Is Spinach Healthy to Eat Once a Week?

Eating spinach once a week is healthy, because this green leafy vegetable is loaded with nutrients. It's more nutritious than other leafy green vegetables, because it is higher in protein, calcium, iron and potassium, according to the University of Arizona Extension. The nutrients spinach contains may also provide health benefits, lowering your risk for certain diseases and medical conditions.

Recommended Vegetable Intake

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends you consume 2 to 3 cups of vegetables each day, including at least 1 1/2 to 2 cups of green vegetables, such as spinach, each week. One way to do this is to fill at least half of your plate with vegetables at each meal.

Cooked versus Raw

• You'll get more nutrients per cup of spinach if you eat cooked spinach instead of raw spinach, as it takes about 6 cups of raw spinach to make 1 cup of cooked spinach. Some water-soluble and heat-sensitive vitamins are lost during the cooking process, but you'll still come out ahead because it is easier to eat a cup of cooked spinach than 6 cups of raw spinach. If you're making a salad, use raw spinach instead of lettuce to increase your nutrient intake.

Nutrition Facts

• Each cup of raw spinach contains only 7 calories and provides 181 percent of the daily value for vitamin K, 56 percent of the DV for vitamin A, 15 percent of the DV for folate, 14 percent of the DV for vitamin C and 13 percent of the DV for manganese. A cup of cooked spinach has 41 calories; more than 100 percent of the DV for vitamins A and K; more than 20 percent of the DV for folate, vitamin C, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, manganese, magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium; and more than 10 percent of the DV for fiber, vitamin E, thiamine, copper and phosphorus.

Potential Health Benefits

• People who eat spinach or carrots at least twice a week are less likely to develop breast cancer than those who don't eat these vegetables, according to a study published in "Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention" in November 1987. While these foods are high in vitamin A, intake of vitamin A wasn't associated with a decreased cancer risk, so other components of these vegetables are most likely responsible for the beneficial effects. Spinach is also high in lutein and zeaxanthin, which may lower your risk for cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, an eye condition that can cause blurred vision and blindness, according to the All About Vision website.

Potential Considerations

• The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics notes that frozen spinach can be more nutritious than raw spinach if your spinach isn't fresh, because it is flash frozen right after picking. Raw spinach loses nutrients during travel and storage. Wash your spinach to limit the risk of contamination from bacteria that could cause food-borne illnesses. Spinach also contains a substances called oxalic acid, which may bind with some of the magnesium and calcium, causing you to absorb less of these nutrients.

Read More ..... »

Vegetable Juicing Recipes for Weight Loss

There are an endless number of different weight loss diets and methods we can choose from these days. Some are proven to work and some aren't. Some are natural while others are highly synthetic and should be avoided.

One or another of them may work better for us than others. However, low calorie or other restrictive diets can leave us short of the nutrition we need to be healthy. If we include juicing to our diet we will supply ourselves with an abundance of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, living enzymes and phytonutrients that can leave us feeling healthy and happier about ourselves. This basic principle is something on which all weight loss practitioners agree upon. These jucies recipes have previously worked and may continue to work because its "natural"

Juice Vegetables

When it comes to weight loss, vegetable juicer recipes have a distinct advantage over fruit juicer recipes. Vegetable juices are more substantial than fruit juices. Vegetables like tomatoes and carrots can produce a thicker soup like juice that can help you feel more full. Drinking a vegetable juice just before a meal can help improve the feeling of satiety and can also make a great choice for a snack.

Fruit juicer recipes are much higher in sugar than vegetable juices. This gives vegetable juices two distinct advantages over fruit juices when it comes to dieting.

1) The sugar content of fruit juices makes them considerably higher in calories than vegetable juices. Some vegetables are called negative calorie foods. This means that the body requires more energy (calories) to digest these foods than the actual foods provide us! Good examples of such vegetables are asparagus, broccoli and dark leafy greens.

2) The sugar in fruit juices will cause a spike in blood sugar levels followed by a crash that will leave us feeling hungry and irritable.

Some vegetables can provide a diuretic effect that can offload us of excessive water in our cells. This can help us shift a little weight and feel less bloated. Celery and especially asparagus are diuretic vegetables. A word of warning if you juice asparagus - it will make your urine smell obnoxious! This is normal when you drink asparagus juice and is not a cause for concern!

Spicy Fat Burners

There are spices that we can mix into our juicing recipes that have fat burning effects. Hot spices such as chili powder, cayenne, pepper, all spice, cardamom and coriander all have stimulating effects upon the metabolism. This is can help us shed a few extra calories - every little helps!

Read More ..... »