Thursday, May 20, 2004
Forget the Spinach: Pop a Pill
We had health day at work. Lots of information was provided. For example: Did you know brushing and flossing your teeth helps prevent Heart Disease? Oh, yes, it is true. If you don’t brush and floss, that plaque gets swallowed down into your digestive system and somehow ends up in your blood and circulatory system.
Our visiting doctor also warned not to reheat foods in Styrofoam containers. When you heat up your leftovers or your coffee in those Styrofoam containers, small amounts of black smoke containing carcinogens is released.
But what really shocked me was the Spinach Story. In 1940, when Popeye was an established spokesman for eating spinach, 100 grams of spinach provided 158 mg of iron. By 1965, we only got 27 mg of iron from the same serving. Today, we get 2.2 mg (that is two point two mg) of iron per serving. Pollution, chemicals, and pesticides have all worked together to deplete the vitamins and nutrients right out of our soil. So now, to get the same benefits from spinach that grandma got, the serving size would need to be 14.5 pounds. No wonder we are obese. We are just trying to get our nutrients.
The doctor’s solution? Take vitamins.
I was thinking Soylent Green.
We had health day at work. Lots of information was provided. For example: Did you know brushing and flossing your teeth helps prevent Heart Disease? Oh, yes, it is true. If you don’t brush and floss, that plaque gets swallowed down into your digestive system and somehow ends up in your blood and circulatory system.
Our visiting doctor also warned not to reheat foods in Styrofoam containers. When you heat up your leftovers or your coffee in those Styrofoam containers, small amounts of black smoke containing carcinogens is released.
But what really shocked me was the Spinach Story. In 1940, when Popeye was an established spokesman for eating spinach, 100 grams of spinach provided 158 mg of iron. By 1965, we only got 27 mg of iron from the same serving. Today, we get 2.2 mg (that is two point two mg) of iron per serving. Pollution, chemicals, and pesticides have all worked together to deplete the vitamins and nutrients right out of our soil. So now, to get the same benefits from spinach that grandma got, the serving size would need to be 14.5 pounds. No wonder we are obese. We are just trying to get our nutrients.
The doctor’s solution? Take vitamins.
I was thinking Soylent Green.
