The
cartoon character "Popeye" may have led you to believe that eating
spinach caused your muscles to grow instantly, making you big and powerful.
Unfortunately, Popeye may have exaggerated a little, but he wasn't completely
wrong. Spinach is a nutritional powerhouse that offers a number of health
benefits that can improve your overall health and quality of life. It is so amazing
a great deal of benefits spinach provides for the brain.
Low
in calories and high in vitamins, spinach is one of the most nutrient-dense
foods in existence. One cup of the leafy green vegetable contains far more than
your daily requirements of vitamin K and vitamin A, almost all the manganese
and folate your body needs and nearly 40 percent of your magnesium requirement.
It is a good, very good or excellent source of more than 20 different
measurable nutrients, including dietary fiber, calcium and protein. And yet, 1
cup has only 40 calories! Spinach is an excellent choice for nutrition without
high calories.
Improves Brain Function, Protects Against brain Aging
Still
need motivation to eat a few servings of spinach every day? This dark green
leaf will protect your brain function from premature aging and slow old age's
typical negative effects on your metal capabilities. Spinach accomplishes this
by preventing the harmful effects of oxidation on your brain. Those who eat a
vegetables in quantity, especially those of the leafy green variety, experience
a decrease in brain function loss. However, there is no such correlation with
fruit consumption. Oh, and iceberg lettuce doesn't cut it. A good rule of
thumb: the darker the leaf, the better. Which brings us back to spinach.
Cancer-Fighting Antioxidants Abound in Fresh Spinach
Spinach
contains more than a dozen individual flavonoid compounds, which work together
as cancer-fighting antioxidants. These elements neutralize free radicals in the
body and thus help to prevent cancer. In fact, one study of New England women
showed less breast cancer cases among those who ate spinach on a regular basis.
Spinach extracts have reduced skin cancer in lab animals and show promise at
slowing stomach cancer as well.
Fresh Green Spinach Improves Cardiovascular Health
According
to research compiled by Whole Foods, spinach is an excellent promoter of
cardiovascular health. The antioxidant properties of spinach (water-soluble in
the form of vitamin C and fat-soluble beta-carotene) work together to promote
good cardiovascular health by preventing the harmful oxidation of cholesterol.
Oxidized cholesterol is a danger to the heart and arteries. Magnesium in
spinach works toward healthy blood pressure levels. In fact, just a salad-size
portion of spinach will work to lower high blood pressure within hours. A
serving of spinach contains 65 percent of your daily requirement of folate, and
folate converts harmful, stroke-inducing chemicals into harmless compounds.
Spinach
Combats Ovarian, Prostate Cancers
The
Journal of Nutrition reports that our leafy friend, spinach, contains a
carotenoid that makes prostate cancers destroy themselves. This same
carotenoid, after being changed by the intestines, prevents prostrate cancer
from reproducing itself. Spinach also contains kaempferol, a strong antioxidant
that prevents the formation of cancerous cells. Women who have a high intake of
this flavonoid show a reduced risk of ovarian cancer, likely because of
kaempferol's ability to reduce cancer cells proliferation. Kaempferol is also
found in non-herbal tea, onions, apples, citrus, grapes, red wine, curly kale,
St. John's wort, leeks, broccoli and blueberries.
Weight Management
Choosing
foods with a low-energy density, meaning they have fewer calories in a large
portion, can help to manage hunger and weight control. A 1-cup serving of raw
spinach contains 7 calories, and 1-cup serving of boiled spinach contains 41
calories. Including spinach in your diet can control your appetite, help you
eat fewer calories and aid in either weight loss or prevention of weight gain.
Maintaining a healthy weight over the long term can reduce your risk of
developing weight-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Improve Blood Pressure
The
potassium in spinach can help to reduce your blood pressure. A 1-cup serving of
cooked spinach contains 839 mg of potassium. The American Heart Association
recommends you aim for 4,700 mg of potassium from natural foods per day to
improve heart health. Potassium is a mineral that helps you to maintain fluid
and electrolyte balance and it counteracts the effects of sodium on your blood
pressure. A high potassium diet is not appropriate for everyone. Certain
illnesses, such as kidney disease, require a potassium-restricted diet. Talk to
your doctor about your daily potassium needs.
