Blue Dreamer

Keeping our family members healthy is not a simple task to perform, it entails continously thinking of what to include in the daily meals to ensure nutrient adequacy.

Among foods that i make sure is available frequently in the family meals, is spinach. Commonly,  this will be incorporated in a soup recipe, the one with sotanghon or “misua” noodles and  sometimes mixed with boild quail eggs and broccoli flowerettes upon serving.

Just like “Popeye” , i personally feel energized after consumption of this nutrient dense food.This food is considered a nutrient-dense food because of being an excellent source of: Vitamin B, C,A, K, Manganese, Folate, Magnesium and iron. It can also be a source of Calcium, Potasium, Pyridoxine, Amino Acid, Vitamin E, Dietary Fiber, Copper, Thiamin, Protein, Phosphorus and Zinc. Whew! That was a long list of nutrients right?And so, who would not be interested to know what else can spinach give us?

Out there, Scientist have found another exciting health benefit from spinach, and this time, it’s coming from its extract. Swedish researchers have identified a compound found in green leaves (including spinach) that supresses appetite and boost weight lost in lab animals, and could one be used as a functional ingredient to help tackle obesity.

The researchers from Lunds University have identified “tylakoids”, tiny membranes in the choloroplasts and are source of minerals, proteins anf fats,  which appear to inhibit the digestion of fat.  This means the fat stays in the intestinal tract for longer time and sets off satiety signals.

In the test tube studies, experiment showed that the fat digestion was inhibited in the presense of both “tylakoids” and pancreatic lipase, a digestive enzyme. After this experiment, the researchers progressed to animal studies.

Initial test showed that, as the scientists had predicted, the rats ate less, loss weight, and the blood lipid levels decreased.

While human studies are still being planned, it is estimated that if they were to use raw spinach as a source of tylakoids, one would have to eat half a kilo of spinach a dayaccording to the researchers.

It sounds outrageous to eat that much spinach in a day, but while we can’t benefit from the satiety of the advantage yet, we won’t lose much if we can really eat more spinach.

Other that its potential to be of use in controlling thr appetite, researchers have already identified at least 13 different falvonoid compounds in spinach that function as anti-oxidants and as an anti-cancer agents. May of these substances fall into a technical category of flavonoids.  Primarily, it is these anitcancer properties spinach flavonoids (which were so impressive) that prompt researchers to create specialized spinach extracts that could be used in controlled studies.

Spinach extracts have been shown to slow down the cell division in stomach cancer cells, and in the studies  on laboratory animals, to reduce skin cancer. There was also a study on adult women iving in New England in the late 1980’s also showed intake of spinach  to be inversely related  to incidence of breast cancer.

Spinach is truly an amazing vegetable, the next time you visit your favorite supermarket, take a bundle of spinach and help your family become energized and protected!