When I was growing up, Popeye was all the rage and he helped mothers push the claim that spinach was good for you. He’d pop open a can of spinach, wolf it down, and then be super strong and able to defeat the bad guys. For most kids, though, spinach still didn’t really catch on. When we did eat spinach, it was usually overcooked and robbed of many of its nutrients.
Many of us these days are trying to eat healthier meals, substituting salads for soups and other lunch or dinner favorites. What quite a few people overlook, though, is the benefit of using spinach for your salad instead of other leafy greens. That’s really too bad, too, because raw spinach makes a delicious salad and offers twice as much fiber as other greens, filling you up faster and still providing you a myriad of health benefits.
Like other dark greens, spinach is rich in beta-carotene, an antioxidant that has been shown to reduce the risk of developing cataracts. What’s even better, your delicious salad made of spinach will also help you fight heart disease and cancer! There are many other benefits to eating spinach in a salad, because of all of the nutrients contained in this dark, leafy vegetable.
Spinach contains phytochemicals such as lutein, which helps prevent age-related macular degeneration. On top of that, this delicious salad green contains lipoic acid, which helps vitamins C and E regenerate. There are also studies that show that lipoic acid can help regular blood sugar levels.
Suffering from dry, itchy skin? What many people don’t know is that the vitamins and minerals present in spinach can actually promote better skin health, bringing you quick relief from that dry, itchy skin! In fact, regular consumption of fresh, organic spinach juice has been shown to dramatically improve skin health.
Want to be clear of ulcers? Spinach to the rescue once again! Most people have heard that spinach is great for nourishing the eyes and building up your bones, but it also has tremendous benefits to your digestive system. Spinach eases constipation, and it coats the mucus lining of your stomach to help prevent painful ulcers from forming. Spinach also helps to flush out toxins from your colon.
You can also find a good source of vitamin C in spinach, along with potassium. The potassium in spinach serves well to promote heart health. Cooking spinach provides even more benefits, as long as you don’t overcook it, because cooking the spinach concentrates the nutrients so that a cup of cooked spinach gives you three times the nutrients as a cup of raw spinach!
There you go, just of the many health benefits of spinach. The next time you reach for lettuce to make yourself a delicious salad, consider replacing that romaine lettuce with spinach, instead. It will taste just as good, and provide many more health benefits than a salad based on lettuce. If you want to try a great Danish recipe, then you should try these Nordic spinach muffins.
