Spinach Myth
All parents should read this:
In popular folklore, spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60 gram serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron. A good many green vegetables contain less than 1 mg of iron for an equivalent serving. Hence spinach does contain a relatively high level of iron for a vegetable, but its consumption does not have special health connotations as folklore might suggest.
The myth about spinach and its high iron content may have first been propagated by Dr. E. von Wolf in 1870, because a misplaced decimal point in his publication led to an iron-content figure that was ten times too high. In 1937, German chemists reinvestigated this "miracle vegetable" and corrected the mistake. It was described by T.J. Hamblin in British Medical Journal, December 1981.
"Go on. Eat your spinach. It has plenty of iron." Not as much iron as delicious steak though. Mmmm steak.
In popular folklore, spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60 gram serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron. A good many green vegetables contain less than 1 mg of iron for an equivalent serving. Hence spinach does contain a relatively high level of iron for a vegetable, but its consumption does not have special health connotations as folklore might suggest.
The myth about spinach and its high iron content may have first been propagated by Dr. E. von Wolf in 1870, because a misplaced decimal point in his publication led to an iron-content figure that was ten times too high. In 1937, German chemists reinvestigated this "miracle vegetable" and corrected the mistake. It was described by T.J. Hamblin in British Medical Journal, December 1981.
"Go on. Eat your spinach. It has plenty of iron." Not as much iron as delicious steak though. Mmmm steak.
posted by Engels at 2:41 pm
2 Comments:
Iron in food comes in 2 forms, Haem and non-Haem. You find the both types in your meats, but your vegies only contain the non-Haem version. Non-Haem Iron cannot be easily absorbed by the body unless you have the Haem Iron in their too. So basically, what I'm saying is: EAT SOME MEAT YA BLOODY VEGANS!!!!
You can supplement the Iron though, and there are other non-meat products that contain Haem Iron, buggers me what though.
Hooray, Martini learnt something at uni and remembered it!
Holly fuck, Martini! You say you learnt this at "uni-vers-i-ty"? Craziness.
I went to a vegetarian cafe yesterday - I had some sort of vegan wrap. It was crap.
If the Big G didn't want us to eat animals, why did he (or she) make them out of meat, eh?
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