The Indoctrination of Popeye (or "Popeye the Indoctrination Man")

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #1

I came across an old Popeye cartoon a few minutes ago and the reality of the indoctrination felt like getting hit in the forehead with a 2x4. I’m nearly 52 years old and It never occurred to me before. Veggies will make you an unstoppable beast and burgers will make you fat and weak like Wimpy. Sheesh! At least the nephews won that one.

#2

It doesn’t seem serious enough for me to be indoctrination :slight_smile: And it ends with the kids eating hamburgers as they hate spinach (how anyone can like spinach IDK but I am aware tastes differ. my SO loves spinach. I am fine with it, like 30g per year. not 2-3kg cooked at once as he does - very rarely now as the tiny freezer is for meat, not vegs). But it’s super easy to do research and see that spinach isn’t really that special. (Okay, not everyone likes doing research. I do when I get curious. Or if I need a reason not to eat spinach but Mom gave it to me like twice and realized I won’t eat it.)

(I didn’t watch every second, I find it pretty boring, never was a Popeye fan.)

I do dislike when misconceptions are repeated but Popeye just have this obviously off thing going on so it doesn’t bother me super much.

And the spinach lovers should eat with the spinach with some good animal protein if anyone asks me. And the kids never should touch spinach at all. I really, really hated it and really, really didn’t eat it as a vegetarian, along with almost all green leaves. It’s NOT an essential food group even without meat in the diet.

I got too serious about this silly cartoon…

(Christabel) #3

Oh wow, I totally get what you mean. It’s crazy how many old cartoons were basically mini propaganda machines in disguise! I watched Popeye as a kid too, and I just thought it was funny and cute. Only now, looking back as an adult, do I see how heavy-handed the messaging was, like spinach = strength, and anything else = weakness or laziness. It’s wild how stuff like that can stick with you subconsciously for years. But hey, at least it made me eat my greens without a fight!

(Bob M) #4

It is a really good point, one I never considered.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #5

I think I’ve found the answer to the Popeye/spinach propaganda issue. It seems that it was a combination of a few things and it was, indeed, an intentional push by the government. Popeye was being written at a time when meat (especially red meat) was not as readily available due to the depression, so the government wanted to push an alternate source of iron (or Vitamin A, as you shall see). It seems that they also wanted to get people used to the idea that canned foods were a safe way of storing food in such times.

However, spinach was said to have 10 times more iron than it actually does. There’s a myth that that misinformation had to do with a typo, but it was due to the way in which the studies were done.

Here are two links. One explains the government involvement with Popeye and spinach:
“Popeye and the Great Spinach Myth”
and the other explains the origin of the typo myth:
“Popeye, Spinach and a Tale Rich in Irony”

How 'bout dat, huh?

(Joey) #6

@FiddlestixMcWhiskers Great stuff. Thanks for sharing these links!

While the strength these 4 little Popeyes get to overpower the adults comes from spinach, it’s revealing how the storyline ends with them finally eating what they really want … towering platefuls of hamburgers.

Ah, if only they had tossed those buns aside…

(Bob M) #7

Not to mention if you look at how much iron is absorbed into the body from plants, it’s abysmal. Seriously terrible. Even meat, which has better iron to begin with, isn’t well absorbed, though iron’s absorption rate from meat is way better than from plants.

(BuckRimfire) #8

Is oxalic acid really so heat-labile that cooking spinach (which takes only a short time) degrades the oxalic acid, as that article claims?

(John) #9

That’s a fun story about the govt pushing spinach and I suppose it wouldn’t be a shock to me if it’s true. However, there isn’t even one source given to validate its claim. The author could have completely fabricated it, as far as I know.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #10

That’s true. I would be interested in seeing the source material.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #11

I just sent off an email to the authoress of that article. Here’s a screenshot of what I sent her. We’ll see what happens.

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(Joey) #12

Some discussion on this question…

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/47691/was-the-u-s-government-responsible-for-popeyes-dependance-on-spinach

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #13

Bravo! Good find. Lots of references to source info there. Thank you!

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #14

I’m an idiot.
That article wasn’t written by “Miss Cellania,” it was written by the actor Eddie Deezen (the nerd from Grease). It says so right at the top of the article. I missed it.
I am an idiot.

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The StackExchange discussion, posted by SomeGuy Joey is a much better resource.

(B Creighton) #15

I was such an idiot. I got the Popeye indoctrination, but not the Wimpy burger guy side… However, I have to say that it has some truth to it. The typical fast food burger has a bun full of additives including seed oils. Then the condiments like ketchup have sugar. Even the burgers lots of times have added seed oils, and are going to be from grain fed steer.

I still eat burgers, but it is grass-fed beef on Dave’s Bread with no seed oils, and organic, sugarless ingredients… And I am certainly not going to eat canned spinach… yuck. Popeye can have it all - including the BPA from the can… LOL. Could it be gubbermint misinfo? Wouldn’t doubt it. Was USAID around back then??

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #16

When I was a kid, from watching the Popeye cartoons, I thought canned spinach was just kinda wet fresh spinach, but then I saw what canned spinach really looks like in the Popeye movie and I was grossed out. The only way I could ever stomach canned spinach was by putting a bunch of horseradish in it.

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx2hxrzGrrE3QcIxr3WQ5dALvjUWxc4y_F?feature=shared

(B Creighton) #17

I never really ate canned anything… thankfully… thanks to my mom. Spinach was rare in my house. Maybe got a little spinach in an omellete… along with shrooms, etc. I do eat canned sardines now, but probably most of the BPA stays in the can with the olive oil. I eat some canned beans during my low carb phase of the year, but the vast majority of my diet is fresh or frozen… and spinach is a no no now. I am low oxalate with any veggies.

#18

I never saw canned spinach, we only have it “fresh” and mirelite (that’s truly fresh with some frozen time added)… But there is the “creamy spinach” version with who knows what in it. We always buy the pure spinach.
By the way, my attitude toward spinach seems to change. I quite enjoyed it last time. I ate… IDK, 100-120g of it? (Not at once.) Was nice with a way bigger amount of meat and eggs. I still wouldn’t do it several times a year but now and then, why not? I don’t know about any sensitivities regarding food (I am even fine with a lot of gluten, apparently) except excessive amounts of sugar, my body dislikes that. It tolerated even that in my high-carb past but now it knows and demands better :slight_smile:

I eat little canned stuff, no wonder as I have lost most vegs from my diet. I do keep some canned tomatoes around as I need non-puree in some dishes and my garden doesn’t produce enough and the greengroceries have tasteless or barely tasty ones. And I eat some canned fish now and then.