If you think my interests run eclectic, you might not be wrong. But why spinach? Let me count the reasons.

1. Spinach belongs to the chenopodiaceae family, also known as goosefoot (the family includes beets, chards and quinoia.) I am currently saddled with a post-op drainage bag dangling from my ribs that my husband lovingly dubbed The Goose for the honking noises it makes every time I cough (which is about every two minutes; if we lived in ancient Rome where geese were used as guards, we’d be all set for invasion by the Gauls.) My fantasy is that if I consume enough spinach, that goose will acquire feet and waddle away sooner rather than later.

2. Spinach originated in Persia and spread to Europe in the 12th century, later circling the globe with a reputation for strengthening health (and muscles – alas, my brain is currently not muscular enough to come up with an appropriate Popeye the sailor joke.) That reputation is based on facts – among other things, spinach is rich in iron, important to replenish after you lost a lot of blood. Iron plays a central role in the function of red blood cells which help in transporting oxygen around the body, in energy production and DNA synthesis.

3. Spinach was recently in the news in the context of scientific advances explained in ways that caused serious eye rolling in yours truly. The study, by the way, is 5 years old, but caught someone’s attention some days ago and has ever since made the rounds in competition for clever titles: MIT scientists hack spinach plants to send email. Spam’s new frontier? Now even spinach can send emails. You get the idea.

The premise is clever: researchers engineered the roots of spinach plants to contain microscopic nanosensors that are capable of detecting nitroaromatics — chemicals that are often found in explosives and man-made industrial chemicals. Spinach absorbs and constantly recycles groundwater, being in a good position to detect changes in pollution or the presence of explosives devices. (Although, honestly, how could you prepare the ground to plant spinach if there is a danger of landmines, without exploding them? Hoping that they are buried deep?)

When the nanosensors detect those compounds, they can send a signal to an infrared camera, which can shoot out an email alert. So far so good.

Now comes the eye rolling part: “This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier,” said Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at MIT and a co-author of the paper.

Spinach-human communication? That’s like saying my thermostat is talking to me when beeping that the room temperature falls above/below its setting. Signaling a measurement is not exactly opening a channel for conversation! Then again, the urge to talk to plants is nothing new…

Let’s consume, not converse with spinach. My humble suggestion.

Archival photographs are of fields where spinach could be planted…

Music is a 1947 recording that might or might not be about spinach, banned by the American Forces Radio Network, (AFN) Europe until 1975.