Spinach And What It Can Do For You
Many people tend to underestimate the power of the everyday foods that they have around them and spinach is one of those amazing foods that can do a lot of wonderful things for a person. Spinach has the power to prevent cancer, help you lose weight, lower blood pressure, strengthen your heart, and even prevent birth defects. Isn’t it amazing that a simple vegetable can do all of this? Spinach happens to be an excellent source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Manganese, Folate, Magnesium, Iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin B 2 (Riboflavin), Calcium, Potassium, and Vitamin B 6. The strong natural mineral and vitamin content in spinach can be an effective source of healing for a multitude of health ailments. One cup of boiled spinach produces 41.4 calories with a whopping 1100% daily value percentage of Vitamin K in just one serving. Spinach has also been used as a remedy for a variety of different common ailments. Things like headaches, hearing loss, insomnia, indigestion, reducing blood pressure, have all been show to be helped by eating spinach.
The only downside of spinach is that most people don’t find it to taste particularly good and it can make you sick if you eat a really excessive amount of it. Spinach is high in oxalic acid when ingested raw. Oxalic acids can produce damage to blood vessels. Some people may produce symptoms such as gout, arthritis, and rheumatism after eating large quantities of raw spinach. These acids can cause kidney stones and gallstones in people with lower renal functions.
This alone can be a pretty high motivator for people to cook their spinach and fortunately it’s really easy to do if you’re planning on eating it in large amounts. Oxalic acid can be lowered in spinach by boiling. Frequently change the water the spinach cooks in by boiling, draining the cooking water, boiling again, and then rinsing before consumption. This will greatly lower the oxalic acids present. The nutritional value of spinach does reduce with cooking, yet it still remains one of the most excellent sources for natural nutrients and after having been cooked it can be made into a lot of really great dishes. Spinach is easily mixed in with lots of kinds of pasta like lasagna or as the main component of a ravioli dish. You can put it in casseroles, soups, and so forth and if you get the combinations just right you may not even notice that you’re eating it.
It’s important when cooking with spinach to be careful of the amount of pesticides that could possibly be on them and because of that it’s wise to choose organic or naturally grown spinach to prevent ingesting any of these harmful chemicals. Make sure to wash it off very well before you eat it and when you can buy locally grown varieties so you know how they have been treated.
Spinach can be a really great addition to your diet that can keep you very healthy so give it a chance and try to eat some.