Popeye was right, spinach does make you stronger

Popeye’s yen for a can of spinach before bulging his biceps has a genuine scientific basis, as researchers have found that the green leafy vegetable really boosts the muscle power.

As against the earlier notion that the iron content of spinach accounted for its status as a superfood, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have found that it is the inorganic nitrate in the vegetable which is the secret behind its strength-giving property.

The study found mice supplied with nitrate in their drinking water developed significantly stronger muscles by stimulating two key proteins, the Daily Mail reported.

The quantity of nitrate that the mice received was roughly equivalent to that which a person would obtain by eating 200 to 300 grams of fresh spinach or two to three beetroots a day. A week into the experiment, the team found that the mice that had been on consistent nitrate had much stronger muscles. The researchers then discovered that the nitrate mice had a higher concentration of two different proteins in their muscles, which is assumed to explain the greater muscle strength.