News You Can Use: "German scientists say spinach chemical should be banned from sports"

From Deutsche-Welle:

Popeye guzzled spinach to get his superhuman strength. But the plant's power-boosting properties aren't just fiction. German scientists say spinach has a steroid-like chemical that should be added to the doping list.

Scientists at the Freie Universität Berlin have recommended that ecdysterone, a steroid-like chemical found in spinach, be added to the list of banned doping substances, German media reported Tuesday.
The university's Institute of Pharmacy led a 10-week strength training program with 46 athletes to test how the substance affected their physical performance.

Some of the participants were given placebos, others were given ecdysterone capsules containing the equivalent of up to 4 kilograms (or 8.8 pounds) of raw spinach a day.

Read more: Doping, made easy

During the study, which was supported by the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA), those taking the supplement saw their physical strength increase three times as much as their placebo-taking counterparts.

Popeye proven right 
The fictional cartoon character Popeye the Sailor is known for attributing his bulging biceps to spinach, gulping down a can whenever he needed extra strength.
The Berlin study is the first in Germany to prove the link between spinach's ecdysterone and significantly improved physical performance, although previous research in other countries has drawn similar conclusions.

"Our hypothesis was that we would see an increase in performance, but we didn't expect it to be that big," Maria Parr at the Berlin university's Institute of Pharmacy said in an interview with broadcasters ARD and ARTE....MUCH MORE

Okay, four kilos of spinach per day might seem a bit much but ya do what ya gotta do.