Cowboy Gene’s BodyBlog

A mistake in calculation in the late 19^th century set the iron content of spinach at ten times it’s actual content, an error that went unchallenged for more than 60 years. Because of the War effort rationing of meat was implemented in many countries including England and the United States. The government became concerned with the lack of iron in peoples diet. As spinach was reputed to have a very high iron content the government set about to convince people to eat spinach. The cartoon character “Popeye the Sailor Man” was used as a propaganda poster boy to sell the benefits of spinach. Shortly after convincing the population to “eat your spinach”, scientists discovered the drastic error in the amount of iron actually contained. This is described by T. J. Hamblin in the British Medical Journal.

Spinach contains high levels of oxalate (oxalic acid).. Oxalates bind to iron to form ferrous oxalate and remove iron from the body. Therefore, a diet high in oxalate leads to a actual decrease in iron absorption.

Spinach is considered a toxic weed because it has high levels of oxalate. Consumption of oxalate, such as grazing of cattle or horses on plants that contain oxalate such as greasewood and spinach result in kidney disease or even death due to oxalate poisoning.

It has been observed that many grazing stock animals will avoid spinach when it is encountered growing wild.

Some cultures use spinach as a herb to draw infections from areas of the skin.

Spinach also has a high calcium content. However, the oxalate content in spinach binds with calcium decreasing its absorption. By way of comparison, the body can absorb about half of the calcium present in broccoli, yet only around 5% of the calcium in spinach. Oxalate is one of a number of factors that can contribute to gout and kidney stones.

Disclaimer:

The above article was researched and written by Cowboy Gene. He has no professional credentials that qualifies him as an expert in chemistry, nutrition or most anything else.

It should be further noted that as a very small child (during WW II) when repeatedly forced to eat spinach by his parents he swore a solemn blood oath to seek his revenge on the evel spinach cartel.

Use this information at your discretion.