Nutrition and Spinach

1019spinach Known in the nutrition world as a ‘power’ food, spinach is packed to the brim with essential nutrients that play a crucial role in our health. It is a good source of Niacin, Zinc, Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper, and Manganese. Calorie for calorie, leafy green vegetables like spinach provide more nutrients than any other food.

The nutrients found in spinach play a crucial role in our bodies health – maintaining bone structure, preventing neural tube defects, assisting in red blood cell production, regulating our heartbeat, fighting free radicals, and nourishing good eyesight.
Spinach is good for you because it contains one of nature’s best sources of folate, which helps prevent heart disease, dementia, colon cancer (the third most common cause of cancer in women), vision loss, birth defects, and protects skin and bones.
Lutein, protects against eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, and cataract, is found in green vegetables, especially spinach.
One of the most exciting new findings is that lutein helps protect your skin from the damaging effects of sun exposure. It appears that lutein protects the fats in the top layer of skin, preventing dehydration, roughness, and possibly even wrinkles over time.
Spinach is an excellent source of bone-building nutrients including vitamin K, calcium, and magnesium.
Spinach is low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol. One downside is this food is high in sodium.
Eating about three cups of raw spinach offers roughly the same nutritional value as one cup of cooked spinach. So, while spinach makes a great addition to cold salads and sandwiches, enjoying your spinach hot packs a better nutritional punch.
Although spinach is in fact a good source of both calcium and iron, it’s important to note that certain compounds found within spinach block the absorption of these two minerals. If you’re a vegetarian and are looking to get both of these minerals from non-animal sources, this could potentially pose a problem. However, this is easily remedied by pairing spinach with a food high in vitamin C to aid the absorption of the calcium and iron.
Researchers have identified at least 13 different flavonoid compounds in spinach that function as antioxidants and as anti-cancer agents.
A carotenoid found in spinach and other green leafy vegetables fights human prostate cancer two different ways. The carotenoid not only induces prostate cancer cells to self-destruct, but is converted in the intestines into additional compounds, which put prostate cancer cells into a state of stasis, thus preventing their replication.
Boosting iron stores with spinach is a good idea, especially because, in comparison to red meat, a well-known source of iron, spinach provides iron for a lot less calories and is totally fat-free.