For forearms

I have a sneaking suspicion that Popeye didn't get those crazy muscle-y forearms from eating spinach alone. I am skeptical because I went rock climbing the other day and my forearms were burning. Burning! I could feel my forearms growing bigger as I pulled my post-holiday weight enhanced body up with each rock hold. When I was done, I swear there was a noticeable increase in the size of each forearm. And that was due to just one night for about an hour. Popeye was a sailor and I'm sure he had to climb up and down as well as lift heavy things like anchors all day long.

Also, spinach is supposed to be a great source of iron. But I looked up the nutritional content and as it turns out, the iron in spinach is poorly absorbed by the body unless it is consumed with calcium. And although iron is also purportedly high in calcium, the oxalate content in spinach binds with said calcium decreasing its absorption! (another fun fact - oxalate is one of a number of factors that contribute to gout and kidney stones)* So by eating spinach, Popeye was not really receiving much iron or calcium at all. He was, however, getting a fair dose of vitamin A, which means Popeye should have had great vision, but instead he constantly had one squinty eye. "I yam what I yam" = what a scam!!

*All spinach facts taken from Wikipedia. If they are inaccurate, I absolve myself from blame.

Editor's note: this entry was originally supposed to be about the awesomeness of rock climbing and scaling up walls like a monkey but somehow, I got sidetracked by the whole Popeye/spinach trickery. Not quite as awesome.