Popeye was Wrong!

Okay so back to my writing about making my diet more healthy.  Last time I wrote a bit about eggs for breakfast.  Well today I'm going to add spinach to that list since I add spinach to eggs occasionally to up it's vitamins for me.  Spinach, that green bitter vegetable. I'm sure someone out there is saying it's not bitter. Well compared to the other leafy veggies I think spinach is bitter unless it's hidden in something or under something (like dressing). I do like spinach which is good since it has a lot of great stuff in it.

Well oddly enough I came into this believing that it was a great source of Iron. Every time I go to give blood and find my hematocrit (test for iron in your blood) is to low they say eat spinach. Well one cup of spinach only gives you 5% of your RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of Iron. According to one of my sources this misinformation happened years ago when a scientist moved a decimal point in the wrong direction and made spinach high in iron. That got out and just like a fake, juicy rumor on the internet there is no stopping it. It has iron but if you are iron deficient I would actually look to a different source. Think of eating 20 cups of spinach to get 100% of your iron a day. You can see why I think you should look somewhere else. Just an FYI I eat Cream of Wheat fortified with iron when my iron gets low - helps a lot.

What spinach really has is Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium. It's huge on vitamin A (56% of your RDA in one cup) and over the top on Vit K (181% of your RDA). Vitamin K helps with a lot of things but most important to me is it helps with the absorption of Calcium and helps prevent osteoporosis. A real plus at my age.

Spinach is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids and folate (folic acid) - all good stuff.

In our household we eat spinach in tons of foods. Salads are where you find it normally but we have it in Smoothies too. Try looking at Allrecipes.com and put in green smoothie. It's awesome. You don't taste the spinach in the smoothie but get all the benefits. I add it to eggs too that's why I'm blogging about spinach at the point. Spinach wilts when it gets heated and according to your taste you can have it plain, with lemon and olive oil or mixed in sauces. I make a pasta dish we refer to as the 'San Francisco' - Fettuccine, and an Alfredo based sauce with chicken, shrimp and Spinach. It's awesome. So try mixing it into your food to 'hide' it from those who frown on it.

Next: Onions (I love onions).

PS - well I read recently that spinach has a lot of iron in it in a major publication. BUT it has to be cooked and you need to eat a whole cup to get the iron. This makes sense since you need about 20 cups of fresh to get a your 100% RDA so if you wilt it then you can fit a whole lot more in a cup. I hate cooked spinach unless it's disguised by something. Hmmmm.