Popeye effect: more muscles thanks to spinach!
Lisa Vogel studied departmental journalism with a focus on medicine and biosciences at Ansbach University and deepened her journalistic knowledge in the master's degree in multimedia information and communication. This was followed by a traineeship in the editorial team. Since September 2020 she has been writing as a freelance journalist for
More posts by Lisa Vogel All content is checked by medical journalists.Spinach doesn't just make Popeye strong: the vegetable actually promotes muscle building. So effective that it could end up on the doping list as an extract between illegal anabolic steroids. Berlin researchers have found that a plant steroid in spinach stimulates muscle growth and increases strength.
Spinach extract increases performance
Spinach used to be considered concentrated feed - much to the chagrin of many children. Mainly because of the supposedly high iron content, it regularly ended up on the plates. The leafy vegetables owe their reputation as a supplier of iron to a comma error that slipped into a publication in the 1980s, but now the vegetables are making headlines again.
Experiments in the laboratory and with mice already suggest that a spinach extract could improve the performance of athletes.
A study on humans should now provide evidence: The team of pharmacologist Prof. Maria Kristin Parr from the Free University of Berlin investigated the effect of the spinach active ingredient ecdysterone. It is a herbal steroid. 46 athletes took part in the study. At the start of their studies, all of them had completed a year of dumbbell training. Nobody took any performance-enhancing substances.
Dietary supplement with herbal steroid
For ten weeks, twelve participants swallowed two capsules a day containing the extract. Each capsule contained 100 milligrams of ecdysterone and 100 milligrams of leucine, an amino acid that helps to remodel protein structures. Ten participants even received eight capsules every day. Twelve athletes received a placebo every day. Twelve other people served as a control group and did not take any capsules.
Three times more muscle mass
After ten weeks, the participants in the spinach groups could look forward to significant muscle growth. During the study period, they built on average three times more muscle mass than the participants in the placebo group. Their muscle strength also increased: they lifted more weight on the bench press in the final test. The following seems to apply: the more spinach extract, the greater the effect.
“Ecdysterone even turned out to be more effective than prohibited substances,” the researchers summarize the result. Therefore, it is now being discussed whether the spinach extract should be on the doping list. Dietary supplements containing ecdyterone could then become taboo for athletes.
Four kilograms of spinach leaves a day
As impressive as the result is, anyone who tries to strengthen their biceps with one serving of spinach per day will be disappointed. In order to achieve the effect of two capsules of the dietary supplement from the study, one would have to eat up to four kilograms of spinach leaves. And every day. The higher dosage corresponds to an impressive 16 kilograms of leafy vegetables.
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