Re: USF4 changes!
- From: Ilitirit Sama <ilitirit@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: cpt-fgc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2014 16:58:40 +0200
I just read a very interesting paper urban legends in academia, with the
story of spinach as the example.
People believe that spinach is good for you because of it's high iron
content. Well, the reason people believe that is because of an incorrect
decimal in a research paper in the 1930s that made it seem that spinach has
10x the amount of iron that red meat. Interesting, right? But upon
further investigation, it turns out this claim is false. The mistake was
actually made in a paper published in 1890, and 1930 was the year the
mistake was finally disclosed. OK, so the story got the date wrong by 40
years, but the gist is still the same, right? Not quite. There is no
evidence that this mistake was ever committed!
So why do people believe spinach has a high iron content? Simply because
it does have a high iron content.
At this point you may be thinking to yourself, "WTF, this is stupid! Fuck
you for making me read this"
Except that there is a twist, spinach is high in iron, but most of it is
not available for absorption. In fact, it contains other substances that
prevent the body from absorbing iron. So iron-anemic individuals should
*avoid* eating spinach!
http://sss.sagepub.com/content/44/4/638.long
Other related posts:
