Ep. 370: Was Popeye wrong?

Guest: Andrea Bertaglio, environmental journalist

“I’m strong to the finish ‘cause I eats me spinach” is one of Popeye the Sailor Man’s favourite quotes.

Wrong, says Italian environmental journalist Andrea Bertaglio. He says Popeye helped create the perception that all you need are veggies to live a healthy life.

“It seems the whole world has suddenly decided not to eat meat,” he says. “But have you ever wondered why?” He did and so he set out to find out the answer. Namely, Bertaglio says, “The editorial world is to blame. When it comes to diet, nutrition and health is more interested in selling papers and garnering ad revenue than in the truth.”

In Bertaglio’s book “In Defense of Meat,” he points out spinach is not the best source of iron. Meat is, and it’s not just iron that vegetables don’t deliver in the way meat does. Bertaglio says, “Meat provides the body with significant quantities of essential micronutrients such as iron, zinc, selenium and B vitamins in an easily digestible form.”

He claims, “Some vegetables may contain vitamins and minerals in greater quantities than meat but in reality, the human body is capable of assimilating a very low percentage of them. In fact, plant nutrients are ‘trapped’ in an insoluble and indigestible matrix of fibres that make them difficult to absorb and use.”

Vegetables also contain “anti-nutritional factors such as phytic acid, which binds minerals, making them less available to our body. So yes, the nutrients in the vegetables are there but they are not easily usable."

We invited Andrea Bertaglio to join us for a Conversation That Matters about eating a balanced diet that includes meat and vegetables.