Spinach. The leafy green is packed with nutrients, but you'll absorb more calcium and iron if you eat it cooked. The reason: Spinach is loaded with oxalic acid, which blocks the absorption of iron and calcium but breaks down under high temperatures.
Highlights. Spinach is a green leafy vegetable that we all know to be really healthy, due to the presence of high levels of antioxidants in it. However, the best way to eat spinach is not after blanching or boiling it, but rather adding it to your smoothies or juicing it, says a new study.
Raw spinach is the most nutritious form of spinach, although it contains a high concentration of oxalic acid, which can cause digestive and absorptive issues. Boiling spinach reduces the oxalic acid content, but it also leads to loss of nutrients and texture.
While incorporating spinach into raw and cooked dishes can help maximize its health benefits, some research shows that not cooking the greens preserves its lutein content. So, it's important to consume spinach raw for maximum lutein intake.
The researchers concluded that the best way to get the most lutein from spinach is to not cook it. While eating raw spinach is good, it's better to chop it in a blender — for instance, by making a smoothie — or in a juicer, as this releases more lutein from the leaves, according to the researchers.
Is it OK to eat spinach every day? For most people it is perfectly OK to eat spinach every day. Keep reading for what can happen if you eat too much spinach or have specific health conditions such as kidney disease or are on blood thinners.
When eaten in moderation, spinach helps in reducing the risks of high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and cancer. Although it is safe for most people to eat a bowl of spinach per day, you should be careful to eat it in moderation. Spinach is a dark leafy green crop with an impressive nutrient profile.
Strengthens the Immune System
Spinach has vitamins and minerals like vitamin E and magnesium that support your immune system. This system keeps you safe from viruses and bacteria that cause disease. It also defends your body from other things that can hurt you, like toxins.
For example, spinach contains more iron than broccoli, but broccoli is a better source of vitamin C. In any case, both spinach and broccoli are great additions to your diet and give you several options to enjoy varied, tasty, and healthy dishes.
A Handful a Day
A large handful (100g) of raw spinach provides a host of nutrients. These include vitamin A which promotes healthy, clear skin and vision; vitamin C which aids the growth of healthy connective tissue and folate which contributes to a healthy immune system.
It can be said that between the two vegetables, spinach is said to be healthier than broccoli as it has high water content, a lesser amount of sugars and is richer in protein, magnesium, Vitamin E, manganese and potassium as compared to broccoli.
Now, new research from Linköping University in Sweden reveals that eating spinach in the form of a smoothie or juice, combined with some fat, is actually the most efficient way to absorb lutein from spinach in our diet.
Heating vegetables releases antioxidants by breaking down cell walls. Studies have found that eating cooked spinach and carrots – versus raw – results in much higher blood levels of beta-carotene, an antioxidant thought to guard against heart disease and lung cancer.”
Spinach is most nutrient-dense when you eat it raw, but it retains more vitamins with some cooking methods than with others. Because many of spinach's nutrients, including vitamin C, folate, B vitamins and thiamin, are water soluble, spinach loses a large portion of its nutrients when it is boiled or steamed.
Spinach and Tofu
However, it turns out that spinach contains oxalic acid which binds with calcium in tofu and makes it indigestible for our stomach. When I mean indigestible, I mean they form kidney stones, and you do not want that to happen.
When you eat spinach that has been cooked, not only can you eat more because it shrinks down, but your body can absorb higher levels of the vitamins it contains such as A and E, fiber, zinc, thiamin, calcium, and iron, plus carotenoids such as beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
Consuming large amounts of spinach, particularly raw spinach, can increase the risk of developing kidney stones in susceptible individuals. Additionally, spinach contains compounds called nitrates, which can convert to nitrites and potentially increase the risk of certain types of cancer if consumed in excess.
If you are planning to reduce your weight, then it is advised that you add spinach onto your weight loss diet and this will do you good. Spinach leaves aids in weight loss and also are low in calories. Its high amounts of fibre content also help in good digestion, regulate low blood sugar and prevent constipation.
But spinach has consistently retained its top rank as the superfood to beat all others because it is so dense in nutrients and healthy compounds. Eating spinach daily is linked to lower risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer, three of our nation's greatest chronic diseases.
Although it's difficult to find authoritative limits for spinach consumption on a daily or weekly basis, MedicineNet confirms that a bowl a day, a moderate amount, is safe for most people.
You can blend spinach and bananas into a smoothie or top a spinach salad with sliced bananas. Either way, sweetness from bananas tempers the slight bitterness of spinach, and the combination boosts the nutrients. Each one alone offers a small amount of magnesium and potassium, but they become a good source together.
Spinach is an essential food for preventing hair loss because it is high in vitamins and nutrients such as folate, iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C, all of which are necessary for hair growth. In fact, it's high in iron, which promotes hair health.