Thursday, March 22, 2012

Popeye myth: Spinach misconception

I was eating nuts when my colleague remarked, “Nuts for a nut. Perfect.”
I offered him some: “Take it. Peanuts for monkeys. Perfect.”
We laughed and he continued, “So you had spinach-cheese burger for breakfast!”
“How did you guess?” I was amused.
“You vegetarians cannot look beyond spinach. Where else will you get strength from?”
“You are wrong,” I told him. “The portrayal of Popeye the Sailor Man as physically strong because of his love for spinach has been proved to be erroneous.”
“Really?” he looked surprised.
I told him what I read on Net: German scientist Emil von Wolff misplaced a decimal point in an 1870 measurement of spinach's iron content, leading to an iron value 10 times higher than it should have been. This faulty measurement was not noticed until the 1930s.
“Thank God. I am never amused of spinach,” he said.
“But why are you against spinach?”
His answer: “While travelling on local trains in Mumbai, I had noticed slumdwellers using fields close to tracks as open toilets. And many such fields had spinach grown on them.”


24 comments:

  1. I agree to the spinach cultivation scenarion in mumbai!
    n yeah till this moment i have believed spinach made man stronger! thanks for correccting the misconception!

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  2. Its a fact! Veggies growing near the track and dirty water being used for them :-|

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  3. hmmm... I like spinach with paneer when my mom makes it for me :)

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  4. This friend should know not only spinach, many veggies are grown in "SUCH" fields.

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  5. That's some piece of information I did not know. Oh really spinach does not have the strength as shown in the popeye show. Noooooooooooooo....

    Well about your friends' observation on the growing of spinach in the field close to filthy water outlets is a common scene in India. I definitely think twice before I buy greens in the market.

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  6. Ewe! Is that true? Please say No.

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  7. tell your friend its the same with other fertilizers .. animal dung is used :) so what would he do stop eating all he he he he

    Bikram's

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  8. heheh! I love spinach!

    and I agree with Bikramjit :D

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  9. Most of the rural Indians and urban too, use open toilets! All greens and vegetables are not grown in a clean environment. Everybody knows it. And all of us eat spinach too!

    Nut joke is good, as usual, Ramesh!

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  10. So it is possible that its also a myth that carrots enable you to see in the dark.

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  11. Umm, that is surely going make me stop for a while before I buy spinach again!!

    I have tagged you. Please take it here:
    http://anucreations.blogspot.in/2012/03/tag-thon.html

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  12. Spinach..?I like the home grown ones..

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  13. hmm,even I heard same thing ...I avoid that spinach in india!

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  14. Good repartee to your friend. Can expect such daily life humour in 'global madrasi' only.

    The vegetable market is full of such filth and the potatoes are washed in dirty water and stamped by the growers in slushy water to knock off the Mud. No choice, that way we have to reconsider eating so many things.

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  15. Spinach.Thanks, you have made me stop eating now.

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  16. Absolutely that is putting me off spinach too. Not only in Mumbai but in Delhi and Bangalore too, it is said that spinach is grown near such open toilets. Ughh!

    http://rachnaparmar.com

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  17. o ma... now i'm wondering n ofcourse having second thoughts on eating spinach..:(

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  18. Not that I did not know this, but had forgotten for a while!

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  19. Spinich in open toilet GROSS!

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  20. I am some one who loves spinach but this post freaked me out! But you are bringing up a valid point. The vegetable market is full of such filth, like some one mentioned here. In fact, milk is full of chemicals. Fruits are bloated up with injections. Friends are sometimes bloated up with showing off their prowess at the expense of 'lesser' friends. What a world we live in! Everything is adulterated, RameshJI except your humorous posts!

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  21. OMG!! I hope THAT's not what Organic stands for LOL!! Someone tell me plants have a natural shield against absorbing or something.......Puhleeeeeez :)

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