What are the health benifits for spinach?
Nutrition In popular folklore, spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60 gram serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron. A good many green vegetables contain less than 1 mg of iron for an equivalent serving. Hence spinach does contain a relatively high level of iron for a vegetable. However, in terms of its nutritional value (the amount of iron actually absorbed by the body) the benefits of spinach have been greatly overstated. In the first instance, this is because the body cannot absorb the non-haem iron from vegetables as efficiently as the haem-iron found in meats, particularly lean meats. The body’s absorption of non-haem iron can nevertheless be improved by consuming foods that are rich in vitamin C. However, more importantly, spinach contains high levels of oxalate. The oxalate in spinach binds to iron to form ferrous oxalate, meaning it cannot be broken down and absorbed by the body. As a consquence, the amount of iron that can be absorbed from spinach i
Spinach is thought to be native to Southwest Asia and unknown to the Greeks and Romans. First cultivated by the Persians, it is now cultivated throughout the world, with the exception of the tropics. Although grown in China for centuries, it did not reach Europe until about 1100 CE after an introduction to Spain by the Moors. In the 16th century, it was still a novelty to Italy, but was becoming an established vegetable in Britain. As with many foods, it began as a medicinal used for its mildly laxative effects, likely because of the oxalic acid. Although much lauded as a nutritional vegetable, spinach has a drawback in that, while containing high levels of iron and calcium, the rate of absorption is almost nil. The oxalic acid binds calcium into an insoluble salt (calcium oxalate), which cannot be absorbed by the body. The same applies to the iron, as it is bound, leaving only 2-5% of the seemingly plentiful supply actually available for absorption. The idea that spinach contained exc
