Editing Spinach (section)

== In popular culture ==

[[File:ItsBroccoliCarlRose.jpg|thumb|The American phrase "[[I say it's spinach]]" meaning "nonsense" comes from a 1928 cartoon in ''[[The New Yorker]]''.<ref name=harper>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=spinach&searchmode=term |title=spinach (n.) |author=Douglas Harper |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |accessdate=February 2, 2014}}</ref><ref name=time>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,815645,00.html |title=The Press: I Say It's Spinach |date=October 22, 1951 |magazine=Time |access-date=February 1, 2014 |url-access=subscription |quote=Many a New Yorkerism (e.g., Cartoonist Carl Rose's 'I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it') has become a part of the language.}}</ref>|alt=A cartoon depicting a mother telling her daughter "It's broccoli, dear" over a dish at a dining table. The child answers: "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.". It is signed by Carl Rose.]]

The comics and cartoon character [[Popeye|Popeye the Sailor Man]] is portrayed as gaining strength by consuming canned spinach.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/dec/08/ec-segar-popeye-google-doodle |title=E.C. Segar, Popeye's creator, celebrated with a Google doodle |last=Gabbat |first=Adam |date=8 December 2009 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=5 May 2010}}</ref> The accompanying song lyric is: "I'm strong to the finich {{Sic}}, 'cuz I eats me spinach."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holloway |first1=Diane |title=American History in Song: Lyrics from 1900 to 1945 |date=2001 |publisher=Authors Choice Press |isbn=978-0-595-19331-8 |page=294 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zj5QxjMh9aAC |access-date=18 November 2022 |language=en}}</ref> This is usually attributed to the [[iron]] content of spinach, but in a 1932 strip, Popeye states that "spinach is full of [[vitamin A]]" and that is what makes people strong and healthy.<ref>Joe Schwarcz, ''Monkeys, Myths, and Molecules: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Science of Everyday Life'', 2015, {{isbn|1770411917}}, p. 245; spinach actually contains [[beta-carotene]], which the body converts to vitamin A</ref> As it happens, spinach is not a better source of dietary iron than many other vegetables. The false idea that spinach is an especially good source of dietary iron is an academic [[urban legend]].<ref name="Rekdal 2014">{{cite journal |last=Rekdal |first=Ole Bjorn |title=Academic urban legends |journal=Social Studies of Science |date=June 12, 2014 |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=638–654 |doi=10.1177/0306312714535679|pmid=25272616 |pmc=4232290 }}</ref>