Reduce Cancer Risk
Including
spinach in your diet can help protect you against cancer. The antioxidants in
spinach, including vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene, lutein and
lycopene, can protect your cells from free radicals, unstable atoms that react
with your body's cells and causing them to become damaged, potentially leading
to cancer. Including more antioxidants can possibly slow cancer growth and
prevent it altogether. The American Cancer Society recommends you include five
servings of fruits and vegetables in your diet each day to prevent cancer,
choosing those with the most color, like green spinach, for higher nutrient
content.
Prevent Cataracts
The
lutein in spinach can protect you from developing cataracts. Lutein is a
natural pigment in spinach. In your body, it gathers in the retina and lens of
your eye, and as an antioxidant protects your retina from free radical damage.
People with higher intakes of lutein in their diet develop fewer cataracts,
according to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. A 1-cup serving of raw
spinach contains 3,659 mcg of lutein. Daily recommendations for lutein have not
been established.
These
benefits of spinach are due to presence of minerals, vitamins, pigments and phytonutrient and minerals like minerals like potassium, manganese, zinc, magnesium, iron and calcium. Spinach is a green
vegetable which is wide in distribution. It can be grown as a back yard crop or
bought from market at affordable rates. It is a source of vitamins like folate,
niacin, vitamin A, B6, C and traces of rest of the vitamins. Other
important elements, including thiamine and riboflavin, that are used in various
reactions in our body are also found in spinach. Spinach is rich in
pigments like beta carotene, lutein and xanthene and chlorophyllin etc. The
best part is that it has low fat content and less amount of fatty content.
Spinach offers a wide range of benefits to most of our physiological processes,
whether taken raw or cooked.
Full
of nutrients and delicious taste, spinach is a superfood. But what’s the best
way to eat it? use the following guide to maximize the benefits of this leafy green:
It’s
wiser to choose tender baby spinach leaves. The larger the leaves, the more
mature they are and more likely to be tough or stringy. Also, spinach
leaves that are placed under direct light in the stores have been found to
contain more nutrients than those stored in darkness.
Cooking
spinach actually increases its
health benefits! Just half a cup of cooked spinach will give you thrice as much
nutrition as one cup of raw spinach. That’s because the body cannot completely
break down the nutrients in raw spinach for its use.
As
an exception to the advice above, research studies show that taking spinach in
juice form is actually the healthiest way to consume it. Blend spinach with
other vegetables or fruits to create a delicious glass of juice, or try a green smoothie.
There’s
a compound in spinach called oxalic acid, which blocks the absorption of
calcium and iron. An easy way to solve this problem is to pair spinach with a
food high in vitamin C. Mandarin oranges and cantaloupes spring to mind here.
Another way to reduce the power of oxalic acid is to boil the spinach leaves
for at least two minutes.
Freezing
spinach diminishes its health benefits. The way to get the best from the leaf
is to buy it fresh and eat it the same day.
Do
place spinach on your ‘organic shopping’ list, because the leaf tends to be
sprayed heavily with pesticides that don’t come off with normal washing.
Everyone
talks about the benefits of spinach in nourishing the eyes and building bones.
What few know is that it also very good for digestion. Spinach eases
constipation and protects the mucus lining of the stomach, so that you stay
free of ulcers. It also flushes out toxins from the colon.
Another
lesser known benefit of spinach is its role in skin care. The bounty of
vitamins and minerals in spinach can bring you quick relief from dry, itchy
skin and lavish you with a radiant complexion. Regular consumption of fresh,
organic spinach juice has been shown to improve skin health dramatically.
References
- USDA: Nutrient Database: Spinach, raw
- USDA: Nutrient Database: Spinach, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Lutein; February 2010
- National Cancer Institute; Antioxidants and Cancer Prevention: Fact Sheet; Julyu 2004
- American Heart Association; Potassium and High Blood Pressure; January 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Energy Density and Weight Loss: Feel Full on Fewer Calories; January 2011
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing and Neurology.
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