[ncmncm]

Spinach famously was misreported to have iron. Somebody slipped a decimal point, and everybody after copied the mistake.

Me, I don't eat spinach anymore. Never liked it to begin with. I have eaten enough of it already to last me to the end.

[hyko]

Spinach famously was misreported to be misreported to have iron due to the decimal point slip: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063127145356...

Nothing indicates that the decimal point error ever was made, but the account about it will most likely live a long and colorful life, just like its parent myth

[rzzzt]

Spinach is a fictional plant, it was described by Linné as sort of a joke but then everyone just went with it.

But seriously, you described three layers of misconceptions in this comment thread, how is anyone supposed to know "the real truth" about anything food related, if spinach alone is such a hard subject?

[astrange]

> Spinach is a fictional plant, it was described by Linné as sort of a joke but then everyone just went with it.

Actually true for most vegetables we eat, they're all the same plant (Brassica oleracea).

[ncmncm]

I am corrected.

Apparently there is no documentary evidence why an 1870 measure of spinach's iron content was exaggerated. The paper cited does not explore whether it ever was exaggerated, or what its actual iron content then or now might be.

I read various reports indicating that modern vegetables have much less of various nutrients than older, slower-growing or smaller-yielding varieties, and have no idea how I might evaluate such claims. Maybe spinach harvested in 1870 had more iron than highly-fertilized 1930 varieties, never mind 2021 varieties no one, to my knowledge, has bothered to measure. Or maybe not.