Spinach: Is there Nothing it Can’t Do? A guest post by Ken Myers When it comes to healthy dieting, it is common knowledge that spinach is a key ingredient. When I was younger, my parents would try to temp me into eating the glop of green slime by saying, “You want to be strong like Popeye, don’t you?” It wasn’t until I became an adult when I realized just how potent spinach really is. For instance, did you know that spinach is an anti-inflammatory food? Anti-Inflammatory – If you have joint pain or arthritis, you know the value of good anti-inflammatory medication. This could be pain from rigorous sporting activities, playing too hard or simply getting older. By incorporating more spinach in your diet, you can help your body reduce the onset of inflammation to those particular joints that give you pain. One of the best parts is you can eat it raw like a salad. However, the properties of spinach are much greater if it’s boiled. Vitamin C – To prevent illnesses, many people will take vitamin C. Some studies have also suggested that this common element in citrus fruits has some form of anti-inflammatory capabilities. However, this vitamin is still used by your body to develop cartilage, ligaments as well as protecting your skin. Spinach has approximately 14-percent of your daily value of this substance in each cup when served raw. Potassium – Are you aware that a deficiency of potassium can be just as much of a contributing factor to high blood pressure as too much sodium? Depending on your personal physical condition, certain anti-inflammatory medications can induce high blood pressure. It is believed by many that potassium can help reduce this debilitating problem. You guessed it; spinach contains 167mg of potassium in each cup. If you were to boil it, you would receive 839mg each. Technically speaking, you should be consuming more than 4000mg of potassium per day depending on your age anyway – something less than 2-percent of the population does on a regular basis. Anti-oxidants – Spinach, boiled or not, contains great amounts of vitamin A. This is what your body uses as anti-oxidants in order to eliminate free radicals in the body. As these free radicals can attribute to various cancers, making sure you have enough anti-oxidants can be very important to your health. When raw, one cup of spinach can provide a little more than half of your daily value of vitamin A. When boiled however, it provides almost four times what you need. Stronger Bones – Milk isn’t the only substance that is high in calcium. One cup of boiled spinach can provide you with almost one-fourth of what you need in any given day. Unfortunately, this is where raw spinach is not as efficient as its counterpart preparation as you would only receive three-percent of your daily requirement. In either case, calcium is used to further develop and repair your skeletal structure. This doesn’t mean that you’ll heal a broken arm overnight, but eating healthier will make a profound impact. Boiled spinach is an incredible source of vitamins and minerals that are greatly beneficial for your body. While eating a cup of it won’t cure your arthritis pain, it can still be used to reduce recurrences of such problems. Add more spinach to your diet and greatly improve your health. Ken Myers is a father of three and passionate about great childcare. He’s always looking for ways to help families find the support they need to live fuller, richer lives. Find out more about expert childcare by checking out @go_nannies on Twitter.