per 100 gram serving. However, when Wolf wrote up his findings, he made a mistake and misplaced a decimal point. As a result, he put down spinach’s iron content as ten times greater than what it actually was: 35 milligrams of iron per 100 gram serving, instead of 3.5 milligrams. It was not until 1937 that somebody double checked Wolf’s math, and spotted the mistake. By then, Popeye was already a cultural icon, and the spinach myth had taken hold.
