I like spinach but I hated it forever because all I’d ever had was canned spinach. Fresh leafy spinach is actually nice. Canned spinach is the devil.
Dillenger69 on
Canned spinach is one of the most vile things on the planet.
Popeye tried to make canned spinach a thing. It never became a thing. He wasn’t fooling anyone.
yblame on
Call me a psychopath, but I kinda like canned spinach. Drain it really well, press that liquid out of it, heat it up and dress with butter, salt, pepper, and a splash of vinegar.
Cooking fresh spinach yields the same results, so ..
chalwar on
The US government’s enthusiasm for spinach in the 1930s as a meat substitute (and subsequent enlistment of Popeye as an ad man) was almost entirely based on the calculations of a German scientist named Emil von Wolf (sometimes spelled “Wolff”).
Wolf had discovered, in 1870, that spinach contains iron. But when calculating his results, wolf misplaced a decimal point. This mistake thereby made it “official” that spinach contains 10 times more iron than it actually does.
Wolf’s error in calculating was not to be discovered for several decades. But by then, everyone was downing their spinach to be as tough and strong as Popeye. In the meantime, the “spinach is richer in iron” myth had firmly taken hold, taking on the status of an urban legend. The myth persists to this day.
One last point: although spinach’s iron content has been mistakenly inflated, the vegetable is still something good to consume, being rich in vitamins and minerals.
5 Comments
Has it though? Really?
I like spinach but I hated it forever because all I’d ever had was canned spinach. Fresh leafy spinach is actually nice. Canned spinach is the devil.
Canned spinach is one of the most vile things on the planet.
Popeye tried to make canned spinach a thing. It never became a thing. He wasn’t fooling anyone.
Call me a psychopath, but I kinda like canned spinach. Drain it really well, press that liquid out of it, heat it up and dress with butter, salt, pepper, and a splash of vinegar.
Cooking fresh spinach yields the same results, so ..
The US government’s enthusiasm for spinach in the 1930s as a meat substitute (and subsequent enlistment of Popeye as an ad man) was almost entirely based on the calculations of a German scientist named Emil von Wolf (sometimes spelled “Wolff”).
Wolf had discovered, in 1870, that spinach contains iron. But when calculating his results, wolf misplaced a decimal point. This mistake thereby made it “official” that spinach contains 10 times more iron than it actually does.
Wolf’s error in calculating was not to be discovered for several decades. But by then, everyone was downing their spinach to be as tough and strong as Popeye. In the meantime, the “spinach is richer in iron” myth had firmly taken hold, taking on the status of an urban legend. The myth persists to this day.
One last point: although spinach’s iron content has been mistakenly inflated, the vegetable is still something good to consume, being rich in vitamins and minerals.