Is Spinach Dangerous?

The moppet in Carl Rose's famed New Yorker cartoon who said "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it," got some support last week from an unexpected quarter--the deadly serious letters column of the deadly serious British Medical Journal. The B.MJ. had recently pontificated that "spinach would seem to be particularly valuable for the nutrition of children, provided they can be persuaded to acquire a liking for its somewhat bitter taste." Not so, snapped back a London husband & wife team, Physician Joan E. Bamji and Chemist Nariman S. Bamji:' the stuff has too much oxalic acid in it.

Oxalic acid, it seems, is bad because it eats up calcium that the youngster needs in order to grow strong bones and teeth. If the child is getting lots of milk and has calcium to burn, the result may not be too bad, provided the oxalic salts do not rotate the bladder or turn into kidney stones. But if children are not getting enough milk and protein, spinach just makes things worse by cutting down the calcium available for the bones. As for the good things that are supposed to be in spinach, such as vitamin C and iron, the Bamjis suggest that these can be had as easily in more palatable foods.

"Is it not possible," they ask, "that the intense dislike of spinach shown by most children is nature's way of protecting them from its harmful effects? . . . May we suggest that, until further light is thrown on the subject, spinach should be considered a doubtful article of diet for children."

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