Is spinach really iron rich?

Everytime there is a mention of spinach, people associate it with Popeye,the sailor or with 'yuck, it's not tasty!' Unfortunately both the associations are are flawed. Yes, Popeye made spinach famous, but did you know that the scientist who discovered the nutritional aspects of spinach mistakenly misplaced a decimal point when it came to iron content, so everyone thought it was 10 times more iron rich than it actually was, until sometime in the 1930s when the flaw was discovered. As for the taste, chefs around the world have made super tasty dishes out of spinach and it is now respected not just for its nutrient value, but also for its ability to blend in to exotic dishes.

So what is the fuss of iron in spinach all about? First like i mentioned, the decimals were misplaced, but later on, it was found that spinach has a very high oxalate content that prevents absorption of iron, so even though the iron content is high in spinach (but not as high as it was thought), the oxalates prevent the absorption of iron not just from spinach, but also from other foods had with spinach.

But a work around was found and boiling spinach for one minute seems to substantially reduce the oxalate content and make it a very high iron rich food, 6.5g / 180 g serving of spinach to be exact. But if we move away from iron, we will find that spinach is very high in vitamin k, vitamin A, manganese, folates and other good stuff, but has only about 2% calories, so that is great for a super food that packs a punch with nutrient, but is very low in calories, a perfect example of a super food.

While a number of foods were studied with reference to bladder cancer, including brocolli and the kinds, they all played a role in preventing, and in curing very early stage cancer with other treatments, but spinach was found to be active even in aggressive advanced bladder cancer, the only one found to have that property, and it's role in other such advanced cancers are being studied, but not published yet.

That is not all, spinach has lots of fats called glycoglyercerolipids, which are very important for cell repair and are now proven to protect the lining of the stomach and other gastro intestinal organs. They are the good fats that we spoke about a few issues back.

Do note that fresh spinach is much more nutritious than old spinach and research has shown the vitamin content of bright spinach to be twice as much as pale spinach. Also, spinach should be boiled for one minute to remove the oxalate content, but any more boiling will reduce the benefit of the nutrients. So here is another superfood to add to your diet

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