Strength!

March 27th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon character created by King Features in 1919. His strip continues to run today, reprints of earlier stories. Paramount Pictures took up the persona of this tough-talking pipe-smoking marine and created many shorts in the 30s to the 50s. Now owned by Warner Bros., you can still see them here and there. There was even a 1980 live-action film starring Robin Williams as Popeye.

Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz, declared:

I think Popeye was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor,”

In 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye number 20 on its list of “50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.”

In every installment, the poor guy is reduced to helplessness by antagonists. Out of nowhere, a can of spinach shows up and Popeye consumes the contents—he occasionally consumed the green leaf through his pipe, can and all! Whereupon, the Sailor immediately becomes superhuman and saves himself and his girlfriend, Olive Oyl, from their predicament.

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man,
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man;
I’m strong to the “finich”
’cause I eats me spinach;
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man!

Turns out, our man may have been right after all. Or so claimed scientists from Edith Cowan University, in Joondalup, W. Australia, in “Dietary Nitrate Intake Is Positively Associated with Muscle Function in Men and Women Independent of Physical Activity Levels,” published recently in The Journal of Nutrition.

Lead author, Dr. Marc Sim:

Our study has shown that diets high in nitrate-rich vegetables may bolster your muscle strength independently of any physical activity.”

One helping of leafy greens a day—including spinach, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, and kale—boosts muscle function, apparently. Tracking over 3,500 Australians over 12 years, they found that leg strength was 11% higher in those eating 3 ounces (= a couple of spoons of spinach) a day. And walking speed improved, too.

Said Sim:

Less than one in ten Australians eat the recommended five to six serves of vegetables per day. We should be eating a variety of vegetables every day, with at least one of those serves being leafy greens to gain a range of positive health benefits for the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular system.”

Yup, we need to follow Popeye. In fact, a 2010 study showed that using Popeye as a role model for healthier eating led children to increase their vegetable consumption. Oh, and if you were to visit Crystal City, TX (120 miles southwest of San Antonio), the self-proclaimed “Spinach Capital of the World,” you can find a Popeye Statue, in acknowledgement of the character’s influence in the industry.

But the Bible is firm in its attribution of strength to God and God alone. The Psalms are replete with such proclamations.

Yahweh is my strength and my shield;
in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped.
So my heart exults,
and with my song I will praise Him.
Yahweh is to them strength,
and a stronghold of deliverance to His anointed.
Psalm 28:7–8

Yahweh, strength to His people He gives;
Yahweh, He blesses His people with peace.
Psalm 29:11

But I—I will sing of Your strength;
and proclaim Your lovingkindness in shouts of joy in the morning,
for You have been to me a stronghold,
and a place of refuge in the day of my distress.
Psalm 59:16

For You are a refuge for me,
a tower of strength against the face of the enemy.
Psalm 61:3

Therefore …

I love You, Yahweh, my strength.
Psalm 18:1

So …

Be exalted, Yahweh, in Your strength;
we will sing and praise Your might!
Psalm 21:13

SOURCES:
Study Finds; The Journal of Nutrition