What you learned in school
Nutrition textbooks listed spinach as one of the highest iron-content foods available, making it a superfood for preventing anemia. Students learned that Popeye's incredible strength from eating spinach was based on its exceptional iron content. Health classes taught that spinach was the best dietary source of iron, especially important for growing children and people with anemia. The nutritional charts showed spinach with remarkably high iron levels compared to other vegetables and even some meats.
What we know now
Nutrition textbooks listed spinach as one of the highest iron-content foods, making it a superfood for preventing anemia. Students learned that Popeye's strength from spinach was based on its exceptional iron content. The legendary iron content of spinach was based on a decimal point error in early nutritional analysis that overstated iron content by 10 times. While spinach does contain iron, it's not exceptionally high compared to other foods, and the iron in spinach is not easily absorbed by the body due to compounds that inhibit iron absorption. The Popeye myth reinforced this nutritional misconception.