Spinach is well known for being one of the best plant-based vegetables for people to eat. It can be added to most main dishes as a side dish or a delicious part of a lunch or dinner. Spinach can be cooked or eaten raw and can be enjoyed in many different ways. It is very popular because of easy availability and amazing health benefits. It is easy to add to your eating routine and meal plans to help improve your meals and health.
Spinach is a superfood that comes from the Chenopodiaceae family along with beets, quinoa, and chard. It is very popular because of its famous link to Popeye, the cartoon character who ate spinach to get strong. Although you might not get building biceps after eating a spinach based salad, you will definitely increase your health if you choose spinach over a less healthy option.
Nutritional Benefits of Spinach
The nutritional benefits of spinach are amazing and provide a wide range of benefits for the whole of the body. It is packed full of vitamins and minerals that are essential to the body and help improve the immune system and energy levels. Just some of the vitamins and minerals packed in spinach include calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin A, K, and folate.
Magnesium
Spinach is known as being one of the best sources for getting magnesium into your diet. Magnesium is important to help improve and sustain metabolism energy. It also helps to maintain blood pressure and the functions of muscles and nerves. Magnesium is probably more important than you realized as it plays a part in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body. Magnesium deficits can occur when the body does not have enough of this mineral. Bad symptoms such as muscle cramps, poor sleep, and chronic pain also occur. By adding spinach to your diet you will be able to benefit from the additional magnesium in your body. This helps increase your magnesium levels and improve enzyme reactions in the body.
Iron
Spinach is particularly rich in iron which is important for the function of red blood cells and helps to transport oxygen around the body as well as producing energy. A diet that has a lack of iron will make someone become tired and have low energy. By adding spinach to a diet, it can help the body produce energy more efficiently. Due to the wide range of vitamins and minerals packed into spinach, the superfood has a number of great health benefits.
Diabetes Management
Alpha-lipoic acid is an antioxidant found in spinach and research suggests it helps to lower glucose levels. It also has proven to help increase insulin sensitivity and prevent stress-related changes in patients with diabetes. As with any medical and scientific research, this cannot be 100% as it may impact some people more than others. However, this does show that eating spinach and having more spinach in a diet will have a positive effect on diabetes management.
Cancer Prevention
Although there is no cure for cancer or a number of other life-threatening conditions, plenty of research has shown evidence for medication and food help to prolong or prevent these conditions. There is an ingredient in spinach and other green vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel, and kale called chlorophyll. Research studies have shown that this chemical has effectively blocked the effects of carcinogenic effects of heterocyclic amines which could contribute to preventing the growth of cancer.
Spinach has plenty of health benefits and is a great way to improve skin, hair and bone health. It is packed full of vitamins and minerals that offer a range of excellent health benefits. Spinach is relatively cheap, easy to store, prepare and cook and has easily be added to any diet.
There are plenty of tips and tricks available to help people add spinach to their diet without becoming popeye and eating a can of spinach. The superfood can be added raw to a salad or blended in a smooth – you won’t even notice it is there! You can cook it and serve it as a side dish on its own or mixed with other vegetables or into mash potato. The possibilities are endless and this is the fun of cooking and experimenting with this great superfood.
