Quote:
Originally Posted by Blood_Beret
Similarly to the error in iron content of spinach...
The error is that Spinach isn't especially high in iron, though the myth is pervasive. Kind of interesting origin. In 1870, a Dr. E. von Wolf made a decimal transposition error and reported spinach's iron content as being ten times the actual content. The error was popularized by Popeye, starting in 1929, widely cementing this "fact." It wasn't until 1937 that the mistake was even realized.
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From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach
"...Popeye the Sailor Man is portrayed ...physically stronger after consuming it. A frequently circulated ..... story claims that an 1870 measurement of iron in spinach, performed by German scientist Dr. E. von Wolf, misplaced the decimal point leading to an iron value 10 times higher than it should have been. .... However, Dr. Mike Sutton tried to track down the claims of this story and could not find any reliable evidence of a faulty 1870 study on iron that persisted into the 1930's. Furthermore, Dr. Sutton's paper in the Internet journal of criminology shows that the creator of Popeye chose spinach for it's high vitamin A content, not for it's iron content."
