Popeye the Sailor, who began as a comic-strip character before appearing on television cartoons and in motion pictures, is famous for loving his spinach. In the cartoons, he even had a slogan associated with his favorite food, “I’m strong to the finish cuz I eats me spinach, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man!” Why did Popeye love spinach more than any other food? Did he believe it made him strong?
Popeye certainly was strong. He didn’t need a can opener to open his cans of spinach. He just squeezed them with one hand until they popped open. Then, he just poured the spinach down his throat. Popeye did not just believe that spinach made him strong; in many of the stories, it actually did.
Popeye Before Spinach: The Luck of the Whiffle Hen
It is sometimes claimed that spinach was not always the way Popeye gained his superhuman strength. When the character was first introduced in 1929, he didn’t have his own strip. Instead, Popeye first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip. In the “Dice Island” story, the sailor was meant to be a minor supporting character. He was hired by Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy to navigate their ship.
Popeye became a big hit, however, and stole the show/comic strip. People loved this gruff and tough character with his tagline, “Ya think I’m a cowboy?” By the 1930s, the strip was centered on Popeye. But in those early days, his formidable strength was not yet apparent. It is said that he gained this strenght by rubbing the head of rubbing the head of a Bernice the Whiffle Hen, but this is not precisely true.
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Bernice the Whiffle Hen, aka African Escape Hen, aka “Wiffle Bird”
Bernice the Whiffle Hen was actually introduced before Popeye, in 1928. Of mysterious origin, the bird was given to Csator Oyl, Olive Oyl’s brother, by their uncle Lubry Kent. Castor tried his best to get rid of her, but she refused to leave her new master. It turned out that Bernice was somewhat like a genie; she granted amazing luck to anyone who rubbed her head.
Head-Rubbing for Millions: Popeye’s Strange Casino Origin
The good luck granted to Castor Oyl by rubbing the Whiffle Hen’s head is what led to the introduction of Popeye. Eager to take advantage of this gift of luck, Castor bought a ship to take to Dice Island, where a casino was located. No sailor himself, he hired Popeye to captain the vessel.
During the trip, both Popeye and Castor did plenty of head rubbing and got plenty of luck in return. They both cleaned up at the casino and won millions. No casino likes a winner, however, and the evil casino manager expressed his feelings by shooting Popeye multiple times while the winning duo was on the way back home. Popeye kept rubbing Bernice’s head, though, and he eventually recovered from what should have been a fatal barrage of bullets.
He did not gain amazing strength; however, he simply recovered from wounds impossible to recover from. Whether this recovery was assisted by Popeye’s amazing physical fortitude is not clear, and Popeye himself was not yet aware of how strong and formidable he was.
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1931-1932: The Moment Spinach Finally Met the Sailor
Popeye’s favorite spinach was introduced in 1931. It became a constant by 1932. By that time, the comic strip had come to be known as Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye. How much he actually needed spinach is not clear.
Popeye’s strength and physical prowess before spinach were inconsistent, t best. He didn’t always need his spinach to do amazing things. In the cartoons, we saw him perform amazing superhuman feats without ever eating any spinach. He once tunneled the length of an entire island, and he carried both a piano and Olive Oyl across a tightrope. He also once matched Hercules feat for feat.
But at other times, he had to down a can of spinach before he could do anything amazing and would lose his mojo if he didn’t eat any. I seem to remember, more than once, Popeye’s arch-nemesis Bluto beating him up until Popeye was able to down a can of spinach, causing the immediate return of his amazing strength.
Popeye’s Favorite Food: Why Spinach?
The expressed idea was that the spinach was to help keep him strong during the depression. In reality, though, there was a strong association between spinach and physical prowess, and this was no mere random choice.
Many people believed what Popeye said about spinach. The belief that eating spinach would result in big muscles and greater strength began long ago, as far back as 1870.
The Iron Myth: Popeye and the German Math Error
This belief was due to German nutrition researchers who, when they compiled the nutrient content of spinach, misreported the iron content. It was originally thought that the error was due to a misplaced decimal point. This caused spinach to appear to have ten times more iron than it actually does, more iron than any other food.
However, recent research indicates that this “Erich von Wolf 1870 decimal point error, may not have been the problem. Some historians now argue that the mistake was actually due to iron contamination from laboratory equipment or a simple confusion between “dried” and “fresh” spinach data.
🔬 Source Spotlight: The Science of the Myth
The “decimal point error” is one of the most famous mistakes in nutritional history, but is it actually true? The researchers at the McGill Office for Science and Society have traced the real origins of this error, from 19th-century lab contamination to the modern-day debunking of the debunkers.
Iron Gets You Pumped
Regardless of the source of the error, in those days, it was believed that iron was essential for muscle growth and that a diet high in iron would result in larger and stronger muscles.
Some old-school bodybuilders still steadfastly believe that high levels of iron in their diet assist their muscle building endeavors. It is true that high-level athletes and those who exercise intensely and often may need more iron in their diet. However, it is only necessary that one’s iron intake is adequate to meet performance and recovery needs. Supraphysiological doses of iron will not result in more muscle growth than would otherwise occur.
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How Much Iron Does Spinach Really Contain?
Spinach does contain iron, but it is no richer in iron than other green vegetables. Ironically, not only does spinach contain only an average amount of iron, but most of this iron is poorly absorbed by the body.
| Preparation | Iron Content | Standard Serving | Iron per Serving |
| Raw Spinach | 2.71 mg | 1 Cup (30g) | 0.81 mg |
| Cooked Spinach | 3.57 mg | 1 Cup (180g) | 6.43 mg |
| Preparation | Iron Content | Standard Serving | Iron per Serving |
| Raw Spinach | 2.71 mg | 1 Cup (30g) | 0.81 mg |
| Cooked Spinach | 3.57 mg | 1 Cup (180g) | 6.43 mg |
The Popeye Effect: The Real Story Behind the Canned Spinach Boom
It is claimed that the popularity of spinach rose by up to 33 percent because of the Popeye the Sailor Man comic strip! A “Popeye” brand of canned spinach is often used as evidence of this influence. However, the first cans of officially licensed Popeye spinach did not appear until 1966, marketed by the Arkansas-based Steele Canning Company. During that time, there weren’t any new Popeye cartoons airing, although reruns were heavity broadcasted. Popeye-branded spinach was owed to the popularity of the television cartoon character, Popeye the Sailor Man, rather than the initial comic strip.
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- The Trademark Battle: You see them in every bakery, but did someone actually trademark the Smiley Face cookie?
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